Black "Press Any Key to Start" screen loop

[vcapra1]

I have been using MSFS 2020 pretty much flawlessly (relatively speaking) since November. However recently I had to reinstall Windows, and after installing Flight Simulator, I get stuck on the "Press Any Key to Start" screen. It doesn't even show an image background, it's a black screen with that "Press any key" message and a spinning circle in the bottom right. When I hit a key or click the mouse, the message goes away for a second but comes back.

This is what it looks like: https://imgur.com/a/zWTR7FX

Things I have tried:

1. Rebooting. Done this dozens of times. Nothing changes.
2. Reinstalling the game. No change
3. Reinstalling Windows. No change
4. Running as admin. Same issue appears
5. Switching audio output to monitor as has been suggested by some forums. No luck.
6. Adding exclusion in Windows Defender. No luck
7. Disabling virus protection altogether. No luck
8. Waiting on the black screen for an hour to see if anything will happen. Nothing happened
9. Clicking with mouse/hitting keys on keyboard as fast as possible. Nada
10. Installing Xbox and Game Services. Didn't help
11. Checking integrity of game files in steam. Nope.

Windows is completely up to date, as are my NVIDIA drivers.

I don't understand why this would happen now on a fresh install of Windows when it has been working for months on my previous installation. To my knowledge I've done nothing different.

[NicenJehr]

I though that screen was removed in a patch last year. You should open a ticket on the actual support site.

[Maki Nishikino]

Something you can try is pressing Alt + Enter then press any key.

[Oz Gaming]

The "Press Any Key to Start" screen was removed from the game months ago.

[vcapra1]

Originally posted by NicenJehr:

I though that screen was removed in a patch last year. You should open a ticket on the actual support site.

I know it was removed, but I thought maybe it still showed up the first time you opened the game before installing it.

Nevertheless, somehow it works now. I'm not sure why but apparently leaving it alone for a while fixed things. Maybe steam updated something while I was away and didn't tell me.