The right choice, and the second iteration of Powerwash Simulator has finally joined the ranks of Xbox Game Pass. The official account has tweeted about the things that…
the game being cleaned on October 23rd together with a hype picture of blimps and cars and all sorts of dirty surfaces that need cleaning and are going to be provided with that sweet, sweet cleaning action. But the reality is that barely anyone is able to PLAY the darn game, and the replies are nothing but a total disaster area filled with frustrated gamers.
Just imagine… you’re all excited with the idea of virtually power washing a mess, so you get your Xbox turned on, and instead of that nice sound of spraying water, there comes… error messages. Error messages of different kinds and at times uncountable! What happened to the sound of satisfaction from cleaning? Players are saying that the game is not showing up for them at all, or it’s telling them to buy it when they have Game Pass Ultimate, or the download button just keeps disappearing. Justin Mabb (@OhNoItsJustinn) went through the complete seven stages of Game Pass grief, starting at “Why can’t I download it what the hell,” then going through “And now that button is gone what the hell” and arriving at the tired realization that “This is what we get for being loyal members I guess.”
Not only the technical issues are crazy – some players can only access it via cloud gaming, which is… not the right method for a precise cleaning simulator, is it? Others are being told that they need to upgrade their subscription even though they are already on the highest level. What is even that logic? Darklordjames put it very aptly: “Why is my Xbox telling me to upgrade to Ultimate to download Powerwash Simulator 2 when I clearly already have Ultimate?” That’s it.
At the same time, CDBarnezy was bemoaning the fact that they had to wait an extra hour while their friends were already in the game, which honestly really feels like the most first-world problem ever but also totally valid? The struggle is real when your cleaning crew has already started working and you are not there.
Then, at random, the chaos of Twitter came up again. BobbyFa03439418 was of the opinion that Powerwash Simulator needed more… action? Like aliens coming down to attack while you clean? Or drunk homeowners trying to flirt with you? To be honest, that would be an amazing DLC, but what about the base game working perfectly first, huh?
This whole mix-up of the situation is nothing but the ultimate Day One Game Pass experience – the excitement of a new release immediately overshadowed by the harsh reality of technical problems. Players were looking forward to this sequel ever since the first game turned out to be this strangely addictive cleaning phenomenon, and now that it is here… well it is kind of here but not really here? The Xbox Game Pass account has not even bothered to respond to any of the complaints so far which is only adding to everyone’s frustration.
What is even more ironic is that Powerwash Simulator is one of those very few games that just do the trick. It is somehow very soothing to go overclean the area with the utmost precision and then behold the dirt being removed, but now this calming effect has turned out to be the very thing causing the maximum stress. The irony is almost too good to be true.
A few gamers are pulling out all the stops to try to solve the problem – switching between playing on the console and PC, rebooting machines, and doing the whole “turn it off and on again” routine – but nothing seems to be consistently working. Ellie (@elliemac1) was constantly checking only to find it kept showing as £19.99 instead of being included in Game Pass, which is just adding to the financial insult of the technical injury.
And lastly but definitely not least, we have the international aspect – Leonardo (@leomoty) weighed in saying “Otavio nem dormiu pensando nesse jogo” which is the same as “Otavio didn’t sleep thinking about this game.” What a pity for Otavio who is getting less sleep because of a power washing simulator that won’t even load properly.
At this point, everyone is just continuously refreshing their Game Pass apps hoping that Microsoft will quickly fix whatever is wrong in the background. The visuals are so good – the blimp cleaning action that Greg Kerekes can’t wait for? The more cleaning options? All that possible joy still locked behind technical glitches and misleading error messages.
It is quite surprising and somewhat disappointing that this is not even the first Game Pass release with issues, but for a game that deals with… cleaning up messes, it is particularly messy. The developers must be metaphorically dying a thousand deaths as they watch this happen. You work for months on a sequel, sign the Game Pass deal, create the buzz, and then… the download buttons vanish into the digital void.
So it is that Powerwash Simulator 2 is technically on Game Pass but that does not mean you will be able to play it well at all. Who knows maybe when you read this everything will have been sorted out by then and we will all be happily cleaning virtual surfaces. Or on the other side we might still be waiting for error messages to disappear and wondering why our Ultimate subscriptions are not ultimate enough. Either way it is another day in the immersive world of gaming launches where nothing ever quite goes to plan. However, at least the waiting is made somewhat bearable by the entertaining Twitter dramas.
