EA blunders SimCity launch

QuintonB

QuintonB

BusinessTech Staff
Moderator
Joined
Sep 26, 2011
Messages
1,787
Reaction score
72
Internet rages over EA SimCity blunder

Electronic Arts Inc’s launch of the newest game in its signature “SimCity” franchise this week was marred by a series of technical faults that shut out some gamers for days, triggering an outcry on social networks and Internet forums.
 
How about:

"The server instabilities were as a result of poor planning from our side, since we included an always online requirement in a mostly single player game, because we feel so insecure about the quality of our product. We fear people may pirate it instead of buying it."
 
Looks like some folks are really unhappy about the current state of the game:

BEyabNcCYAAInZw.jpg:large


:D
 
I decided to ignore this game when I heard about the tiny 2km X 2km plots. Its more sim neighbourhood than sim city

Spend more time optimizing there game engine next time EA. You cut corners you greedy buggers
 
http://www.ea.com/news/a-simcity-update-and-something-for-your-trouble said:
A SimCity Update…And Something For Your Trouble

Here’s a quick update on the problems we were experiencing with SimCity – and a little something extra for people who bought the game.

The server issues which began at launch have improved significantly as we added more capacity. But some people are still experiencing response and stability problems that we’re working fast to address.

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. In the last 48 hours we increased server capacity by 120 percent. It’s working – the number of people who have gotten in and built cities has improved dramatically. The number of disrupted experiences has dropped by roughly 80 percent.

So we’re close to fixed, but not quite there. I’m hoping to post another update this weekend to let everyone know that the launch issues are behind us.

Something Special for Your Trouble

The good news is that SimCity is a solid hit in all major markets. The consensus among critics and players is that this is fundamentally a great game. But this SimCity is made to be played online, and if you can’t get a stable connection, you’re NOT having a good experience. So we’re not going to rest until we’ve fixed the remaining server issues.

And to get us back in your good graces, we’re going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio. On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an email telling them how to redeem their free game.

I know that’s a little contrived – kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy. But we feel bad about what happened. We’re hoping you won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent.

SimCity is a GREAT game and the people who made it are incredibly proud. Hang in there – we’ll be providing more updates throughout the weekend.
Click to expand...

Thats there latest update, so there going to give everyone a "mysterious" "unnameable" game on the 18th, why only the 18th no one knows?

PS I personally think its just to try and divert attention as every will only see "OMG FREE GAME EA" instead of looking at the bigger picture, the game probably will cost them next to nothing as it will be one of there own IPs distributed trough there own system Origin.
 
ponder said:
Get a cracked copy, problem solved.
Click to expand...

No cracked copy, like Diablo 3(still uncracked) all the game calculations are done server side,so how your city acts, events,currency, growth, etc... are all calculated by the server, so basically the only thing that's installed on your pc is textures and maps, whole game is just over 1.2gigs.

Most of Ubisofts always online DRM for instance was far easyer to crack as it based on scripted events, and not based on server calculations, so you could simply sniff the data, and reply back with the correct data every time the game asks for this, a good example of this was Prince of Persia, only things like the door status were kept online, took 2 months to crack it(iirc), more complicated games like Ubisofts Hawks 2 only got cracked a few months ago,still script based though, and Simcity is on a whole other level with ALL of the calculations being done server side, so the response needs to be different every single time,els the game wont act correctly, so dont expect anything any time soon.
 
Last edited:
ponder said:
Get a cracked copy, problem solved.
Click to expand...
I am sorry but I got to agree with u on this one why would a pay R400 rand for a game I can't use then a game I can get from Www.somewebsite.co.za for say half the price.

I don't mind paying but then I WANT TO PLAY EA
 
Blunder isn't the right word..... it's definitely something worse.
 
D.B.Cooper said:
Looks like some folks are really unhappy about the current state of the game:

BEyabNcCYAAInZw.jpg:large


:D
Click to expand...

Did that person really take a picture of their screen then uploaded it to their computer.... If only their was some built-in way to take a picture of one's screen
 
Well, I think they're actually handling a lot better than Blizzard handled the D3 launch. They've already increased server capacity by 120%, are giving away free things and they just rolled out a new patch. I'd be surprised if the server issues are still there this time next week.
 
DOSbox and SimCity Classic. Or Simcity 2000.

Apart from the hefty price tag, the fact that sc2013 need a live internet connection in order to be playable, put me totally off.

Sadly, that's where most newer games will be going - offload critical calculations to a server in the cloud (and this will act as DRM)
 
Last edited:
The always on Internet connection is a HUGE no-no for me.

Thank heavens that Sc2:HoTS only requires that you login once, then you can play offline.
 
FaSMaN said:
No cracked copy, like Diablo 3(still uncracked) all the game calculations are done server side,so how your city acts, events,currency, growth, etc... are all calculated by the server, so basically the only thing that's installed on your pc is textures and maps, whole game is just over 1.2gigs.
Click to expand...

No it's not. There's been a lot said about the new simulation engine, how everything's calculated on your PC, down to the last little sim-dude on your map. The connection is for the DRM and inter-zone trade aspects. I was playing it tonight during heavy rain, and my ADSL was up and down (that's an issue I'll take up with Telkom on Monday :( ), and the game never had any hiccups, it was definitely simulating everything locally (Unlike D3, that if your connection went down for a second, it stopped the gameplay until it came up - at least that's what it was like when I played it, near launch, no idea if they fixed that)

My install is 3.8gigs.

The DRM is awful, but their servers have been stable today and I played quite a bit - it's a great game. EA backtracked on DRM like this with Spore and issued a patch removing it, let's hope they do the same for SimCity. Diablo3 definitely had a worse launch than SimCity. That was godawful. And on top of it, even when Blizzard fixed it, the game was meh.
That's the worst thing about games like this, I couldn't even sell it to someone else for R100. I learned my lesson, I created a new SimCity_myname@gmail login and bound the game to that, so I can at least sell it cheap if it sucks :)
 
Last edited:
But how can you sell a game like that, if you know the game wants to constantly connect to the internet?

Imagine the person who buys it from you, has a 500MB Vodacom data bundle? :eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X