Yours is a very interesting post, and it mirrors my own of the first or second day when the launch debacle was evident to so many. I live in the UK, and it was obvious to me, given the reports from many (in the USA) who were saying ‘hey, we are okay, it is working for us’, while here in Europe, we could not get on to register..the servers to us had been switched off, I am certain.
So, like you, I enjoyed a long 40+ years career in the corporate world, and we would never have launched a product so woefully unready to go to market. The reputational damage is immense, especially given that this is somewhat a repeat of the 2020 version, which took many months to resolve issues to a point where playing the game became acceptable.
From my perspective, there were a number of steps that SHOULD have taken place. I raise them because they were not raised, and it showed a complete lack of acumen from those responsible. For me, these were (in no particular order);
- The product should have been pulled immediately the issues began to accumulate. A notice to all players saying the launch was being delayed due to ‘significant’ launch issues should have been posted. A postponement would have been a disappointment to those ready for the launch at 4pm UTC on the 19th, but it would have saved hours of utter frustration, which turned into anger and ‘I told you so’ from so many.
- Those at the very top, the 3 gentlemen who appear every month or so, plus the community manager, SHOULD have made themselves available throughout those early hours, showing the public, their customers, that they were aware of the problem, and by updating us with news as they got it. They were noticeable for their absence, which again caused, immeasurable frustration and anger. A thinly worded notice, written by a marketing hack, was nothing short of insulting to those of us sitting waiting for news. Managers should lead, especially when there is a severe, reputational matter like this, and they did not consider their customers.
- Why didn’t they reduce the different layers of the game available from the beginning, gradually introducing them as the days/weeks went by? Surely, the day one ought to have been, register and be enabled to have a free flight in a reduced number of aircraft, getting used to the screens.
- Allowing those who did access the sim to spend hours going through every single aspect of the sim was crazy!
- The game looks to me to be completely too complex for standard PCs and Xboxes to cope with, without thorough testing of the sim. The secretive testers, who showed off the fact they had access to the sim first regularly gave updates about the excellence of the game, but why didn’t they have the difficulties the vast majority encountered? In other words, the testing environment was insufficient and flawed.
- The same launch time world wide was madness. So many trying to access at exactly the same moment is illogical. By all means, let the USA start off, but release in 2 hourly slots, enabling issues found at the start to not replicate all around the world.
There are other areas I would have considered when launching a major new product on behalf of an international brand, but we all assumed the management had considered everything necessary to avoid such a disaster. I feel for those developers who cannot sell their new products, times for the Christmas market. What will happen to their income? What about those who bought the top version, but had not received it, money spent but nothing to show for it? What about those of us who spent extra on upgrading our PCs only to have a product that was flawed?
I am dreadfully upset that the whole situation failed. I love the sim, having become involved in the mid-1980s. Microsoft upset many when they pulled out of the market after FSX, then again for MSFS Flight, and the 2020 product was partial but flawed success, I fear this latest is the next to potentially cause Microsoft to reconsider their place in the gaming world. I do hope they succeed in making it work, however.
The next six months are crucial for the success of this product which has so much potential. I have been able to play and enjoy what I have seen, it is just the management of the whole project that needs attention. Good luck to all involved in this fabulous concept of a sim.