Microsoft Apologizes For Flight Simulator 2024's Turbulent Launch

Fans eagerly anticipating taking to the skies with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 are finding themselves grounded instead, as launch day issues are plentiful in what turns out to be a repeat scenario of the previous game’s launch in 2020. This has led to a backlash from irritated gamers who have bombarded the game’s Steam page with overwhelmingly negative reviews.

One Steam user posted that “after 1 hour of loading screen gameplay i can only say that this is the most immersive loading screen i have ever played:).” Another user decided to impart a helpful tip, saying that “for anyone having trouble logging in: Press Alt + Enter to switch to windowed mode, and the cursor should appear.”

Microsoft have acknowledged the issues, posting on the social media platform X that it’s “aware of user reports of long initial loading times into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.” The heavy amount of traffic generated by players is overwhelming the company’s infrastructure, which is a problem of its own making as it has chosen to provide the game files instead of letting players download everything through Steam. During a developer stream, Head of Microsoft Slight Sim Jorg Neumann said that "we're really sorry" for these issues and that "we want to apologize."

For players who have managed to actually download the base game, there are further issues with being allowed into the game’s servers. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 relies heavily on the cloud to deliver a vast amount of game world data to players as they’re playing the game. Therefore, it’s not possible for everyone who currently wants to play to be allowed in, as there simply isn't spare load on the cloud service. While Microsoft made this choice to avoid an absolutely massive install size, it might be time to at least give players the option for a complete, local install.

It's a shame to see yet another botched launch for a storied franchise with a passionate fan base like this one. Hopefully Microsoft can get these issues sorted out quickly and players can finally enjoy the game.