Aspiring town planners were left fuming last night, as failures with EA's controversial Origin platform saw the new SimCity title rendered unplayable for many gamers. But EA claims its servers will be shipshape for the European launch later this week.
16 hours ago, EA acknowledged the server crunch that accompanied the game's stateside debut, stating on Twitter, "We are experiencing overwhelming demand which is keeping some users from accessing their games."
Thanks to EA's anti-piracy measures, SimCity requires a permanent Internet connection to play. Understandably then launch day puts a lot of strain on the publisher's servers, but apparently the gaming mogul didn't invest enough in keeping its tech upright during this demanding time.
Angry gamers took to score-aggregator Metacritic to voice their frustration, where SimCity currently has an average user-review score of 2.9 out of 10. "Despite my flawless Internet connection, EA's incompetence has forced me to postpone a game I'd like to play on my own anyway," one writes.
"On my partners 2nd attempt to play this game," another commenter fumes, "she was told the servers were at full capacity and could not play until 235 minutes had elapsed."
You can download SimCity online, though even if you buy the physical disk you'll be reliant on EA's Origin gaming platform working as promised. "I have a physical disc," one disgruntled gamer tweeted. "It just brings up Origin and tells me my product key's been used."
EA has moved to reassure gamers outside of the US, tweeting, "We're making changes to prevent further issues, and are confident that Origin will be stable for international launches later this week."
SimCity is out in Europe on Thursday, and hits the UK on Friday 8 March. Critical reviews for the game so far have been positive, though one gaming site has lowered its score in the wake of the server problems.
The issues are reminiscent of similar server woes that marred the launch of Far Cry 3 back in November. Are publishers punishing gamers with excessive anti-piracy measures, or is always-on gaming the future of the medium? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.
Android App 
RSS Feeds 
iPhone App 
Newsletters 
Comments 24
Add your comment
Eric Toh 6 March, 2013 11:43
The irony is that this only makes piracy even more attractive, since people who snag a pirated copy won't have to put up with Origin nonsense.
In other words, anti-piracy measures encourage piracy by punishing legitimate customers. Way to go, EA!
Peter Hudson 6 March, 2013 12:18
Why do EA hate gamers so much?
anonymous 6 March, 2013 12:20
@Eric
I could be wrong but I think this entire game is set up like Diablo 3. Half of it is kind of streamed from online so there may no way to pirate it
That said if your going to do a crap load of promotions to promote pre-orders...then the game has to work from day1. Otherwise no1 will pre-order again.
To not learn the lesson from Blizzards Diablo3 error37GATE is extra lame
anonymous 6 March, 2013 12:46
Is Stone Librande to blame? Senior designer on both Diablo 3 and Sim City...
anonymous 6 March, 2013 16:00
Absolutely love SIm City, but this choice was a fatal flaw. I will not buy this game!
anonymous 6 March, 2013 20:28
What about the millions of poor folks out there who have poor or no permanent internet connection?? These customers lose out on being able to play these games using always on internet in order to play. This form of anti-piracy is being implemented way to early...it should be held back until always on internet is there for everyone AND considered a necessity.
The flip side of the coin for a lot of old style gamers who like to go back and play older games will get the short end of the stick if the developer has decided to shut those servers down rendering the game unplayable. I have seen this with several games out with multi-player gameplay that is unusable...when the game hasn't even reached a year old.
I understand the developers wanting more control...but they are robbing the players of enjoying what was purchased fully or even at all in some cases.
anonymous 6 March, 2013 23:53
I played yesterday. Surprised of the need to pick a server. Even more surprised it auto picked mine to be Europe East. AND Even more surprised when there's only five choices. I'm sorry, but I live in Minnesota, USA, and I like being in the middle so don't tell me to pick a side. Oh well, I picked Oceanic, MUHAHAHAHA.
anonymous 7 March, 2013 04:12
At the end of the day, I'm buying a game, which I can't play unless they let me...
Why not just do half hour background verifications? You know, a bit like 'autosave'?
anonymous 7 March, 2013 07:54
All that confidence resulted in a big failure. People can connect to servers so in that sense they did what they said, only problem is that you can't create or play a city. Big fail.
anonymous 7 March, 2013 10:50
After finding out about the system implemented for this game I also decided not to purchase it. I see no reason to support the punishment of gamers by publishers through all of this DRM, which is just getting worse in recent years.
I think its ridiculous that the consumer is forced to be online when he wants to play single player. It is doubly ridiculous that the consumer cannot save his own cities on his computer but is instead forced to have the cities saved on EA servers. To add insult to injury, EA is notorious for shutting off servers of games that are considered by them as unprofitable, or old, in order to make space for newer games. This means its very probable that we wont be able to play Simcity within a couple of years.
anonymous 7 March, 2013 15:35
I'm not so warried about the longevity of the game. This will be a DLC fest, so the game is bound to survive few years.
The allways-on is something to consider, and I a agree it is too early for this kind of measure... still it could be a good way to restrain greed piracy in the long run: people willing to play the game asap would likely buy the product, instead of waiting for a difficult crack...people who cannot afford the game or do not like it so bad, would wait for the pirate version. So everyone is happy... Too bad internet access is not yet a global reality, but again, it is not a devilish policy.
anonymous 7 March, 2013 15:49
it's 2.0 now
anonymous 7 March, 2013 22:04
Contrary to their belief, requiring an internet connection isn't a valid way of stopping piracy. Most games like this get around it by allowing the users computer to connect to itself rather than a server, emulating the information being sent back and forth.
Will it allow online gameplay with your friends, no probably not, but the market for the SimCity franchise is for offline gameplay anyway (again, contrary to the belief of everyone working at Maxis/EA).
I'm a big fan of SimCity, but I hate EA with a passion and usually just ignore their titles. I'm a little torn :S
anonymous 7 March, 2013 23:29
Wish I could get on to play
anonymous 8 March, 2013 09:48
I am going to pirate this ass soon as possible. I was going to get a payed version but just because of this DRM situation I am going to pirate it F*** EA and there DRM!!
anonymous 8 March, 2013 09:57
“If you regrettably feel that we let you down, you can of course request a refund for your order. It is also our discretion to process a refund. If you choose to dispute it, your account will be banned.” - Origin EA
Jono70 8 March, 2013 12:13
@ anonymous 8 March, 2013 09:57 - that statement just about says it all really. And for that reason - I'm out.
anonymous 8 March, 2013 14:43
I would like to buy dvds, but I always end up getting a pirated version so I can skip (ironically) the piracywarnings. For the same reason, i will be pirating or even skipping this game. Cant miss what you dont have anyway.
EA, stop biting the hand that feeds you!
anonymous 8 March, 2013 14:52
SimCity 2000 is one of my favourite games of all time and I still play it to this day. It was released in 1994 so it will be 20 years old next year. Will I still be able to play the new SimCity in 20 years' time? Will EA still be hosting the servers? Will EA even exist if they keep pushing this single player always-on DRM? Will I be buying this game? The answer to all these questions is a resounding "no".
1000125372 8 March, 2013 16:00
Oh for goodness sake. Has EA forgotten that in certain parts of the world (EG: South Africa), the internet is still painfully slow and uncapped data account holders are in the tiny minority? And even if some people DO have an 'uncapped' data account, it's throttled to within an inch of the user's tolerance? I was planning on buying this new SimCity since I absolutely loved SC4 (but loathed Societies) but the fact that it needs a permanent connection to the net just isn't workable for me and many other people in South Africa. Fail EA, fail.
anonymous 8 March, 2013 17:25
They did very badly with societies... so bad I returned the game... went back to Simcity 4...
But I don't learn... I went and digitally bought the deluxe version in October last year... at the moment the game hasn't even unlocked... This is EA showing their appreciation for us that pre-
ordered the game. they are doing a very bad job...
Just to add fuel to the fire, nowhere in the origin page its says you need constant internet connection to play the game in single player... now it turns out that I have to get full time internet if I want to play the game....
anonymous 8 March, 2013 19:25
Update: The article mentions that the MetaCritic user score was 2.9 at the time of writing (March 6th). Well, just 2 days later and it's plumetted to an excruciatingly dismal 1.6. This game is getting mauled worse than Dianna Hanson. What, too soon?
anonymous 9 March, 2013 14:28
Petition the Whitehouse for better Return Policy on Video Games
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/institute-industry-wide-return-policy-video-games-rely-remote-servers-and-drm-function-properly/nMy1wrtC
Daniel Saner 16 March, 2013 22:59
It isn't just "too early" for online DRM, it is a colossal cheek for the paying customer anyway. If you pay money for a game, you should be able to play it when and where you want, and even if every household in the world had fast and stable connectivity, some people like to play games on their laptops when they're on the go, or maybe in an airplane. Also, coverage and speed are getting better, but stability tends to get worse. No matter how rare the outages, the fact that it would prevent you from playing the game is unacceptable, seeing as it is basically just an artificially imposed dependency.
As someone who likes to replay games after a few years, who only gets around to some titles after they're a bit older, and who likes to collect and document software, there's also the question of longevity. 20 years from now? Give me a break! Have a look at some game manuals from 2-3 years ago, and see how many of the website and support URLs mentioned still work. There's no reason to believe that this will look any better for activation servers. It's a time bomb for a game copy you thought you purchased. It's no longer a purchase, it's a rental, and if they're going to do that it should be priced accordingly.
If they go for mechanisms that stream important game contents from the servers, they're basically no longer computer games but services, in the same category as Facebook games. That's bearable for Facebook games since all of them are rubbish, but for big-budget games it will be devastating from a preservation standpoint. They will essentially catapult computer games into a dark age similar to the early days of television, where it was not commonly possible to record the programmes. All of this important contemporary pastime and artform would be lost to future generations. Mark my words, the so-called "pirates" will in the not-so-far future be hailed as the only people who enabled the long-term preservation of large parts of our digital world. Among digital historians and archivists, they are already.
As for would-be pirates paying for a game if a cracked version isn't available—most definitely not. A negligible minority, maybe. But 95% of pirates download cracked games because they are free. If there is no free copy of a game, they'll download another game that they *can* find for free. You don't turn someone with no intention whatsoever to pay money for your product, into a paying customer, that easily. Especially if the only DRM that would more or less effectively deter piracy will _always_ also degrade legit copies, making it even less attractive to pay money for them. The remaining few, the ones that might be downloading cracked games because they're cheapskates, would to a large part not be able to afford it anyway. You can say that it's morally wrong that they would be able to enjoy a game for free that others pay for, but it doesn't change anything about the fact that they're not a lost sale, and it makes absolutely no financial difference to the publisher whether they pirate the game or not.