The Failure of the SimCity Launch.

Baldr

The Noble
Jan 6, 2010
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Ok, the game has been out in the US for a half hour, or has it? I don't think anyone has finished downloading it or much more in the boat of even having the ability to to download it yet. Still says unreleased on my end.
 

ThriKreen

New member
May 26, 2006
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Downloading right now via the launcher, at 17% at the time of this posting. Had to wait for 2 emails (that park thingy, then about 40min later for the game itself) before it would unlock on my library. Seems they waited til now to process the actual transaction, then unlocking as it passes.

I also heard there was some confusion over the release time a well, with Maxis thinking 12am EST/9pm PST, but Origin was thinking 3am EST/12am PST. Still not sure why there was no pre-load offered either.

That might account for the delay and staggered unlocking for people, as it would totally depend on what order they're processing things.
 

Baldr

The Noble
Jan 6, 2010
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Kinda had a clue that it may be in trouble on Sunday when Kip Katsarelis was asked what time it would be available and he did not know at that time. I only found out by visiting the forums a couple hours ago.

*Edit, well 2+ hours and still no way to download the game. Going to bed, it would have been nice to even get it started while sleeping.
 

infinity_turtles

New member
Apr 17, 2010
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Video shows Queue time for someone who's already downloaded the thing. Don't really find it surprising, and hope it bites them in the ass.

 

Longstreet

New member
Jun 16, 2012
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Saw this one coming.

Miles away.

Ya'll enjoy the complete failure that is called SimCity. I'll stay far away from it.
 

Kristian Fischer

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Aug 15, 2011
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How precisely do you know it's a "complete failure"? EA messed up the launch, but that doesn't tell you anything about the game. CoDBlOps 2's PC launch was terrible as well, but they eventually fixed things.
 

Keymik

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Oct 18, 2008
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This is just another reason to hate Origin. God I hate that platform. You purchase a game and you won't get it until you call them personally and other annoying things for hours.

I don't care about being called a Steam fanboy but.. Steam is so much better.
 

BlackNoel

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Feb 28, 2010
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I think it's a bit premature to call the launch a failure. Give it at least a day to see if this is another Diablo 3.
So far I've gotten through just fine. At one time it was downloading at 19 mb/s, which is pretty amazing actually.
 

Funkysandwich

Contra Bassoon
Jan 15, 2010
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How long till the DRM is cracked? I'm guessing it'll be shortly after a pirate manages to actually download it.
 

Sargonas42

The Doctor
Mar 25, 2010
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BlackNoel said:
I think it's a bit premature to call the launch a failure. Give it at least a day to see if this is another Diablo 3.
So far I've gotten through just fine. At one time it was downloading at 19 mb/s, which is pretty amazing actually.
Exactly. It's a bit early to call doom and gloom. The first few hours are rough for EVERYONE. A perfectly smooth all around launch is the rare exception, not the norm.

I myself managed just fine to get going. From download, install, patch, and launch it took 20 minutes to get into a region I setup for my friends. From there things were quite smooth for the last 7 hou.... or dear god. Is it really 4:30 am? Oh god what have I done....
 

ThriKreen

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May 26, 2006
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Posted elsewhere, copied here:

If you get the 30 min wait queue, just reselect the server regions and try to rejoin instead of waiting it out. That act forces the launcher to recheck the server. It seems the launcher defaults to retrying in 30min, it doesn't actually query the server's status on a continuous basis, probably another measure to reduce traffic.

I had waited a couple minutes before trying another server region, and when I got back to my preferred one, I got the 30min wait time again. That's when it clicked - have you noticed how EVERYONE'S complaints on the wait time is always 30min? That should be a clue that it's not actually based on the server's load, it's just the launcher's default retry time. So I just hammered the rejoin server button and got in within 2min.
 

JEBWrench

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Apr 23, 2009
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Downloaded and played without a problem.

Having too much fun to say more other than to posit the theory that the issues might have also had something to do with Maxis and EA's decision to launch it at the same time as the new Sims 3 expansion.
 

Alfador_VII

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Nov 2, 2009
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Funkysandwich said:
How long till the DRM is cracked? I'm guessing it'll be shortly after a pirate manages to actually download it.
This will probably take weeks or even months if what they're saying about large amounts of the processing being done server-side is true.

Basically you'd need to do a lot more than crack the copy protection, you'd have to write a server emulator, which is non-trivial.
 

BloatedGuppy

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Feb 3, 2010
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KingsGambit said:
I'm not sure if 30 minutes is enough to judge the success or failure of a game launch.
The failure of this game launch was pre-decided by about 50% of this forum's inhabitants. If the launch had gone off beautifully, and only 2 people ran into problems, we'd have a thread describing their experience in excruciating detail with 500 posts saying "I knew it!" and "Exactly as expected".

By the same token, anyone expecting good things from this launch is going to latch on to positive press reviews, or the " I got in fine and I'm having a blast" comments and take them as evidence of the true experience.

We are all perpetually delighted to have our prejudices confirmed, and will struggle mightily against conflicting information, if we don't ignore it entirely.
 

Baldr

The Noble
Jan 6, 2010
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KingsGambit said:
I'm not sure if 30 minutes is enough to judge the success or failure of a game launch.
Try 5 hours(that is when the email came)?? That how long it took them to activate my account so I could download the game.

However, I on the plus side, when I woke up, it was ready to download, that took ~15minutes and I got on with no problems.
 

Isalan

New member
Jun 9, 2008
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So we learn a lesson we all already know too well.

The weakest part of any EA game is EA.