Amid a terrible launch, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 achieves an ‘overwhelmingly negative’ Steam rating

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launched on Windows PC and Xbox Series X on Tuesday, but it didn’t go smoothly. Actually, it’s anything but: long load times and missing content have earned developer Asobo Games’ latest launch an overwhelmingly negative review on Steam. Some players get stuck on loading screens for hours, according to reportsand when they come in, certain planes are missing. Microsoft and Asobo addressed the problematic launch in a blog post and a video message to players, saying the servers were completely overwhelmed by the number of players logging in at once.

“We knew the excitement was high Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024but honestly, we completely underestimated the height, and it really overwhelmed our infrastructure.” Microsoft Flight Simulator head Jorg Neumann said in a video. Asobo CEO Sebastian Wloch added that the team tested its servers and simulated 200,000 people trying to play, but the systems were still “completely overwhelmed” on launch day. To ease the problems, Asobo has tried to restart its services and limit the number of people entering Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 all at once, only to briefly improve the process before things ‘collapsed again’.

This all lines up with the issues people are reporting in Steam reviews: long loading screens, huge queues, missing models in both the character creator and elsewhere, crashes and missing textures. “I can only be amazed at the depth of the simulation, because it now feels like Boeing was actually involved in building the servers,” one person joked, referring to Boeing’s recent problems with its planes.

Microsoft and Asobo are investigating the issues, which also extend to missing aircraft in the game. Wloch explained that if the critical systems respond for some people, some of the “optional” systems do not, such as different aircraft. “That’s not normal, that’s because the server is not responding and the cache is completely overflowing,” he said.

Here’s the full statement from Microsoft’s website:

We’ve worked hard with our partners, including Asobo and others, to bring you a great SIM experience. The excitement for the sim today was overwhelming, but we ran into an issue where one of our services was dealing with the new systems in the game, such as career mode and various missions. The server responsible for handling data requests became overloaded, causing delays and errors.

As a result, players experience long loading times and miss content such as airplanes. We have resolved the issues and are now bringing in players at a steady pace. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience. We will keep you informed through our social channels, forums and website. Thank you very much for all your feedback and support.

Microsoft and Asobo have not yet provided a timeline for the fix, but say they will update players on social media, their website and on forums.