Electronic Arts Suspends SimCity Marketing - UPDATED

[duchaked]

ouch...it's gotta be hurting to have to say all that lol

 

[Airon]

Some funny person made this steam sale spoof.

http://postimage.org/image/v296imhuv/

 

[Little Gray]

I'm actually getting a bit of entertainment out of this trainwreck. Considering that I spend $60 on the game, it does help offset that expense.

Tune in next week when Starcraft 2 blows up the internet too.

I wonder if Blizzard learned anything from the Diablo3 launch? I'm sure there will be plenty of hilarity over on the Blizzard forums, if it's anything like the D3 launch.

Considering this pretty much happens to blizzard with every single wow expansion and several large patches/events I doubt they have learned anything other then you will never be prepared for the demand.

 

[Starik20X6]

You'd think someone at EA would have seen what happened when Diablo III launched, and taken steps to make sure that didn't happen with their game...

 

[IamLEAM1983]

As of now, all I know is I'm looking forward to the next Jimquisition.

Please oh please oh please, be about SimCity's epic fail!

 

[Barciad]

What a mess! Looks like Aliens lucked out in that now this has everyone's attention.

Quite, something is going to have to crash and burn pretty badly if its going to beat either of these two for the title of 'train wreck of the year'. Any other major disasters pending?

 

[Setrus]

"Stop telling people about our horribly broken game! It's hard to sweep this under a rug when people keep taking the tour!"

That's my thought as well.

You know, it is a worrying thing I see with these new games having too few servers, first it was Diablo 3 and now it's SimCity...how is one supposed to trust a game featuring online content and DRM to be playable? Reviewers surely don't have to deal with that problem (at least those playing it before the game launches to the common man) so they can't include any problems with that in their review. And if big companies are constantly undercutting their expected (I'm guessing they calculate this, doing otherwise would be foolish) need for servers, how can one trust them to give you a working product?

 

[Norix596]

Ya know, Cliffy B recently released a press statement that, among other things, lamented the fact that people hate on EA while holding such goodwill towards valve. Perhaps he could take note of this debacle as just one example of why the ignorant masses don't afford EA the same kind of due respect as companies less cynical and lazy in the products they put out.

 

[Madkipz]

"Stop telling people about our horribly broken game! It's hard to sweep this under a rug when people keep taking the tour!"

That's my thought as well.

You know, it is a worrying thing I see with these new games having too few servers, first it was Diablo 3 and now it's SimCity...how is one supposed to trust a game featuring online content and DRM to be playable? Reviewers surely don't have to deal with that problem (at least those playing it before the game launches to the common man) so they can't include any problems with that in their review. And if big companies are constantly undercutting their expected (I'm guessing they calculate this, doing otherwise would be foolish) need for servers, how can one trust them to give you a working product?

Well. Just about any credible reviewer would sort of hint at this happening before the game was released. Just look at the WTF is Simcity. Half the frikken review is about the drm and some of the caveats that follows in its wake.. <,<

 

[TsunamiWombat]

oh god, then the constant threads on 4chan about the game actually being good may finally stop.

Nothing can stop the viral marketers anon

 

[Carnagath]

Tune in next week when Starcraft 2 blows up the internet too.

Nah, not gonna happen. The campaign's only connection to the server are the achievements (which definitely will be busted, as they were in WoL's launch), but other than that you don't need to maintain connection to Battlenet to play it.

 

[Yarpie]

In combination with the horrendous launch of Diablo 3, can we now all agree that always on DRM in singleplayer games is a terrible idea with few, if any benefits? Especially seeing how much damage it has done to two highly revered franchises and how it has wrecked the goodwill of a large portion of the consumers?

 

[fleischwolke]

...and that's why i stopped buying games on day one. Or even month one.

 

[RicoADF]

What refund. EA is refusing any and all refunds.

It depends where the person lives, if their in the US their stuffed, but most other places yes they do because the laws require it.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Rule #1 of picking up online multiplayer focused games: DO NOT PICK UP ON LAUNCH DAY!

Actually, I'm kinda waiting to get my new PC though. My laptop can run it, but it'll look like ass so there's that.

Don't pick up the game at all. If you buy this game, you are part of the problem.

Just say no to bullshit DRM.

I don't risk that with EA. They just assume the dev is the problem and shut them down.

Also, we broke Ubisoft of their bad habit by continuing to buy their games and constantly bitching about it. EA might be more dense, but they'll figure it out eventually... hopefully.

I'm also not completely opposed to what they are trying to do. It's difficult to get a city to interact how it should, let alone get more cities to interact with each other in significant ways. So yeah, there's that.

 

[Groenteman]

'We want people to buy our game, so we use allways online DRM!' Theres so much wrong with this, but not enough for EA!

'We want allways online DRM, so people realy need to stop buying our game!' This company should burn and die. Evolution demands it.

 

[Realitycrash]

Gee, does this remind you of anything?


...DIABLO III PERHAPS!?

 

[Malk_Content]

Rule #1 of picking up online multiplayer focused games: DO NOT PICK UP ON LAUNCH DAY!

Actually, I'm kinda waiting to get my new PC though. My laptop can run it, but it'll look like ass so there's that.

Don't pick up the game at all. If you buy this game, you are part of the problem.

Just say no to bullshit DRM.

I don't risk that with EA. They just assume the dev is the problem and shut them down.

Also, we broke Ubisoft of their bad habit by continuing to buy their games and constantly bitching about it. EA might be more dense, but they'll figure it out eventually... hopefully.

I'm also not completely opposed to what they are trying to do. It's difficult to get a city to interact how it should, let alone get more cities to interact with each other in significant ways. So yeah, there's that.

Actually we broke Ubisoft when Valve decided to let all users who bought From Dust a no questions asked refund based on the DRM policy Ubisoft put in place. Ubisoft learned not because we complained but gave them money anyway, but because we showed them how many people wanted the product (initial sales) but are unwilling to put up with bulshit (amount of refunds within 24hrs.)

 

[ThatDarnCoyote]

Presumably all the marketing materials were housed on the gameplay servers.

 

[Li Mu]

I refuse to install Origin on my lovely machine. To do so would be like rubbing shit over a brand new expensive suit...or deliberately infecting yourself with AIDS.
That's right, EA is a horrible disease.

I'm not normally one to boycott or ***** about a company, but I really don't want to buy any EA products. Luckily, it's easy for me since I don't want any of the games they are currently publishing.