SimCity Sells a Bundle Despite Launch Woes

[The Wooster]

SimCity Sells a Bundle Despite Launch Woes

EA shifts over 1.1 million copies of SimCity in two weeks.

At this point, I think it's fair to say that the SimCity launch has not gone smoothly. Over the past two weeks, the release has gone from "botched" to a horrendous public relations black hole from which no hope can escape. Yet, despite the fact players couldn't log in to the game for the first few days and a number of statements from publisher, EA, that later turned out to be false, the game has been selling. Oh boy, has it been selling.

According to EA, SimCity has become the franchise's biggest launch, with over 1.1 million copies sold in the two weeks since the game's release. It's also a minor triumph for online distribution. The majority of players - 54% to be exact - bought digital copies of the game, with 44% of total sales coming from EA's digital distribution platform, Origin.

Earlier this week, EA announced it will be giving out free PC games to disgruntled customers unsatisfied with their SimCity purchase. On the bright side, if those 1.1 million players all choose a copy of Visceral's Dead Space 3, the beleaguered shooter just might come close to reaching the ludicrous five million sales figure that EA says it needs to continue the series. [http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/15/dead-space-needs-around-five-million-fans-to-survive-according-to-ea/]

Source: EA [http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130318006318/en/SimCity-Sells-1-Million-Launch]


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[Daystar Clarion]

What does this teach us?


That people don't mind getting metaphorically effed in the A?

EA have implemented some kind of Moon Beam that uses Space Magic[sup]TM[/sup] to subtly persuade people to buy city dev sims against better judgement?

 

[lancar]

What does this teach us?


That people don't mind getting metaphorically effed in the A?

EA have implemented some kind of Moon Beam that uses Space Magic[sup]TM[/sup] to subtly persuade people to buy city dev sims against better judgement?

Basically, it just tells us that most gamers don't read gaming websites, so didn't know.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

What does this teach us?


That people don't mind getting metaphorically effed in the A?

EA have implemented some kind of Moon Beam that uses Space Magic[sup]TM[/sup] to subtly persuade people to buy city dev sims against better judgement?

Basically, it just tells us that most gamers don't read gaming websites, so didn't know.

Nah, not buying it.

I'm going with the Space Magic[sup]TM[/sup].

 

[lancar]

What does this teach us?


That people don't mind getting metaphorically effed in the A?

EA have implemented some kind of Moon Beam that uses Space Magic[sup]TM[/sup] to subtly persuade people to buy city dev sims against better judgement?

Basically, it just tells us that most gamers don't read gaming websites, so didn't know.

Nah, not buying it.

I'm going with the Space Magic[sup]TM[/sup].

Space magic? certainly is the more interesting theory.


It'll be interesting to see if Simcitys sales numbers will keep climbing in the long run.

 

[GAunderrated]

What does this teach us?


That people don't mind getting metaphorically effed in the A?

EA have implemented some kind of Moon Beam that uses Space Magic[sup]TM[/sup] to subtly persuade people to buy city dev sims against better judgement?

Basically, it just tells us that most gamers don't read gaming websites, so didn't know.

Really? I thought it taught us that people will take whatever BS EA will throw at them as long as they hold titles hostage that gamers can't or won't resist.

I already knew this game was going to be a success when I saw it a #1 seller on amazon for 2 weeks straight. In a sadistic way I am kinda glad this was successful because I want to see more and more games come with always-on-DRM. If people are happy to take it up the ass from publishers/developers, then they should get ready for the double penetration that is about to come in the future games.

 

[synobal]

1.1 million copies in two weeks? Does that actually seem like not much to anyone else? I guess it might be a lot when you consider simcity is PC only and not many of those get released these days but I bet you the latest starcraft game sold better.

 

[Atmos Duality]

What does this teach us?

That most consumers are ignorant or stupid and blindly buy games on the name alone.

 

[Deathfish15]

What does this teach us?


That people don't mind getting metaphorically effed in the A?

EA have implemented some kind of Moon Beam that uses Space Magic[sup]TM[/sup] to subtly persuade people to buy city dev sims against better judgement?

Basically, it just tells us that most gamers don't read gaming websites, so didn't know.

The problem is that most gaming websites were giving the game ecstatic reviews and previews prior to it's launch. Many reviews were released on Monday prior to the game's launch, based on a reviewer-specific client. This enclosed, special client was what gave sites such things as 9/10 and 80/100 and so on. But, many reviewers also waited until the RETAIL client released, which is where you get scores like 5/10 and 4/10 and lower. But those were after the game already launched, after people have already purchased the game based on other reviews and previews and good information. Basically.....we the people were lied to.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

What does this teach us?


That people don't mind getting metaphorically effed in the A?

EA have implemented some kind of Moon Beam that uses Space Magic[sup]TM[/sup] to subtly persuade people to buy city dev sims against better judgement?

Basically, it just tells us that most gamers don't read gaming websites, so didn't know.

Nah, not buying it.

I'm going with the Space Magic[sup]TM[/sup].

first star child, now space magic..

if dragon age three has star magic for its DRM, I might just shit a brick.

also, love your ctarl ctarl phrase you put, love outlaw star myself

OT: honestly not surprised, considering the overall popularity of simcity as a property, not to mention it's been 10 years since the last one came out..

it's nice to know how casual people are about taking a big girthy EA drm dick in the butt, sorry EA, i'm not one to be interested in such foreplay.

 

[Epona]

What does this teach us?


That people don't mind getting metaphorically effed in the A?

EA have implemented some kind of Moon Beam that uses Space Magic[sup]TM[/sup] to subtly persuade people to buy city dev sims against better judgement?

It teaches us that having the highest/fastest sales isn't really the big deal it's made out to be. Final Fantasy XIII was the same way as was Sticker Star. Just because a game sales fast and alot of copies doesn't mean you have happy customers.

 

[itsthesheppy]

Homefront sold well too, if memory serves.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Well that is a little disheartening, I guess we should prepare for more always online games from EA now. Granted I sincerely doubt that the majority of the 1.1 million aren't the informed gamers who have been decrying the online requirement and the events surrounding the release. Which I guess should have been expected given that SimCity and other "Sim" games have generally had an appeal that goes way beyond the usual gaming audience.

 

[llyrnion]

So, people voted with their wallets, yet again.

Which makes one wonder - what are they complaining about?

 

[Cecilo]

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me - As the saying goes. They got excellent launch numbers. But I doubt as many people will buy the next iteration. Or the next game. Or the DLC.

They traded bits of trust for dollars and it will hurt them in the long run.

 

[zinho73]

imagine if the game was playable!

It is the same problem with Diablo 3. The huge amount of sales based on the name alone will serve as a good excuse to justify the always online strategy (and other shortcomings).

I'm more interested to see if we learned our lesson in future games of the franchise.

Also, I would like to know if the execs understand that if the game had good reviews and good word of mouth, those numbers would be even bigger.

On my end alone, Diablo 3 lost at least 20 sales (i have a small vcast with let´s plays and some people come to me seeking advice about games).

Sim City lost even more if you consider that not even I bought this one (and love city building games).

Success is relative. An Olympic medalist achieving a fourth place in an international competition is disappointing, although it would be a great feat for me. Reaching x sales when you could reach three times that amount is at least a lost opportunity. Not a thing to celebrate.

 

[rofltehcat]

Hurr... can't help people. I wouldn't be surprised if one year from now, always online DRM, no refunds and busted game launches would be the norm.

How it went with some friends on Teamspeak:
Guy 1 talks about how he now got Sim City but can't really play it atm but he is quite happy because he only needed 1 hour to get onto a server. He had to start a new city though, because his other city is on another server.
Guy 2: What? It is already out? I think I'll buy it, too... or should I?
Me: Its launch is quite busted, they are getting a lot of bad press for their always online DRM that leads to most players not being able to play at all and those who can experience quite severe problems in addition to the "normal" buggyness some games have after launch. They even deactivated some multiplayer features.
Guy 1: Yeah, the servers are a mess. I went to bed at 6 pm yesterday to get up at 1 am so I could play a few hours before work. But the little I played up to now, it is entertaining.
Me: Better wait for them to fix the issues, the way things are going atm, you might get it for 30% off in 2 weeks.
15 minutes later, Guy 2 was already downloading the game...

 

[Royas]

How many of those were pre-orders, made long before the problems with the game were so evident? If pre-orders weren't possible, I wonder how many sales they would have actually had. A more telling metric would be not how many units have sold, but how is the sales rate trending? Is it going down in a slow but predictable fashion? Or have the sales per day plummeted? Selling 1.1 million on the first day of a much beloved franchise is expected, but doesn't mean it was a good game, nor does it mean that they can expect sales like that for SimCity 6.