Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 offers hotfix, advice to improve game stability

The launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 hasn't been without issue, but the developers have released a patch that'll fix some crash problems. Notably, and most importantly, there's a tweak to make if you're playing on PC.

"If you are playing on PC, outdated packages in your community folder may have an unexpected impact on the title's performance and behavior. If you suffer from stability issues or long loading times, move your community package(s) to another folder before relaunching the title," said developer Asobo Studio.

Stability & Performance
- Fixed a crash when you selected "As Arrival" in the EFB
- Fixed a crash that could occur when closing and invoking the Camera menu after changing the Drone focus mode option to a value other than undefined
- Fixed various crashes across the title
General Bug Fixes
- Fixed missing cursor on Xbox Live sign-in popup
- Fixed an issue where you could lose focus when creating a new input profile.
- Aircraft selection is accessible via the control menu, but can only be changed from the home page.
- Fixed an issue where you could get stuck when accessing the menu bar from any help page.

The release of Flight Simulator 2024 has been hugely popular, so popular in fact that we get to roll out one of those evergreen gaming headlines: Game so popular it explodes game servers because developers never considered this level of popularity. Release day was pretty bad for MSFS 2024, is what I'm saying.

That said, it's getting more stable—per that hotfix above—and as of a few days ago the queue to get in is gone.

"[W]e knew the excitement was high for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, but quite frankly, we completely underestimated how high, and it really has overwhelmed our infrastructure," said Microsoft Flight Simulator head Jorg Neumann a few days ago.

MSFS 2024 streams many of its game assets from the cloud in real time, which lets the install size be smaller and the system requirements leaner, but that means those servers have to work overtime. Neumann and studio CEO Sebastian Wloch explained they'd prepared for 200,000 players streaming game assets in real time during testing, but the system was fundamentally unprepared for the highs Asobo actually saw.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.