Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 landed on Steam with an unfortunate thud. When you could actually get into the game, it was great, and worked fine, but for a lot of players the newest edition of the beloved PC series was unexpectedly off limits. Owing to technical problems, Flight Sim fans were left permanently on the initial load screen. The issue got so bad that MSFS 2024, for a short time, was forced to carry the shame of an ‘overwhelmingly negative’ rating on Valve’s store. But like Cyberpunk 2077, No Man’s Sky, and Final Fantasy 14, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 has found redemption. Developer Asobo confirms that the issues regarding access are dealt with, and the Steam reviews have started to regain altitude.
The problem wasn’t Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 itself. As we reported at the time, when players booted up the simulation game, it would pull data from a server. That data would be cached in a database, but with so many people trying to log in and get started all at once, the database, in Asobo’s words, was becoming “saturated.” In the days following MSFS 2024’s launch, it meant a lot of players were left waiting on an infinite loading screen, unable to get into the game proper. From a release-day high of some 24,000 users, by Wednesday November 20, Flight Sim had lost some 45% of its player base. But now a corner has been turned.
“We are happy to report that the issues regarding access and streaming have been resolved,” Asobo says. “The distribution layer capacity has been increased to handle the immense interest in the simulator and the reliability is now above 99.999%. Our servers and services are also all performing as expected.
“We successfully deployed hotfix 1 last Friday, November 22, which increased stability and addressed several experience issues. We are currently preparing another patch for the week of December 2 with further stability improvements and other fixes. Subsequently, we are planning on providing a third, larger patch during the week of December 9.”
Asobo recently ported marketplace content from Flight Sim 2020 over to the 2024 version. In some cases, however, players using third-party addons have now been unable to get into the game. The developer says that until it has identified precisely what is causing this issue, it will temporarily deactivate all MSFS 2020 non-aircraft content.
The patch arriving during the week of December 9 will add a new option so that players can enable or disable specific content themselves. It will also provide a safe boot option, so that players can deactivate all third-party material when starting the game.
In its opening week, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024’s Steam reviews made for sorry reading – only 19% were favorable, condemning the game to the ‘overwhelmingly negative’ rating. As of this writing, Thursday November 28, there has been a significant improvement. Of the almost 7,000 user reviews posted so far, a much more respectable 40% are positive, meaning the game has a ‘mixed’ rating for now.
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