A major release at the end of autumn, Flight Simulator 2024 disappointed fans... but not for the quality of the game itself!
During the Xbox Game Showcase last June, Asobo Studios and Microsoft lifted the veil on the sequel to the excellent Flight Simulator, launched four years ago. It's a sequel that few gamers were expecting, but it was the timing of the two companies' partnership that was most surprising. Not content with presenting their project at the Xbox Game Showcase, Asobo and Microsoft announced a release date for Flight Simulator 2024. Yes, as the name suggests, the game was scheduled for release this year, on November 19. The problem is that, although the release took place as planned last Tuesday, it didn't go exactly as planned.
On Tuesday evening, as soon as Flight Simulator 2024 was officially released, it was immediately very difficult to join the Microsoft servers. In most cases, a page simply indicated that too many people were trying to connect, telling them to wait or try again later. But patience did not help, even after several hours. The "lucky" ones were able to get past this stage, but then found themselves blocked from loading assets, with a choice of " language loading " or " additional packages loading ". In any case, it was virtually impossible to play Flight Simulator 2024 on launch night. Overwhelmed by the number of players eager to try the adventure, the Asobo and Microsoft teams couldn't do much, contenting themselves with a pitiful message on the official site or on social networks. Not very satisfying.
https://x.com/MSFS_Support/status/1859015159143969106
Not known for their benevolence, gamers reacted "coolly" on the game's Steam product sheet, for example, and simply set management on fire. On the evening of Wednesday November 20, only 19% of the 3553 reviews submitted by players were positive, which Steam considers to be an " extremely negative " assessment, and we find it hard to disagree. The problem seems to lie first and foremost with players' enthusiasm: Microsoft's servers are overwhelmed, and Flight Simulator 2024 is not the first, nor will it be the last, game to suffer such a setback. If this really is the only cause of all these problems, things will quickly get better: Microsoft will optimize server load, fewer players will connect simultaneously and sessions will run more smoothly.
But Asobo Studios and Microsoft may also have to suffer from the way their game works. Indeed, even more than with Flight Simulator, the two partners have enriched their project. We're talking about an even more realistic representation of the Earth, with details multiplied by 4,000, according to the developers. However, the technical recommendations published for the game only mention a 50 GB SSD. It's absolutely impossible to store all that data on such a small space and, of course, the 50 GB will be far exceeded. But to avoid asking too much of players, Asobo Studios and Microsoft rely heavily on streaming: data is downloaded from the servers at the moment when players need it. Mechanically, this puts even more strain on servers that don't need that much. Over the next few days, we'll have to see how the situation develops.
