When reading this forum and the forum at Avsim, it’s disappointing to see the number of people experiencing installation issues. It’s very odd that, in 2020, one of the world’s biggest software providers can’t work out the known bugs of an installation routine before releasing the game. It’s a bit like going to the car dealership to pick up the car you’ve paid for and discovering that the salespeople can’t figure out how to get the garage open, and but then they throw you the key anyway and wish you luck. Gee, thanks.
And this issue is not, “Well, ya know, games have bugs.” It comes back to a vendor’s responsibility: just getting the product into the customer’s hands should not be so difficult, should not be an issue that requires a “hot fix.” Over the long term, beta-culture has allowed vendors to shirk what should be their paramount responsibility to produce a finished product. Instead, we seem to have come to accept that the free labor of users working the bugs in products they’ve paid money for is part of the “cool” of being in gaming. As if the wheels fall off your car as you’re finally leaving the dealership and they throw you an owner’s manual that’s still mostly unwritten. And then you smile at them admiringly and praise their good faith.
In some of the forums, I’ve read, “Ah shucks, little old Microsoft it doing the best that it can.” No, it’s not, not with this one. I get the “what’s the big deal” nature of bugs like a wheel not revolving at the correct RPM when it’s making contact with the runway, or missing that correct ILS alignment in Where’s-That, Saskatchewan, but this bug is requiring people to spend hours of their time just trying to problem-solve what simply should not be a bug. Frankly, MS should be rebating the purchase price for anyone whose life is now consumed with trying to get their hands on this sim by doing problem-solving that should be the sole responsibility of MS.
Last year, MS distributed $30B to its shareholders; they can afford a few quiet gestures of humility to this sim’s enthusiastic customer base.
I’m not writing this because I’m pulling my hair out trying to install it. I was a beta tester; my hair’s all gone. I’ve not made a purchase decision yet: let’s see what happens on Steam tomorrow. I’m not going to try to buy this thing until it’s clear that Microsoft has figured out how to open its own garage and flawlessly deliver me the car I’ve paid for.
This is a massive effort. Wait a week and everything will be ironed out. And then you will forget most of the things you just posted about (installation issues).
H…1000% agree with every word. I wrote a similar post a few weeks ago…response was zero!
Like you my money is staying in my pocket until this becomes a Flight Sim and not just a buggy pretty game!
I really don’t agree. It’s always like this on the initial release of a popular title. It’s a mix of too much demand vs too little supply, folks moving to Kiribati to try to break the system, and a few genuine bugs and server issues besides all the problems caused by the 1st couple of issues. Give it a day or 2 for the great rush to subside.
(And I probably just jinxed myself. My download doesn’t open for an hour).
Would love to see the data on how many people experiencing installation issues are the same ones who recently moved to the nation of Kiribati. Obviously not all, but the forums, discord, reddit, etc were very active with people changing region settings and using VPN, etc in an effort to install early, and then swapping to Game pass, etc… In fact, the release still hasn’t hit the US or Canada or Steam, but there are a ton of people on the multiplayer map. I don’t blame them though. Simmers are very passionate about this release. That is a good thing! Hopefully we can get everyone sorted who are having issues.
Can confirm here I’ve been trying to play for 5 hours now.
I got the game legally on the Xbox App with the Game Pass
I haven’t changed any settings whatsoever
I did the silly 93GB day one update
Finally got into the game and the lessons are greyed out, and the yellow ‘Fly’ button doesn’t work no matter what I do.
It’s 5:17am and yeah I’m pretty fed up… how on earth can this happen?
I’m sure the game is great, but how will I know if I never get to play it?
I have a 5700XT, Ryzen 7 3700, ultra fast hard disks etc…
but still stuck.
Not saying anything about decision of changing region…(I personally prefer to wait)… but what I would not do is ask, much less demand support before my legit time arrives.
I’m in Europe and have experienced all the issues. I didn’t change anything at all related to timezone etc. So no, I don’t think that has anything to do with it.
I think people here don’t understand software development too well. So many computers, all with different configs, software, drivers and setups. Different users doing different things like changing region to get the game early.
Good luck writing a complex application that works flawlessly for hundreds of thousands of people on the same day even if you have all the money in the world.
Possibly true to some degree but it doesn’t explain the Steam debacle.
I agree with the OP to a certain degree. We live in a world of outsourcing these days, such is the case with the collaboration between MS and Asobo. That leads to greater complexity and further complications. We can even see the disastrous consequences of outsourcing and errors in the aviation industry in recent times (not to compare at all in terms of outcome).
Asobo are clearly excellent developers and are doing a great job but having a communication and testing chain that is split between them, MS, and who knows who else to get this software launched is going to inevitably create such issues and possibly internal communication issues.
I do agree with the OP that such issues should be forseen and probably not enough testing/mitigation is done by MS to prevent this given this modern complexity of multiple parties involved. It is the user that pays in the end and I feel there is a shifting consumer culture of ‘oh well, tough cookie…be patient etc.’ I think we are being increasingly conditioned as a society to accept such a consumer culture which would have been deemed largely unacceptable 20 years ago. It used to be that ‘the customer’s always right’ but now when someone complains we are often moderated by our own community with other consumers telling us ‘tough cookie’. That certainly is a shift in the consumer paradigm. At the end of the day, most people expect to receive what they paid for and in many cases pre-ordered.
My problem is that the installer starts with 152gb, then reverts to othe 1gb launcher. Once I install the launcher I get the splash screen and “Press any key”, I press and instant kick to desktop. I have not even got to the point were I download content.
Nobody got this during alpha or beta? Nobody?
This basically tells a story: give youtube celebs free game, let them stream, create a buzz=sell games.
Fine do that, but their incentive is to be first to stream, get new subscribers increase adrevenue. What happend to the people you requested as alpha beta testers? They did not catch this? How many were they? The most basic beta tester should have at least bumped across clear spelling mistakes in menu, not the end of the world, but still.
Microsoft has servers that handles millions of windows updates from all over the world. A small niche market, no matter the hype, should have no problem installing this game.
Asobo are in my book innocent bystanders, the convoluted “app” called the microsoft store has always given people problems. It is clunky and often times do not link your account with your store, happend twice for me.
Statistically, if you release a complex piece of software to a large market (i.e. a large number of people) you are inevitably going to run into issues.
Desktop machines are not standardised hardware like consoles are. I am always confused as to why people do not seem to understand that as we strive to make things better looking, more “real” we will sacrifice ease and simplicity. Quid pro quo guys, give it chance.
People who installed the game without any issues don’t come to the forums telling that. So I think it might seem a huge deal, but it’s probably a small chunk of people.
My specs are a little bit off the minimum and I had no issues whatsoever when installing the sim. Also, software like this are way too complex to deal with, so I understand the struggle Asobo and Microsoft are having, it’s not an excuse obviously but this is the Murphy’s Law.
Again, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Sure its more complex and this can lead to issues but it doesn’t necessarily mean that more couldn’t be done to test and mitigate against such issues before release. This is to do with the launcher not the actual content of the sim. The launcher issues really should be ironed out and tested beforehand especially concerning Steam. Again, we live in a different era and an era of globalised outsourcing and not like it used to be with everyone sitting in the same office working at the same company and in the same time zone. There are farmore cogs in the machine these days that in fairness are more to do with profit than complexity of the software. Thats simply the reality. The point is that people still expect to access what they paid for otherwise there should be a clear disclaimer like “it might not work for everyone on day one”.
I’m in the UK, bought premium deluxe from the ms store, it installed flawlessly in about 2hrs 45mins. So no problems on my side. Enjoying it so far, puts the other default Sims to shame. I’ve bought the lot over the past 30years.
Between a live weather feature that has never worked properly since alpha, game performance lottery, graphic issues, and launch issues, this game to me REEKS of “rush to launch” title.
I for one did not pay for an incomplete game and this is not complete in the slightest.
Same here, bought it after release today from the ms store. Had to relaunch once after the download during the setup of my preferences, but that’s all.
There’s still a few bugs, but frankly I can play and I’m happy I don’t have to wait a couple more months. Things will be fixed along the way. For people who don’t like early launches: just wait and buy later. Everybody happy.