EA/Maxis Apologize For SimCity Launch With A Gift

Written by: QuintLyn Bowers (@QuintLyn) | March 9, 2013 1:03 pm

EA/Maxis Apologize For SimCity Launch With A Gift

44 Comments

Maxis general manager explains what went wrong with the SimCity launch and offers an apology.

Okay… Yes. Let’s be honest with each other — and with the devs. The SimCity launch has been a bit of a disaster. Not for everyone, mind you… Some people have managed to play the game just fine, our own Gary Gannon being one of them. But, the simple fact is: Maxis was not properly prepared for the problems that come with launching a constantly online game. And they know it.

In a recent update on ea.com, Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw gave a mini-update as to what’s happening with the game. Basically, the issue comes down to: what Maxis saw — and prepared for as a result — in the beta wasn’t what happened when the game went live. The game saw a spike of sales closer to launch and far more people tried to log on than they figured they’d have based upon the beta.

These new people also played in way that the beta testers did not. (No… I’m not certain as to what that means either. My best guess is that more people were actually trying to friend people as soon as they got into game. Or perhaps they were building faster.)

What’s being done to fix it?

According to a Polygon interview with Bradshaw, the entire studio has been working 24/7, taking shifts since the SimCity launch issues first started. The team has been deploying additional servers to bear the load, but that will only fix a part of the problem.

Another issue that the team identified — according to the Polygon interview — is with how the game’s GlassBox engine has been managing the large amount of data. Bradshaw has stated that this issue has also been addressed and as a result connectivity issues have decreased 80%. According to Bradshaw, Maxis is not going to say that’s good and call it a day.

Free game! And a request.

Okay, so we all know Maxis and EA screwed up here, and they know it too. So, they want to make it up to us. On March 18th, anyone who has bought and activated SimCity will be sent an email telling them how to acquire a free game from the EA library.

What games will be offered hasn’t been specified as of yet.

Bradshaw also had this to add when Polygon asked her what she’d say to SimCity fans who can’t play the game yet:

Stick with us.

Some of you have been fans of Maxis and SimCity for more than 20 years, through good times and challenging times like now. We love what we do and once this is behind us we hope that you’ll see a great game created by passionate people.

Is this enough?

The truth is, we as gamers can get pretty bitter when we feel like we’re being screwed. But some — if not most of us — just like to see that someone somewhere is trying to make it right. So, the question is. Is this enough to make the mistakes of the SimCity launch right?

It seems like even Maxis feels it may not be as they tweeted this earlier today:

As I announced last night we’re giving away a free game and are considering other ways to make it up to you.

— SimCity (@simcity) March 9, 2013

The question is. What else can they do?

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Comment

Geoff Stone

i sense an “im sorry here is some DLC that we were going to charge you $5-$10 for free” as another way to make up that will mean it will only effect players who still have the game and want to keep playing it. just a thought though i don’t really know
- http://twitter.com/cipero Matt Cipriano
  
  Hopefully it will be the DLC they should have to make the city plots bigger.
http://www.facebook.com/jason.jenkins.73 Jason Jenkins

honestly no this isn’t enough, i dont think there is anything they can do to curry my favor again. for now i’m pretty sure this is the last EA game i’m going to buy.
http://twitter.com/RagnarKon Bryan W (Ragnar.Kon)

To be 100% honest… I’m having very little problems with the game compared to what I am hearing online. I’ve played every single day since release, and I’ve been able to log in and play every single day. One evening I had to sit through the 20 minute timer, but other than that–it has been instant.

That isn’t to say I’ve had a perfect experience. Regional simulation has roughly a 45 minute delay, and friend invites and region chat have about a 5 hour delay. But regional play isn’t truly important until your cities reach the later phases of the game, so it really isn’t anything more than a small annoyance right now.
Anyway, server issues aside, the game is amazing. Anyone who is still on the fence about getting it–just get it–though you might want to wait until they get the servers issues fixed.

I just hope Crysis 3 is one of those “free games” that will be offered, but highly doubt it.
- http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm
  
  What version did you buy? if you bought the 60 dollar version did you buy any DLC ??
http://www.facebook.com/inkogni.alex Inkogni Alex

im cheating the system, im from EU playing on USA servers when all of the US is asleep.
BRAIN POWER, no lag or problems with connections.
now tell me more about that FREE STUFF thing
http://twitter.com/QuietNine Quiet

Classic: Honest developer apologizes because terrible publisher made them implement stupid crap into their game. This is like blizzard covering for the tools at Activision when Diablo 3 turned out to be nothing more than an experiment in using DRM to facilitate RMAH greed. Maxis got used by EA to drop always online DRM to keep gamers locked in to the in game store.

Keep your apology Maxis. The problem isnt that you lack server uptime. The problem is that you lacked the spine to keep a true offline single player option alive in SimCity. Offline matters. You let EA kill your baby and just watched. Apologize to your employees, all your customers want are refunds and time machines.
- David Knapp
  
  You’re forgetting that there’s more of a reason for always online game from Diablo than this. They didn’t want the rampant item hacking/duping that was in Diablo 2. The only way to be 100% on that is to take the item “creation” off the client and put it on a server you control as the company.
http://twitter.com/Deadalon Deadalon

Trying to save their face atm with free game offerings at “later date”. They are trying badly to hide the “no refund” from Origin service at this point with some positive spin off.

What ppl have learned by now with this SimCity fiasco (and with D3 before it) is that always online DRM is not consumer friendly. It is punishing those that buy the game for the crimes of those that might pirate the game. And STILL we hear ppl like Gary say that ppl should buy the SimCity game? Really ?

The ONLY way we can protect our consumer rights is to not buy always online DRM games! If you miss out of SimCity because of it… then blame the developer and the publisher for designing the game in that way.

Do not buy always online DRM games!
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz
  
  I’m made a few posts without mentioning any names specifically for two reasons: fear of getting banned and not wanting to start any type of fan war. You pretty much summed up everything I’ve been saying and why I’m so annoyed right now with GBTV. After watching their shows for so long, I’ve seen them time and time again, ripping online only DRM. Then, some of the hosts do a complete 180 and buy a game with the same garbage they ripped apart on their shows.
  
  Instead of using the power that they hold to help echo the sentiments of the majority of gamers, they give in to the urge to play a game they like. All this does is make things worse for everyone. I honestly expected more from some of the individuals here. This has left a lasting impression and I’ve lost a lot of respect for some of the GB hosts.
  - http://twitter.com/JuhTai James Megretton
    
    I’m actually really curious in regards to why you have such issues? I mean, just because some of the Gamebreaker staff have opinions, why should that stop them from buying things?
    
    SURE, DRM is a big topic in the community, I understand that. We’re all a little outspoken about out, but in the end its one tiny flaw. Why should we miss out on potential enjoyment for the sake of upholding a single grudge?
    
    Afterall, gamers do the same 180 turn all the time, just because Gamebreaker is a media outlet doesn’t mean we aren’t human too. We like games
    - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz
      
      Bit late on my response, but if a company is practicing shady dealings, would you still buy it because the product is good? That seems like a very naive way of looking at things. You aren’t just normal individuals, you’re part of the media and you have a responsibility to speak out for us. If you buy it on your own time and keep it to yourself, that’s different. You have a responsibility, clearly it isn’t something that anyone here has given much thought to. You see that donate button up there? Yeah, that’s for us to support you guys.
      - http://quintlyn.com/ QuintLyn Bowers
        
        So, essentially, you want us to lie to you and in order to make you feel good about supporting us? “Go ahead.. Buy the game. Just don’t tell us you did or that you’re actually enjoying it, because you’re supposed to stand up for us?”
        
        Because if that is what you are really saying with: ” If you buy it on your own time and keep it to yourself, that’s
        different. You have a responsibility, clearly it isn’t something that
        anyone here has given much thought to.” Then we have some different ideas about what is and is not naive.
        
        In the end, we give you OUR thoughts on the game and it’s your responsibility to take that and decide if you agree with it or don’t and make a purchasing decision. It’s your money and you have to decide if you want to give it to EA, Maxis, Double Fine or whoever.
        
        We are part of the media. But our job isn’t to stand up to the companies for you. Our job is to entertain, inform and give our opinions. If Gary’s opinion is that the game is fun and people who like that kind of thing should buy it. That’s HIS opinion, and he’s sharing it with you. It’s YOUR job to look at the game, seek out several opinions if you need to and make a decision on your own about it.
      - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz
        
        No, I don’t expect lies, what I expect is consistency. Something is currently lacking. A lot of mixed messages coming from the hosts. Criticize one game for it, but support it in another. So stick to one message and there wouldn’t a problem, don’t pick and choose which games you’re going to bash and then ignore the exact same features in a different title. That’s what I want.
      - http://quintlyn.com/ QuintLyn Bowers
        
        There are a few reasons why this happens, the most obvious one being that while in one game a feature may very well be a gamebreaking experience for some people, in another it is not, either due to the fact that the feature is not as intrusive or due to other things in the game making it easier to ignore.
        
        In general, for most of us, it comes down to whether or not we are having fun playing a game. If in some cases, the many features trump the one thing we might generally find to be annoying, then yes we will likely say we’re enjoying the game and possibly recommend it.
        
        In the end, it’s up to each of us to decide on a game-by-game basis whether or not we think it is worth playing. That includes you as the viewers/readers. We can tell you our thoughts on it – and yes, they might not always seem consistent, because we do it on a case-by-case basis and our opinions can change over time – but in the end it’s up to you to research the game as fully as you wish and make a decision based upon that.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jesse-Hyde/843505595 Jesse Hyde

it’s not just connectivity of course it’s in game bugs while playing with friends in a private region, if everything in game worked properly this would be awesome, hope they fix it soon.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Hamad-Ali-Al-Jalahma/512893526 Hamad Ali Al-Jalahma

If they allow us to pick the game we are getting for free, then I am cool with it.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1302339724 Jon Tingblad

The free DLC is not costing them squat upfront so it is in their best interest to offer it first and gauge the reaction. If it is unfavorable they may up the offer. For now, I will never get another EA game. This online crap has got to go so I will vote with my money.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz

OK, usually I love these articles, but I almost stopped reading at “Our own Gary Gannon”. Gary spent about an hour trying to get people into his game on the first night because invitations weren’t being sent. On the second, he spent over an hour trying to log into the game and eventually gave up. On the third, he had trouble logging on but eventually got in. That doesn’t sound “fine” to me. If you want to point anyone out that actually had a good experience with Simcity, point to Justin Lowe which really had zero issues. Watching Justin’s stream and Gary’s was like the difference between day and night. If you watched Justin play, you saw a smooth game. If you watched Gary, you saw a broken game because of a garbage DRM that no one should have been supporting either way by purchasing the game.

Anyway, the free game is nice and the response and apology have been very good. However, I feel like I live on a different planet considering that they’re using their beta as a way to determine how many people would be there at launch. Who does that? Beta is never an accurate way to measure your player base. A more accurate way would have been pre-sales, which they clearly state that they saw. Maybe it was enough time, maybe it wasn’t. I honestly couldn’t care less, game should have had an offline mode and online mode. Then I would have gone out to buy it. As it stands, I’m disappointed with every individual that caved in and purchased it. The game being good doesn’t change the fact that you’re telling EA that it’s OK to have this type of game with no offline mode. You’re only making things worse for the gaming community. This is the first time I have genuinely been extremely disappointed with individuals on GBTV. All the stuff they constantly say about the online DRM being bad, but they rush to purchase a game with it. It’s so backwards.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Shawn-Hargrave/100003202374593 Shawn Hargrave

Im glad ea is doing this stupid shit i hope they do it more and more and more and flush more franchises down the drain. Im glad i didnt buy it and id put god money on the free game bieng a free copy of simcity 1 lol.
http://www.facebook.com/aaron.labertew Aaron Labertew

I think the only thing I would find reassuring is a statement from both EA and Maxis acknowledging the folly of requiring a constant connection for single player aspects of a game, and a promise to learn from that mistake. Will definitely take a free game, but will still not be buying another EA game right at launch.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_P4HMCB2HFGNQRRKG5SO33L5LCQ Age Of Majority
  
  Consumers need to stop buying always online games period.
  - http://twitter.com/Critzkreig Cody Moody
    
    Not gonna happen, considering Diablo III was the #1 best selling PC game last year.
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_P4HMCB2HFGNQRRKG5SO33L5LCQ Age Of Majority
      
      I know. That’s the problem. Be great if people could exert a little self control. I think it would save us all a lot of trouble in the long run. They will just continue to buy that crap though. I mean, wouldn’t it be terrible if gamers actually did something?!?!?!?!?!? Best to just continue as planned.
Draekwon

there’s still some time left till march 18th. i guess that’s pretty good marketing. “buy the game although it has serverissues because you get some crappy game for free!!!!!11111″
- Jeremy Whallon
  
  Not only that, but by the 18th they’ll have the issues fixed so when they announce that your selection of games to choose from are bargain basement old games (that you could buy from any Steam sale for $2.49) they won’t catch much flack for it because the narrative of the story will be them fixing the problems.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Bergevin-Jr/1393526370 Jim Bergevin Jr

What else can they do? Make the game playable off-line like the previous iterations of the franchise. There’s no excuse for the launch – unless they had their heads up their butts for the last 5 years, they could have figured out what everyone else already predicted and has come to pass.

I have been a Maxis and SimCity fan from the beginning, but nothing will make me continue to support them if I cannot play their games off-line.
http://twitter.com/TrinnYorae Jon Senson

It seems so fishy to me that I was able to easily get a refund for the game on day one without issue (My first city was reverted to nothing after 10 hours of building it due to server bugs) and then they suddenly cry “No refunds!” the next day.

Smells to me like they were losing money hand over fist to refunds and changed their stance to something where they can placate you while still keeping your money. Giving you a free downloadable game really costs them next to nothing.

Of course I have no proof of this and my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt, but the timing just seems way too coincidental.
http://twitter.com/phasra Phasra

I only have 1 game on Origin – that’s Mass Effect 3. I will never ever buy any games from Origin again. I’ve so many problems with it, I won’t even try to overcome those problems. I played one of the old SimCity games very long time ago and I would be interested to try this game. It’s on Origin, though…

Fun fact: I wanted to redownload ME3 in preparation for the last DLC – the download process lasted 23 hours… Similar amount of data from Steam is loaded within 1.5 hours. It has been this way for me a year ago – it is like this now. If EA is not working to improve Origin – I’ve no interest in giving it another chance.
- Tenthletter1979
  
  Yep, the only reason I even have an Origin account was for Dragon Age Origins, and had nothing but problems with the service from day one. I didn’t buy ME3 or BF3, and nearly didn’t purchase SWTOR solely because of Origin (SWTOR didn’t require Origin to play so I ended up buying a boxed copy.)
  
  I’ll never buy an EA game that is related to Origin, and the fact that EA pulled its games off of Steam only reinforces this decision.
  
  By the way, if you don’t login to Origin for two years, you lose the digital rights to ALL of your Origin titles. This won’t apply to the vast majority of people, but the very fact that part of Origin’s “service” includes taking away games that I have paid for is shady business practice to say the very least.
  
  I’m not sure if Steam has a similar clause in their TOS, but considering Steam actually works and has titles from multiple publishers (not just Valve), I don’t see it as an issue.
Deathstar2x

“Asked what she’d say to SimCity fans who can’t play the game they purchased, Bradshaw pleaded to them, “Stick with us.”

In business, this is something you do, not say.
http://twitter.com/j0nnara Jonnara

Will not touch anything that needs Origin to run the game. Even with Mass Effect3 i bought the game and use a crack so i can run it without Origin.
Depravity

Respect Maxis, defecate on EA.
http://www.facebook.com/Rookie918 Steve Hunter Robinson

Well Maxxis clearly have no idea of the power of YouTube since they let the most popular Youtubers into the beta and allow them to make videos of the game and are then shocked by the fact that there is an influx of purchases just before launch. It’s a lose-lose situation for any SimCity fan with EA and Maxxis, both companies showing how little they know about the gaming community.
mchugh760

at least it is a good game when you can play it. I just wonder what the free game choices will be.
http://www.facebook.com/patrikules.vunderbar Patrikules Vunderbar

I’m thinking that the reason some games are going online only now is because they know that the game won’t be ready at launch and that they will have to patch it constantly… But that’s something EA & Activision/Blizzard don’t care about. (*cough* Diablo 3 *cough* SimCity) All they care about is how much advertising they can pump out and how much money they will get at launch.

stupid internets
- David Knapp
  
  Diablo 3′s reason for always on actually made sense compared to this. To 100% stop item hacking you have to move item (loot) creation off the client, and that matters a lot for a game like diablo where the end game has always been about finding the best loot.
  - http://twitter.com/Deadalon Deadalon
    
    Diablo 3 is a game. Games are played for fun for most ppl. 1-2% of the playerbase plays it as hardcore game. To prevent item hacking you can let those hardcores play on always online server. The rest more casual players should be free to play where, when and how they want without being forced to be connected to the internet.
    
    Thats the thing. DRM like we see with D3 and with SimCity is reducing the freedom that the player has to play a single player game. If the player is ready to accept that loss of freedom and forced gameplay… then so be it. He has the choice.
    
    But then… if he finds out that this is in ANY way restricting his gameplay then he should have EVERY right to return the game within X amount of time based on the restrictions that the developers has added.
    
    Thats the thing. Its perfectly ok that these DRM games have issues. But what is NOT acceptable is that ppl are not able to get the games refunded based on the simple fact that the SERVICE from the publishers and developers is not up to what was expected. Considering the constant online feature – it should be as easy as returning any other broken product that his not working as intented. I did that with Guild Wars 2 and needed just one detailed Email like was asked for on their support page.
    
    If EA and Maxis can not do that then it shows they are not up to the standards needed to run an always online game.
Jado Cast

I avoid EA games at all costs.
http://twitter.com/Deadalon Deadalon

Its perfectly ok that these DRM games have issues. But what is NOT acceptable is that ppl are not able to get the games refunded based on the simple fact that the SERVICE from the publishers and developers is not up to what was expected. Considering the constant online feature – it should be as easy as returning any other broken product that his not working as intended. I did that with Guild Wars 2 and needed just one detailed Email like was asked for on their support page.

If EA and Maxis can not do that then it shows they are not up to the standards needed to run an always online game. It requires certain service – including the right to return the product.
HappyHansel

It would be nice if they could figure out a way to only make you log online once every 24 hours, say, to play the single player part. Or give you one of those cellphone apps/keychain doohickeys that you click to get your account’s new access code every time you log into the game.
Thomas Birdsey

Hillary: “garriot seems like a jaded person” . Have you met him? He is anything but jaded lol. Fyi the mmo market you keep harping on is stagnant at best. Garriot has the right idea. Bring back what made rpgs immersive and awesome in the first place. Only do it with today’s tech. Makes sense to me. And clearly this is only one example of a trend that has been growing in the industry over the past year or so.

Also lol @ “really knowledged”
- DoctorOverlord
  
  I think you posted this in the wrong article? This was about SimCity, Garriott wasn’t even mentioned lol
  
  But just to comment, I actually think Mark Jacobs is making more sense with what he has said so far on Camelot Unchained and focusing on a niche audience with specific gameplay (only PvP) than what I’ve heard about Shroud. It will be very interesting to see how both turn out (and how successful both routes end up).
DoctorOverlord

Sounds like a lesson about the importance of doing *real* testing and a sign that maybe large betas should go back to being about testing rather than marketing campaigns? A beta test certainly can’t prepare devs for everything but it sounds like the beta they conducted didn’t prepare them for anything.

EA/Maxis Apologize For SimCity Launch With A Gift

Maxis general manager explains what went wrong with the SimCity launch and offers an apology.

What’s being done to fix it?

Free game! And a request.

Is this enough?

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