Video games are hard to make. These weird, complex pieces of intricate interactive software take years to make and can sometimes break in very weird ways. For example, players of Powerwash Simulator on Xbox noticed the game started crashing a lot when they’d hop online with others. And while a patch is coming to fix this nasty bug, the temporary solution from the developers at FuturLab is a bit silly. According to them, to stop the crashes, all Xbox players need do is avoid looking at the sun.
Powerwash Simulator is a very good, relaxing game about…well, using a power washer to clean stuff. (You should have guessed that from the name.) It’s been out for a bit on PC via Steam Early Access, but only saw a full release yesterday, when it also made the leap to consoles via Xbox Game Pass.
But there’s that an issue where the game crashes when players try to clean the world together. What could it be? Perhaps the servers aren’t working? Maybe the game’s net code is broken? Or maybe it’s even an issue with the way the game handles data over a network connection?
Nope! According to Powerwash Simulator’s official Twitter account, the real culprit behind all the crashing on Xbox is the game’s use of lens flares, which appear when you look up at the digital sun. As I said, video games are weird and complex things. Even sillier and weirder is the dev’s solution for this issue: Just stop looking at the sun so much, you weirdos.
FuturLab admitted this “isn’t a great workaround” and apologized to players for any inconvenience this bug has caused. The devs say the issue with lens flares was caught at “the last second,” presumably before the game shipped. Luckily, in a follow-up tweet from earlier today, the devs confirmed a hotfix for this solar hiccup is in the works. It’s due sometime next week.
Kotaku has reached out to FuturLab about the situation and received this statement:
We know what it is, are working as fast as we can to get it to players and have a fix that we hope to get out by the end of next week.
In the meantime, thankfully, you can still play Powerwash Simulator solo to enjoy its relaxing cleaning simulation in perfect harmony with that fiery orb in the sky.