Microsoft Flight Simulator is out on PC today and no doubt, people are rushing to play it. It’s currently sitting at a 93 on Metacritic. We gave it a 10/10 in our review and absolutely loved our time with it.
Gamers have taken to Twitter throughout the day claiming that they’re having issues with the large in-game client download. You were able to pre-load the game on the Xbox PC app, but it only downloaded the client (1gb) causing you to download over 90gb within the client.
The problem is that the client’s download speeds are significantly slower than that of the Xbox app and other launchers, and people’s downloads are stalling mid download or near the end. People also aren’t too happy with the fact that it plays music (which you need to turn down on the system side) whilst it installs.
https://twitter.com/gooseNstuffs/status/1295567451267067910?s=20
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020
Pre-load: 100MB
Download when the game comes out: 91GBNot sure @Xbox understands the reason why people pre-load pic.twitter.com/Dr3B6PlDts
— BiggusBennus ? Ben Austwick (@biggusbennus1) August 17, 2020
I'm really glad that I pre-installed Microsoft Flight Simulator so that on first launch it could (checks notes) download another 95 GB of data, after first hanging and making me go search the internet for a workaround.
— Peter B (@peterb) August 18, 2020
After installing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 it opens with a 2nd slooow 100GB download. Some may complain but I say this is realism on a whole new level, an enexpected 90-min delay to takeoff right after hitting the tarmac
— Josh Ling @ Uplift Games (@tactful) August 18, 2020
You can preload Microsoft Flight Simulator today.
The preload accounts for about 1GB of the 152GB full download.
— James Bartholomeou (@iyagovos) August 17, 2020
Pre-installed Microsoft Flight Simulator via GamePass this morning. It just unlocked and now needs to download 91 GiB while it plays background music I can't turn off pic.twitter.com/VlRy0Z473Z
— Chris Livingston (@screencuisine) August 18, 2020
https://twitter.com/simonlieu/status/1295600730124857344?s=20
In an even more interesting turn of events, it seems as though the client wasn’t being downloaded for people that purchased the game on Steam initially, although that’s now been rectified.
https://twitter.com/itsdxan/status/1295572796907622400
At the end of the day, it’s not an ideal situation to pre-load something and expect to be able to play it instantly as soon as it launches, only to be faced with a rather slow 90gb download (which is large for Australian internet), but it’ll be definitely worth the wait once you do get the game.
It’s free right now for Xbox Game Pass subscribers in PC, so if you’ve got a suitable rig, definitely jump in and explore the world. The game is also coming to Xbox One (and presumably Xbox Series X) at a later date although Microsoft hasn’t announced a release date on consoles as of yet. It’s definitely a game that should be able to be played as many as possible, and one that Microsoft can stand to be proud of.
