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Gaming Saturday, March 9th 2013 at 1:00 pm

EA Admits They Screwed the Pooch on SimCity, Would Like to Buy Your Forgiveness

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To state that the launch of the latest SimCity video game has gone poorly for Electronic Arts would be putting it kindly. Despite what they assure us were their best efforts, the PC game has been plagued with server issues from the moment it went live. They’ve been scrambling to correct this matter, and things seem to be smoothing out, but the majority of this past week was a hellish one for virtual cities everywhere. Well, EA knows they “done goofed,” and they’re going to offer a free game to everyone that’s had to deal with their shenanigans.

A post from Lucy Bradshaw, general manager for Maxis, over on EA’s blog goes into detail about what all went wrong, which is of course a bunch of spin on, “oops, we didn’t anticipate this.” Specifically, here’s a nice little blurb from her:

So what went wrong? The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta.

OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it.

So, it’s agreed: Dumb move. It gets better, though, because EA’s totally willing to give you a free game to make up for it — a tactic you might recall from the PlayStation Network outage debacle. What game? Well, that’s yet to be decided, but it’ll be “a free PC download game from the EA portfolio.” If I were a betting man, I’d wager it’ll be Battlefield 3, what with the sequel rumors floating around.

On the other hand, this download hits on March 18th. So if you really want to be sneaky, you can buy SimCity now, after most of the trouble has passed, and get a free game on top of it. Sorry to everyone that had to deal with the game at launch, but the rest of us got a sweet deal.

(EA via Polygon)

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  • Steve

    Simple advice don’t buy it, at least not yet. This game is plagued with issues.

    Seems EA does’t read its own history books. After the problems they’ve had forcing users to connect to servers you’d have thought they’d have been ready for this.

    Think again.

    It’s another slap in the face for the honest consumer. But never fear honest consumer – those helpful pirates will help you out with a crack for the game that will allow you to play without an internet connection – as all games should be.

    Ah, but SimCity relies on the co-operation of other players cities in order to get a decent playing experience. Seriously, having played dozens of online games the last thing I would want to rely on is some 13 year rage nerd trying to spoil things for everybody.

    Anyhoo… who in gods name would even want to play SimCity online? It’s a single player experience. Not everything has to be online, not everyone wants to rely on others, or even interact with them. Sometimes I want to spend my sparse free time playing a game, on my own, without other people bothering me.

  • Zell

    Also valid for Steam purchases? Or just Origin?

  • Lindsay

    They do it because it puts them in control.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=698122076 Greg Lindenbach

    This is a singleplayer game. A miserable hash of a fine franchise, ain’t buying it.

  • Libra Madisson

    I am just so upset that they have trashed will wrights hard worked franchise like this. They havnt even put the number 5 after it, or 2013. Do these people loose enough in piracy to trash there own product launches then? Is that how bad piracy has got? Or are they just over mindful?

    I will only buy it when I hear from someone they have had no problems, just like with the other simcity games. I want a guarantee that they will not turn off there servers in 3 years, or this game has X amount of life, and then you cant use it any more.

  • Libra Madisson

    I personally think its just because of piracy. I think its sad that they would destroy there loyal fan base of 10+ years for the sake of a bit of lost revenue they would never have seen anyway. I was planning on buying the game at the local shop until I heard the news.

  • Steve

    Totally agree. Piracy doesn’t effect sales (much), at least not enough to warrant putting paying customers through DRM inconvenience.

    The crazy thing with DRM is that those who pirate the game, actually get a better experience.

  • Steve

    Its a good point. From what I’ve read the game mechanics rely on other players to make the economy work.

    So will it be like the others sims where you can play the game a few years later, or will the fact there is no player base make it impossible.

  • Fake123

    I know everyone has been raging and hating over the release of the new SimCity. Like most people I am a huge SimCity fan since the Maxis original. But recently with the release of the new SimCity it has been morphed and mutilated into something unplayable and destroyed what most us remember of the game. The rage has been directed at the game and EA.

    I am writing this response because not only was I disappointed in the launch of the game but what EA has done post launch as damage control. Among other things of refund policy and various other poor decision what enraged me the most is EA’s attempt now to shift the blame from EA and trying to refocus the outcry over the net to Maxis and Lucy Bradshaw. Who in her defense is being a good soldier and trying to accept the blame.

    Larry Probst (Chairman) and John Riccitiello (CEO) of EA are the ones that should be accepting the blame and stepping forward if they really want to make amends to their consumers. Maxis did developed the game, however it is still under the EA umbrella and Probst and Riccitiello’s overall strategy for the company and gaming future that has resulted in the SimCity launch failure.

  • RunningCrazy

    This is EA we’re talking about. Of course it’s only for the service you don’t want to use.

  • Cincinnat!_kid

    How about if they offer a free game for all the other horrible games they’ve put out! I finally took a hammer to the Madden ’09 game. It was plagued with countless bugs/glitches. I emailed customer service and they said they were too busy to offer anymore assistance. Now that’s customer service! I’ve sworn them off ever since. Good riddance!

  • jello

    people who pirate games are the ones who cant afford to pay 60-80 bucks for the game..and eventaully alot do buy what they pirate.the devs are not losing with piracy…

  • joo

    game support and updates dont last long these days.they pump them out and stop supporting soon after..adding new stuff to old games would be a full time job,to bad we couldnt get new maps ect for old games like call of duty united offensive. or call of duty 4 .imagine

  • suckitEA

    at least with pirated games you can test the game before you buy it.which is great.who the hell wants to be stuck paying 60-80 bucks for a game and find out an hour into the game that its oure garbage,and you just spent all that hard earned money on,long live piracy

  • J00

    the pirates are not really interested in cracking this shitty game..there are far better games worth working on at the moment..suck it EA