Nah, they knew exactly what was coming. They knew preorder numbers, they had data from the tech alpha, etc. Microsoft, of all companies, is never short on user data.
Like most rocky online game launches, this was a business decision. They want to spend the minimum amount required to keep the game ticking over under normal server load. They’ve calculated that riding out the first few days of elevated player numbers while going “oh, whoopsie, dearie me, we never expected THIS many people!” will make for a better number on a spreadsheet than investing in extra resources to handle the launch.
Update on day 2:
4 hours to load the sim … PERFECT!
1/2 the amount of planes I paid for …OUTSTANDING!
A lot of airports don’t seem to be there?? … TYPICAL!
Wouldn’t start the flight anyway so why bother … I’M GOING TO BED!
What a waste.
Have faith everyone. Despite well discussed sound, traffic, texture issues (all of which will obviously be tweaked asap) - this game is sublime. Absolutely brilliant! I’m just flying around San Francisco Bay, a regular place I like to fly around (since FA18 Intercepter on my Amiga!) and it’s beautiful.
Menus and getting to things seem clunky, but tweaks and familiarity will see that straight. Overall everything seems a big improvement (Xbox X).
This game will go down in history as being brilliant. Hope those having trouble will soon also be in the sky.
Though I had no issues with C: drive space affecting the sim, I actually have only 3GB available at the minute and it was no issue for MSFS 2024 at all.
I have the MS Store version and chose to install to another drive. All the data has gone onto that drive including the cache, despite the in-game settings showing the cache location at C:\Users. It shouldn’t be necessary to have to manually symlink it elsewhere, but may depend on the game version of other factors.
Tried to fly yesterday. No luck! It took “forever” for the sim to load (authorizing was the culprit) and when I finally got to get a plane on the runway NONE of my controls worked. I guess I should have figured that out beforehand. All I want to do is FLY!!! This is mess and to release something in this state of unfunctionality is not cool! Why didn’t the creators learn from their mistakes with FS2020 and have the sim in better shape for the launch???
Yeah, logically either a network engineering dept utterly failed at their job, or MS knew the demand would overwhelm the servers and cause the reviews to go to overwhelmingly negative on steam, and was willing to take the massive PR hit to save a trifling amount of money.
Methinks the engineers committing a textbook-worthy screwup is 1000x more likely than MS being that strategically idiotic. Only other plausible explanation is that across MS, Asobo, and whoever they’re contracting the network stuff to, communication broke down; people knew what was coming but getting the organizations to coordinate in time for launch was like turning around a cruise ship.
MS is a business and as much as people want to anthropomorphize it, the suits don’t care about a flight simulator over and above what it means for the bottom line. They have shareholders to answer to. This is about maximizing profits while minimizing expenses.
Microsoft already closed it up and sold it off once. That’s how important the FS legacy is (or isn’t) to MS itself. The only reason they released 2020 was Asobo was pitching their graphics engine using FSX code as the vehicle and MS saw dollar signs. All the nostalgic “look at the journey” stuff is just pulling peoples’ strings.
When lines cross again it will be just as summarily shuttered and sold - again.
I know it’s painfully cynical and a little oversimplified, but it’s how these things go.
Seems to be a fair bit better now. At least I can fly! Texture’s still taking too long to load but then again I only connect at 35mbps. Once the marketplace is up & running things should only get better!
