EU release of SimCity officially bombs (who would have thunk it!)

[Nazulu]

Take that Draec. I told him that I hope he gets stuck waiting. Where is he now? He just stopped posting all of a sudden.

I'm sure they will get it running soon though, but who really knows? Go play another game in the mean time. One without DRM of course.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

get rid of always online for single player games... BOOM, problem solved

 

[Rellik San]

I could be wrong, but is the issue maybe the game doesn't launch until tomorrow in EU?

 

[Colt47]

I'm trying to figure out what was going through EAs head when they decided to make this thing always online. They couldn't have been blissfully blind of Diablo 3's launch...

Oh well, at least I didn't break the popcorn out for no reason.

 

[N3squ1ck]

I could be wrong, but is the issue maybe the game doesn't launch until tomorrow in EU?

It launched today at 0:01, told me my Origin. And I can get into the starter-thingy and for a short time I even was able to play (until the server crashed again, that is)

 

[Ranorak]

How are you surprised by this?!
How did you not see this coming?

As far as I can see it, games that have a release online have 2 options.
1)invest money in extra servers, so that the sudden wave of day-1 players can log in. This will, of course, cost extra money and once the sudden rush has died down those servers might not be needed.

2)Let the rush come, let it settle itself like it always does and within a few days everything will run smoothly.

I use to try and log in at the 0:00 mark of WoW's new expansion, but lag, log-in issues and overcrowded zones taught me that I might as well wait until tomorrow when most of the dust had settled.

Same thing with Diablo 3's release.
I left it in the box for 2 days. My friend who bought it kept complaining on how he could not log in. I waited, patiently for the rush to calm down and had no issues.

Many major Online games these days can't handle the rush.

"Well, then don't make it online."
But they did, and you knew that. You might not like it, but SimCity is now a multiplayer game, NOT a single player game.

Somehow, this all reminds me at one of those stores that have a sale and people are waiting at the door. When they finally open everyone struggles to get in, except now we complain that the store didn't have enough doors.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Well, it's obvious no one in the gaming industry does any large scale testing anymore. This is why I never play a new game (especially online games) during the month of release.

It generally isn't possible to do "large scale testing" for something like concurrency until you actually release the product into the wild.

Not that it excuses this result or anything. EA has consistently failed to deliver the proper online infrastructure for their games in the early weeks.

 

[Rellik San]

I could be wrong, but is the issue maybe the game doesn't launch until tomorrow in EU?

It launched today at 0:01, told me my Origin. And I can get into the starter-thingy and for a short time I even was able to play (until the server crashed again, that is)

Hmmmm, because I know several people with Pre-Orders through Origin and it's not stating it as Live for them until tomorrow, but others it is, so I'm wondering if maybe there has been a fuck up with the timers which in turn is causing unready servers to come live resulting in the problems.

Purely speculation.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Doesn't a game bombing mean that it doesn't sell well? I was under the impression that SimCity sold pretty damn well, despite being horse crap.

Yes, the sensationalist thread title is incorrect and misleading both. It should have read "EU Release plagued by errors".

Anyway, always-online, PASS.

 

[Nazulu]

Take that Draec. I told him that I hope he gets stuck waiting. Where is he now? He just stopped posting all of a sudden.

I'm sure they will get it running soon though, but who really knows? Go play another game in the mean time. One without DRM of course.

He got banned.

I told him this will be another CXL. I told him this will fail. Online city builders always do.

And now city builders are gone, again, because EA wanted to beat Zynga circa 2009. An already dead company on a dead market.

That's pretty funny. I also told him he would get banned soon as long as he keeps making those aggresive posts.

Now lets see if Simcity doesn't die for a week after fixing this, or something similar.

 

[Pinkamena]

No big surprise really. EAs interests are in selling enough copies before people realize it's shit, not appeasing the customers. That costs more money, you know.

 

[Aikayai]

Good to know that EA has had record sales at $80 dollars a time. Now they know that they can keep up their current business practices and continue to murder the games industry.

If its so cool to hate on EA, why do morons support them and buy their games? Maxis made a great game but they've already been paid.

Also I would like to know if SimCity has its in game shop open yet.

 

[VondeVon]

I wish I'd realised there was no offline mode before I bought it. I grabbed the PC version too, meaning no refunds for me!

Ah well. I'll just have to content myself with Cities XL.

 

[R3dF41c0n]

I actually called EA's customer service line last night (I'm east coast US) while I was in queue to play SimCity. After ten minutes of being on hold the machine told me it would be 368 minutes (6 hours) before I could talk to anyone. I waited another ten minutes and that number jumped up to 422 (7 hours). I gave up and watched an episode of The Wire.

They need to have an off line mode for people who don't want the multiplayer element. If they don't, EA is going to lose more customer to piracy.

For the record, I enjoyed what little I got to play of the game. It's EA's business practices and DRM I have a problem with. Crowdfunding is the way of the future.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I'm trying to figure out what was going through EAs head when they decided to make this thing always online.

Permanent rentals is what's in their mind.

They've already done it with EA sports and the twelve month support window, sneaking in what's effectively a subscription model under the guise of annual releases, now they seem to be rolling it out across all games all the time.

I'm waiting for the server closures, oh, your whole game was on that server? Ah well, start over now dude.

 

[N3squ1ck]

I could be wrong, but is the issue maybe the game doesn't launch until tomorrow in EU?

It launched today at 0:01, told me my Origin. And I can get into the starter-thingy and for a short time I even was able to play (until the server crashed again, that is)

Hmmmm, because I know several people with Pre-Orders through Origin and it's not stating it as Live for them until tomorrow, but others it is, so I'm wondering if maybe there has been a fuck up with the timers which in turn is causing unready servers to come live resulting in the problems.

Purely speculation.

Where are you from? I'm from Germany and it is out, at least EA tells me so, even though I can't play

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

I could be wrong, but is the issue maybe the game doesn't launch until tomorrow in EU?

It launched today at 0:01, told me my Origin. And I can get into the starter-thingy and for a short time I even was able to play (until the server crashed again, that is)

Hmmmm, because I know several people with Pre-Orders through Origin and it's not stating it as Live for them until tomorrow, but others it is, so I'm wondering if maybe there has been a fuck up with the timers which in turn is causing unready servers to come live resulting in the problems.

Purely speculation.

This was apparently also happening after the North American launnch. According to several (unconfirmed) sources, They were doing staggered releases where they would unlock the games at different times for different people, seemingly at random. What's more stupid is people who bought the game after launch would be able to install but lots of people who preordered couldn't.

Anyway I'm glad I didn't pre-order this game. I was really tempted to because it looks pretty awesome but my internet connection can be temperamental at the best of times so I didn't want to risk buying an always online game when I'll only be playing singleplayer.

 

[Colt47]

Outside of MMOs, the idea of requiring an always online connection is completely idiotic. The only time a player needs to be online is if they are playing with other people, and in a game like Sim City I don't think people really give 2 licks if they have real people building cities in neighboring plots at the same time. What they might care about is comparing how well they are running their city to others, which would only need a quick log on to check leaderboards. For that matter, Ubisoft and a number of others have found more effective ways to do the social interaction via ghosting.