News Microsoft says Flight Simulator 2024 still suffers from access problems despite adding more server capacity to handle demand

[Admin]

Microsoft has updated the community on MSFS 2024, stating it has increased server capacity improving game accessibility. However the game isn't completely fixed and launch day bugs are still occuring.

Microsoft says Flight Simulator 2024 still suffers from access problems despite adding more server capacity to handle demand : Read more

 

[hotaru251]

just another reason online only games shouldnt be a thing.

 

[Francis412]

just another reason online only games shouldnt be a thing.

Here here.

 

[emike09]

"Obviously, player counts for MSFS 2024 are well over 200,000, which gives us an idea of how popular Microsoft's new simulator is."

SteamDB shows an all-time peak of 24k players since launch. No clue how many players from the PC Microsoft Store, but I guarantee it's much less than Steam. Which leaves us with XBox and GamePass users.

In the June 2024 MSFS Dev Q&A, Jorg Neumann indicated that PC vs XBox users vary, but hovers around 60/40 split, sometimes even 50/50 (https://fselite.net/content/microso...-qa-msfs2024-info-su16-new-aircraft-and-more/).

So, let's take that 24k from Steam, double it for Xbox, and double it for GamePass and Windows Store just to cover all sides. That's roughly 72,000 concurrent users, which I think is a very high estimate.

Even if 200,000 simulated users were used to test the servers, there is usually a little overhead available, or perhaps it'd just be a delayed login instead of a complete failure of the system. I call BS on the excuse of servers being overloaded. I think something happened along the pipeline they didn't test for, or broke. I think the world would have been just fine if they did a staggered release based on platform. Or did one more public beta a week before launch.

 

[Kpop4Ever]

I saw all of this coming weeks ago when they announced they were reducing the install size by putting more assets in the cloud. Right then I knew I wouldn't bother trying to get it on release day, and now I'm probably going to wait until SU1 drops. FS 2020 still works great.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

just another reason online only games shouldnt be a thing.

True but Sony and Microsoft have been moving away from physical game distribution and it was Gamestop who accelerated the move. If it wasn't for Gamestop bragging about all the money they were making on used sales, which caused Publishers to band together to put pressure on Microsoft and Sony to combat the losses in new sales.

Gamestop had the audacity to tell game publishers that used sales for them equaled new sales for the publishers. Meanwhile Gamestop was raking in the cash and Publishers were not.

Hence why we see game delivery going more and more towards digital.

 

[watzupken]

When you release a new game and only planning 200K users worldwide to play this game at the same time, you are essentially being ignorant of just being silly. Microsoft is not new to releasing games, and at launch, you should expect the most number of players. And honest, I won't bother about games that is not installed on your system because there is too much dependency on our network and the service from MS. Any one of it fails, you essentially "bought" a game that you won't be able to play or runs very badly.

 

[NinoPino]

"Obviously, player counts for MSFS 2024 are well over 200,000, which gives us an idea of how popular Microsoft's new simulator is."

SteamDB shows an all-time peak of 24k players since launch. No clue how many players from the PC Microsoft Store, but I guarantee it's much less than Steam. Which leaves us with XBox and GamePass users.

In the June 2024 MSFS Dev Q&A, Jorg Neumann indicated that PC vs XBox users vary, but hovers around 60/40 split, sometimes even 50/50 (https://fselite.net/content/microso...-qa-msfs2024-info-su16-new-aircraft-and-more/).

So, let's take that 24k from Steam, double it for Xbox, and double it for GamePass and Windows Store just to cover all sides. That's roughly 72,000 concurrent users, which I think is a very high estimate.

Even if 200,000 simulated users were used to test the servers, there is usually a little overhead available, or perhaps it'd just be a delayed login instead of a complete failure of the system. I call BS on the excuse of servers being overloaded. I think something happened along the pipeline they didn't test for, or broke. I think the world would have been just fine if they did a staggered release based on platform. Or did one more public beta a week before launch.

Totally agree with your analysis.
Another point is that, also admitting a overload of servers at launch, here two days was passed, and for sure, the actual number of concurrent users is much lower than it was at launch, but the problems continues.

 

[jp7189]

One of the great things about the cloud is the ability to expand resources on the fly in times of heavy load.

I wonder if Microsoft has access to a cloud platform that could help here? Perhaps they could call Google or Amazon.
/sarcasm

 

[alter anima]

just another reason online only games shouldnt be a thing.

Removing the need to be online means removing multiplayer, live weather, live air traffic and more. It also means you'll need a more expensive PC with much more local storage and more processing power.

The root cause problem hasn't been that it requires you to be online.
The problem is that it wasn't properly tested before launch, and as a result wasn't given enough Microsoft Azure data center resources. At least that's what we're being told. Let's hope fixing that fixes everything.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

just another reason online only games shouldnt be a thing.

Here here.

Interestingly enough, the vast majority of gamers play online. As high as 80%. There'd be a whole lot of dissatisfied customers if online wasn't a thing. Just sayin!

 

[hotaru251]

The root cause problem hasn't been that it requires you to be online.

except it is..as you can't play AT ALL if you dont have their servers up.

Removing the need to be online means removing multiplayer, live weather, live air traffic and more. It also means you'll need a more expensive PC with much more local storage and more processing power.

can all be optional.
you can have it so game can be played offline w/ RNG weather & non live map data & an option to use live map data for when you have access to a functional server connection.
2020 allowed it to be done offline.

and on your storage/better pc...and? 2020 ran on less powerful req & had offline play ability. It only needed 100GB more storage and storage isn't exactly costly anymore.

There'd be a whole lot of dissatisfied customers if online wasn't a thing

you seem to misunderstand.
online is fine. (been doing it since liek the late 90's)
issue is "online only". where if you lack net or the game server has issue you can't play at all.

 

[Ogotai]

just another reason online only games shouldnt be a thing.

yea, ok sure..

or maybe companies should allow for more players then rhey thought? same thing happend with WoW when it was released...

 

[Ogotai]

where if you lack net or the game server has issue you can't play at all.

then, that gives you a reason to go out side and get some air...