SimCity Offline-Mode Patch Won't Be Arriving "Any Time Soon"

[zinho73]

EDIT: Before you troll me: Look at the companies that are currently being pirated the most... Square Enix, Bethesda, hell, even Valve games are more pirated than Diablo 3... lol

#1 pirated game: Crysis 2 (EA)
#2 pirated game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision)
#3 pirated game: Battlefield 3 (EA/Sega)
#4 pirated game: FIFA 12 (EA)
#5 pirated game: Portal 2 (Valve Corporation)

Would you like to rephrase your statement?

I suppose you could look at Diablo 3 specifically, but that's a niche game that only a tiny portion of gamers would even enjoy. I haven't even once been motivated to look at Diablo 3, and none of that has anything to do with it having online DRM.

Edit: The above list are PC piracy stats from 2011. Similar results are found on other platforms and other years.

Diablo 3 doesn't have the always online DRM? The games you listed do?

Eh?

EDIT: Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, Farcry 3, and Skyrim are at (mostly) the top today lad. They don't have the DRM. Or am I wrong about that? I admit, I could be. I only hear about Diablo 3 and Sim City being the devil.

There are more sure, but even Minecraft is currently being pirated more then Diablo 3.... so is Assassins Creed Revelations.... REVELATIONS for damned sake!

Boarderlands 2, the Japan graphic novel where you try to score with cripples, a lot of games that were released well before Diablo 3. Left 4 Dead 2... Amnesia the Dark Descent, Batman Arkham city, COD MW2, CIV V, Total War Shogun 2, Mafia 2, ect ect

But NOOOOOOOO

It's always online DRM that makes people pirate.... lol

People don't pirate games made from good devs right?

Tell that to the thousands of people right now pirating The Witcher 2!

*giggles

Always online DRM clearly reduces piracy - at the expense of harassing paying customers. Those companies are making you pay for their problem.

More important, it is not clear if piracy even reduces revenue for the companies, because most pirates would not buy the game anyway. The extra cost with servers and maintenance (and free games and law suits and returns) might not be worth it.

On top of that, companies are losing their good will. Diablo 3 only sold its millions copies because of the name alone. I, for one, am not willing to ever pre order a game from Blizzard again, and gave buying the next Starcraft.

Atrocious DRM can hurt your business a lot and, most importantly, hurts the consumer - the game is not yours anymore and this is simply terrible.

 

[Varrdy]

"Trust efforts"? What the hell does that mean? I hate corporate-speak...

It's all fluff anyway because, as the second tweet said, it's not possible so the offer to look into it is as hollow as the inside as Anne Coulter's head!

I really do feel sorry for those that paid for and want to enjoy the game - this sucks!

 

[Fasckira]

Poor EA. Even when Maxis officially states its their fault, a large chunk of the gaming community insists its still EA's doing.

 

[Antari]

And so begins the process. Maxis has now been hung out to dry. Taking the fall. EA will drop the hammer on them soon. It was a long slow death Maxis. A damn shame really.

 

[VanQ]

When will EA and its susidiaries learn that trust is earned, not bought. You can give away free games all you want, the problem is you have spent a long time losing the trust of your customers because you never listened to us before. It's going to take more than a free game to win those people back.

Try learning from your mistakes and proving that you can deliver reliable, working products in the future and I may consider to stop boycotting your products.

 

[Squilookle]

If you're only holding on to your money until an offline mode for Simcity arrives- you're not doing enough. You should still hold on to your money until they promise offline modes for ALL of their future games.

 

[Doclector]

I'm sorry, that's the wrong fucking answer.

No, really. This should be seen as the last straw, final, definitive proof that always on drm does not work in a satisfactory way, and never has worked. There should be no fucking question behind this. EA, maxis, whoever the fuck's fault it is, you fucked up, there is no way this can not be seen as a fuck up, you better fix it.

 

[Vie]

Well I guess I won't be buying the game at all then.

See you when you make the next game, with will have an offline mode - because after this disaster even EA isn't stupid enough to... ..wait... ..oh god they are aren't they... ..uhhhg.

 

[FFP2]

the Japan graphic novel where you try to score with cripples

That's fucked up man.

And it further proves how uniformed you are. It's a FREE game.

 

[chadachada123]

the Japan graphic novel where you try to score with cripples

That game, Katawa Shoujo, can not, in any sense of the word, be pirated.

Because it was free.

Do you actually research anything before trying to use it for your argument, or...?

Besides, the only reason Diablo 3 is taking a long time to crack is because it needs to be 'cracked' like a standard MMO. Considering private servers exist for WoW and Runescape...It's only a matter of time before this DRM fails Diablo 3 as well.

OT: Sucks for Maxis. It's pretty clear that they're taking the fall by claiming that their DRM was done entirely of their own volition. This is, what, the third or fourth EA-owned studio to make such a claim seemingly at gunpoint?

Edit: Ninja'd. Damn.

 

[Abomination]

If you're only holding on to your money until an offline mode for Simcity arrives- you're not doing enough. You should still hold on to your money until they promise offline modes for ALL of their future games.

I don't know, a sudden spike in sales after they allow people to play offline would send the most clear and concise message that EA would understand.

 

[Tyranicus]

Two Words: Horse Shit...'nuff said.

 

[VanQ]

What's interesting is that PoE doesn't have an offline mode either, yet nobody really complains about that. However we can extrapolate that many people have left D3 for other games (Probably PoE/Torchlight 2) on that merit alone.

Point being, comparing a (relatively speaking) low profile niche title like D3, to a high profile shooter aimed at a general audience in terms of pirating is simply rediculous.

Excuse me for a second hwile I try to catch my breath after laughing for a good 15 minutes straight at the fact that you called Diablo 3 a "low profile niche title." I'm sorry, my sides quite literally blasted off Team Rocket style thanks to that.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/390025/diablo-iii-passes-12-million-sales-worldwide/

I'm sorry but you clearly have no idea what you're talking about. People left D3 because it was a terrible game. Torchlight 2 was a lighter game but was a lot more fun and didn't have a game breaking Real Money Auction House and always online DRM. PoE is always online because it was designed that way from the start and it's 100% free to play with only cosmetic items and a few convenience things like extra bank space up for small amounts of money.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Poor EA. Even when Maxis officially states its their fault, a large chunk of the gaming community insists its still EA's doing.

And so begins the process. Maxis has now been hung out to dry. Taking the fall. EA will drop the hammer on them soon. It was a long slow death Maxis. A damn shame really.

You do both realise Maxis died years ago?

On The Sims boxart the Maxis Logo was much larger than EA's.

On the Expansions EA was larger.

Sims 2 has Maxis relegated to the back of the box and the launch screens. (At this point Maxis longtime studio in Walnut Creek was officially closed).

By the fourth Sims 2 expansion even the launch logo had been omitted.

 

[Blind Sight]

There's something truly hilarious about an executive claiming they want players' 'trust' while they propagate an always online component that shows they clearly don't trust consumers.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

EDIT: Before you troll me: Look at the companies that are currently being pirated the most... Square Enix, Bethesda, hell, even Valve games are more pirated than Diablo 3... lol

#1 pirated game: Crysis 2 (EA)
#2 pirated game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision)
#3 pirated game: Battlefield 3 (EA/Sega)
#4 pirated game: FIFA 12 (EA)
#5 pirated game: Portal 2 (Valve Corporation)

Would you like to rephrase your statement?

I suppose you could look at Diablo 3 specifically, but that's a niche game that only a tiny portion of gamers would even enjoy. I haven't even once been motivated to look at Diablo 3, and none of that has anything to do with it having online DRM.

Edit: The above list are PC piracy stats from 2011. Similar results are found on other platforms and other years.

Diablo 3 doesn't have the always online DRM? The games you listed do?

Eh?

EDIT: Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, Farcry 3, and Skyrim are at (mostly) the top today lad. They don't have the DRM. Or am I wrong about that? I admit, I could be. I only hear about Diablo 3 and Sim City being the devil.

There are more sure, but even Minecraft is currently being pirated more then Diablo 3.... so is Assassins Creed Revelations.... REVELATIONS for damned sake!

Boarderlands 2, the Japan graphic novel where you try to score with cripples, a lot of games that were released well before Diablo 3. Left 4 Dead 2... Amnesia the Dark Descent, Batman Arkham city, COD MW2, CIV V, Total War Shogun 2, Mafia 2, ect ect

But NOOOOOOOO

It's always online DRM that makes people pirate.... lol

People don't pirate games made from good devs right?

Tell that to the thousands of people right now pirating The Witcher 2!

*giggles

Far Cry 3 has DRM through uplay, though not as aggressive, as say, ACII.
Revelations also had DRM(the same kind as FC3)
Borderlands/Civ V/Total War Shogun 2/CoD MW(any one of them)/Mafia 2/Left 4 Dead(though I imagine that few private servers for it exist, and those that do, either are hackers a plenty or just dead)/Skyrim is a steamworks game, so that counts as DRM
Crysis 3 works through Origin, so yes, DRM

Tomb Raider is the only exception, and it is not the best out of all the games you listed, so no, they don't always pirate games made by good developers; do you see The Walking Dead, Journey or Dishonored in those #10 charts?

No.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

...the Japan graphic novel where you try to score with cripples...

Katawa Shoujo is freeware made from 4Chan, dude. And from what I've heard of it, it's far beyond being just another creepy eroge game.

OT: My apologies to the loyal SimCity fans that were tricked into buying an EA game, and to Maxis for having to work for EA.

 

[RicoADF]

I like how they will say they 'will look into int to regain gamers trust'

they could look into it and then decide not to.

this is what happens when you make a game series that has been primarily single player, force it to be multiplayer with no offline mode, and expect everyone to be happy when your servers bite it when the demand was too high.

I'm sorry, that's the wrong fucking answer.

No, really. This should be seen as the last straw, final, definitive proof that always on drm does not work in a satisfactory way, and never has worked. There should be no fucking question behind this. EA, maxis, whoever the fuck's fault it is, you fucked up, there is no way this can not be seen as a fuck up, you better fix it.

They may very well have realised that forcing online wasn't the best move, and it seems like it was a design decision to both add something new into the game (multiplayer which some of us did want) and has the bonus of it being effective DRM. However, regardless of how much people want an offline mode I doubt its something that could quickly be patched in over night, the whole social region system is built into the core of the game and it wont be quick and easy to disconnect it all.

It's a shame they didn't build an offline mode into the game with a simple ping server when it starts, or just origin as the DRM requirement, either one would work fine and could be patched out of the servers were ever decided to be disconnected.

 

[Squilookle]

If you're only holding on to your money until an offline mode for Simcity arrives- you're not doing enough. You should still hold on to your money until they promise offline modes for ALL of their future games.

I don't know, a sudden spike in sales after they allow people to play offline would send the most clear and concise message that EA would understand.

Yes, and that message would be 'phew! you dodged a bullet with Simcity there. Business as usual from now on- no need for EA to learn anything whatsoever'.

 

[FoolKiller]

If you want a really good laugh

http://www.ea.com/executives

Not a single one of their own executives are even playing that shitty game they released :3

That's not their fault. They probably can't log into their servers either. Or possibly the drop down menu to pick the games that they are currently playing has SimCity deactivated so that they can get the core experience working in a timely manner