Microsoft has revealed that it underestimated the number of players who would jump into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 at launch, leading to a database overload. Despite conducting load tests with 200,000 simulated users, the game’s servers struggled to handle the influx of players, resulting in loading issues and crashes.
The mission service database cache became saturated, causing problems for users trying to complete missions. To mitigate this issue, Microsoft implemented a throttling mechanism to limit the number of players entering the game at once. However, even with throttling, the service has crashed multiple times, resulting in extremely long loading times.
Microsoft says that if the game stops loading at 97% and displays an error message, users need to restart the game and try again. This issue is accompanied by a lack of default planes appearing in user libraries, further exacerbating the problems.
The launch was plagued with issues, including failed installations and inability to access certain features. Reviewers were also racing to create content, resulting in a “heavily-covered” launch day experience.
Microsoft has no timeline for fixing these issues and did not provide a timeframe for when they expect the problems to be resolved. The company’s failure to adequately prepare for user demand is being questioned by industry experts, who are surprised that even an enterprise-grade SQL Server couldn’t handle such a large influx of users.
The issues have raised concerns about Windows development and reliability, particularly given Microsoft’s extensive portfolio of products and services, including Windows, Azure, and Xbox.
Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/microsoft-only-planned-for-200-000-users-for-flight-simulator-launch-admits-drastic-underestimate-led-to-database-being-overwhelmed