At E3 2012 last summer, we had a chance to check out the latest game in development at Maxis, a relaunch of SimCity. We enjoyed what we saw, finding it fun and promising. It seemed to be on the right track to offer a load of new features built upon the GlassBox game engine, while streamlining and improving the best parts of the original games we loved so much.
There was one feature which always concerned us though: SimCity only works if you’re connected to EA’s servers. Call it what you will, but this form of DRM had a large segment of the fanbase up in arms. What if I want to play by myself somewhere without internet? What if the servers go dark? Look what happened to Diablo 3, right? EA didn’t listen and they certainly didn’t learn and now everyone is suffering for it.
When Maxis devs took to Reddit for an AMA (Ask Me Anything) two months ago, legions of gamers asked, even begged to make the game playable offline. The entire AMA turned into an attack on DRM, generating nothing but bad PR for the game. Here’s just a segment of the sort of responses:
And every single one of these Redditors was absolutely right. SimCity launched Tuesday and since that day the game has simply not worked. It’s a disaster. Server issues – ones that everyone with common sense predicted – hampered the launch. Players can’t sign in or they’re getting booted mid-game, the servers were taken down entirely for a period of time, and most unforgivably, players are even losing their progress. For obvious reasons, the user scores on Metacritic are as low as can be (see below), and media outlets reviewing the product (service?) don’t know how to handle the situation.
How does one review a game that does not work? How do we objectively review a game that players purchase for their own money that does not work on their own computer unless they connect to EA’s service, a service that can end (or not work) at any time? It’s an interesting and relevant, if scary, part of the industry now. Publishers push anti-consumer practices such as this on players so they can maintain a sense of control, prevent piracy, and monetize their products. It’s the reality of free-to-play and social games in a connected world.
The problem is, SimCity is not free-to-play.
Paying customers are not getting what they paid for, and understandably, there are consumers looking for a refund. Fortunately, EA global community manager for Origin, Marcel Hatam, understands this and on the day of launch, recommended on the official SimCity forums that if players feel let down, they should seek a refund:
Except, you can’t. That very same post was edited and now reads “3.) Please review our refund policy here: https://help.ea.com/article/returns-and-cancellations”. Hatam said users can seek a refund but they actually cannot. Just check out Origin’s infuriating tweets:
Bought a game, cannot play it, cannot get a refund. One of the world’s biggest video game publishers, commanding one of the largest player bases across a wide range of mobile, social and other platform products could not launch SimCity, despite their experience in online environments and despite seeing this happen last year with Blizzard’s launch of Diablo III.
We can dissect, analyze and complain for days on why this happened and why it was preventable, but for players, the immediate concern is what’s being done about it right now. Polygon - who scored the game with a 9.5/10 then lowered it to 8/10 – got their hands on an internal memo sent out to the dev team by Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw, and needless to say, they’re feeling the pain:
“I’d like to say that it’s not fair — that the game score shouldn’t be punished for a server problem. But it is fair.”
“SimCity is an online game and critics and consumers have every right to expect a smooth experience from beginning to end. I and the Maxis team take full responsibility to deliver on our promise.”
“Trust that we’re working as hard as possible to make sure everyone gets to experience the amazing game we built in SimCity.”
“Maxis is working 24/7 to deliver on our promise.”
[Update (March 7) - Polygon has re-updated their SimCity review, lowering the score again to 4/10].
As for the questions everyone wants answered, we don’t have answers and that’s an equally important issue to recognize. Kotaku sent the following questions to EA representatives and paying consumers deserve answers, especially when they cannot attain refunds:
1) Despite EA’s experience with online games and the precedent of Activision’s shaky Diablo III launch for that always-online game, EA’s now had an always-online game that players have been struggling to connect to for three days. How did this happen? How was EA not better prepared?
2) EA statements have indicated that server maintenance is ongoing. But as it stands right now you have paying customers who can’t play the game they paid for. What is EA doing to make that up to the customers?
3) SimCity uses its online connection to connect player cities and support online challenges, but it seems clear now that some sort of offline mode would appease many fans. Is EA going to enable this option for the game?
4) Part of the anger I see over this is the assumption that this is, ultimately a DRM step that is only hurting valid, paying customers. How does EA see the DRM aspect of this?
5) What changes is EA implementing to keep this from happening again?
Here’s Bradshaw’s response which avoids the questions and completely fails to put fans at ease:
Thousands of players across the world are playing and having a good experience – in fact, more than 700,000 cities have been built by our players in just 24 hours. But many are experiencing server instability and consequently, the rollout in North America has been challenging. It’s also now evident that players across Europe and Asia are experiencing the same frustration. Our priority now is to quickly and dramatically increase the number and stability of our servers and, with that, the number of players who can simultaneously access the game. We added servers today, and there will be several more added over the weekend. We’re working as hard as possible to make sure everyone gets to experience the amazing game we built in SimCity.
No one cares how many cities were built when they cannot connect. Players want answers, their money back, or to just play the game and they’re not getting any of these things. The publisher and developer have punished players with this system, a system they need to buy into, and look what’s come of it. Not only are the paying players hurting, and not only are the developers dealing with unimaginable stress levels and working hard to rectify the issue, but retail partners are also suffering.
In an email to its LinkShare program affiliates that was leaked to Polygon, EA Origin has directly asked that partners “please stop actively promoting the game,” explaining that they’ve “deactivated all Sim City text links and creative and we ask you to please remove any copy promoting SimCity from your website for the time-being.”
“To be clear we are continuing to payout commissions on all SimCity sales that are referred, however we are requesting that you please stop actively promoting the game. We will notify you as soon as the SimCity marketing campaigns have been resumed and our promotional links are once again live in the Linkshare interface. We apologize for any inconveniences that this may cause, and we thank you for your cooperation.”
And to think, if EA and Maxis simply let players play offline, like all of the classic SimCity games, and just as many players asked for before launch, none of this would have happened.
SimCity will get more servers this weekend and it won’t be long before the online “service” works as intended, but the game and its failed launch serves of another example of what happens when publishers try to control players with anti-consumer practices. There’s no benefit to players forcing them online and our question is, what happens when EA stops supporting the game down the road?
Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes and let me know your thoughts on the SimCity situation!
For a little light and fun read on the SimCity franchise:
[Update (March 8) - Lucy Bradshaw posted an official SimCity update to apologize for the situation and reiterate that they're continuing to work towards building up server capacity. EA will be offering a free PC game to players who've registered their game prior to March 18th]
Sources: Reddit, Metacritic, VentureBeat, EA Forums, Polygon, Kotaku
Header art from idealimus
Xbox One: Watch The Next-Gen Xbox Presentation Here! 
Electronic Arts Engineer Blasts the Wii U 
Kevin Conroy WILL Return For ‘Batman: Arkham Origins’ 
What You May Not Know About The ‘Xbox One’ [Updated] 
Loading ...
700k? That’s not very many when you think about all the people that lose their cities in the first few minutes of the game just to make another one. This also makes me glad that I don’t buy always online DRM games.
This is why I refused to buy Diablo III, and why I won’t buy SimCity now. Consumers HAVE GOT to send a message to publishers by not buying products with anti-consumer policies like this. The only message they will ever understand is one that cuts into their bottom line.
DRM will kill gaming. Microtransactions will also kill gaming.
People want to ‘own’ and not ‘rent’ what they buy.
I completely agree! These games get cracked either way and developers need to find another way to combat piracy instead of using tactics that have put a strain on the average consumer.
Digital download or not, if a product is not ‘fit for purpose’ (and believe me, this game is NOT fit for purpose right now), the purchaser is entitled to a refund. All it takes is one individual who has been refused a refund to take EA to court (which, lets face it, is gonna happen in America…) for their “policy” to collapse.
Excellent work Rob. You and I have shared our passion for Sim games (Sim Tower anyone?) and this launch is infuriating. And think that the last PC game I truly wanted to play and look forward to was D3! Oh the joys of no offline mode.
I was about to get this game too. Glad I researched first.
“I was about to get this game too. Glad I researched first.”
If Only more people would do this.
*fist pump*
Hi all, I’m a community manager for …….. and just wanted to say “”stay patient”. Oh and haha suckers we got your money.
Though I definitely feel for the gamers that are affected by this, I gotta say… This is the BEST thing that’s happened for gaming in a while. Especially after the Diablo 3 fiasco, maybe people will finally start learning to not blindly trust game companies.
…I wonder how Cliffy B will get EA out of this one?
Sounds like a real cluster f***!! Ridiculous.
Yeah, I’ll say good job there Keyes. This is a pretty good compilation of whats been going on with this fiasco. “Sim-gate” keeps getting worse and worse. Sadly, despite EA exploiting their customers by money grubbing/anti-consumerist tactics they will still end up making profit off of this..
Thanks!
DRM is the problem? I don’t think so, it’s nice not to lose your games. Whoever doesn’t have the internet in 2013 need to look at the times and how much they have changed. EA is the real villain, they have been going down hill for quite sometime now and their stupid micro-transaction ideas. This is the only way they are alive, we are the cows and they are the milkers they do whatever it takes to milk us dry.
119 million Americans lack broadband Internet according to the FCC
This is true, I can see why people feel betrayed EA just keeps digging their own hole.
Yeap, DRM is one of the major problems. DRM translates to pirated games offering a better user experience. If the actual publisher and developers are not offering the best version of the product, they lose and the PAYING players lose.
congratulations to ea for screwing up again and proving that they do not care for their consumers and just want money
I find it funny that they require an always online DRM to prevent people from pirating the game and from what a friend showed me today some one already cracked the game and put an offline mode.
Its funny how EA puts DRM into their games to prevent people from pirating them(a Sign of greedy bastards) but all it does is cause problems and makes people. . . Find other means of playing the game that is more common answer, PIRATING IT! They push the consumer away. They don’t care about the consumer. To EA, every gamer is a mindless sheep for the slaughter(money)
blackjoker how is a company being a greedy bastard when they want people to pay for the game they worked hard on and not steal it.
On another note this sucks I was looking to buy this game but now probably wont the D3 launch was HORRIBLE!!!
Earning money for development work is of utmost importance, however, not at the cost of anti-consumer practices.
Another factor I intentionally didn’t bring up in the article is that pirated versions of the game are more user-friendly. Why wouldn’t players choose the BEST option? Because what EA is offering isn’t that and so the thinking is backwards. Players would pay the same price for the offline version of it’s not available.
There are users on the EA forums, our Facebook page, on Twitter, on Reddit, etc. saying they’d pay MORE money for an offline patch. They’re willing to pay, but they’re forced into this system instead.
It’s setting a bad precedent for players and we all know what happens to aged EA games – they stop being supported and the servers disappear. Does that mean the game is no longer playable? It’s either that or they eventually release an offline patch, one that players deserve now.
Totally understand and totally agree it was just the way he said it made it sound like since they were trying to prevent pirating that they are greedy.
I want a offline mode myself i had a horrible time when D3 came out and I don’t want to go through that again.
Ah, me too on D3
The thing is, DRM doesn’t work. It has never stopped piracy. The only thing it does is offer pirates a better user-experience and hurt paying players by adding more obstacles in their experience.
The paying player should always get the BEST experience, but DRM prevents that.
Petition the Whitehouse for better Return Policy on Video Games
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/institute-industry-wide-return-policy-video-games-rely-remote-servers-and-drm-function-properly/nMy1wrtC
Rather, petition Congress. Typically, jumping straight to executive action is a bit unreliable.
This article should be updated to reflect the change to Polygon’s Simcity review, which no longer scores an 8, but 4 now, to reflect continuing server failures and EA’s removal of game features (particularly cheetah speed). I was looking forward to this game and am quite glad I didn’t buy it yet, and may not at any point. There was never any need for this game to be always online and the results of that decision are clear, EA has done a terrible handling the blowback from their failures and the refund fiasco, and I have serious concerns that features that should have been implemented from day one will only become available through paid for DLC, like being able to customize connections to regional highway, larger city plots, being able to build up the whole region like in SC4 and subways. I can only hope that EA takes a long hard look at what occured here and learns a lesson from it, but I highly doubt that they will.
Oh wow. I’ll update again.
Here’s a heartfelt message to all those affected by, and complaining, of the SimCity fiasco. This is applicable to gamers, journalists, and web sites in general.
SHUT UP.
It’s YOUR FAULT we’re in this mess. YOU supported these sh*tty policies by buying games that have these obscene restrictions on them- giving up consumer rights to companies that are obsessed about control. And now you’re crying about it?
Gamerant, did you point-blank refuse to review the game based on moral consumer principles? No.
Joe Bloggs, did you refuse to buy the game based on those same principles? Clearly not.
Reap what you sow, idiots. You deserved this. It just sickens me that websites that have promoted this disgusting corporate attitude, even indirectly, are now gloating over the whole affair. Grow a pair, side with the consumers, THEN comment.
I feel like bootleggers are the indirect cause. Not consumers.
WELL SAID ICE !!!! I wish I could like this 10000 times !!!
Hmmm… well, we’ve NEVER supported DRM and always-online connections for single-player games (read ALL of our SimCity posts and our Diablo 3 posts).
As for the review, one of our guys BOUGHT the game last week and is currently still playing it. Not sure what you mean.
The state of gaming in 2013 is in terrible shape. If piracy was as big of a problem as the industry would have us believe, we should be able to see palpable evidence of how these companies are hurt. Instead companies like EA, Blizzard, and the entire film industry are making record profits, in spite of the industry destroying scourge known as piracy. Consumer rights do not exist in America, because consumers are too stupid to realize they have the control, not the company, yet the consumer gladly forfeits this control by continually buying games and providing these companies with record numbers. In short the consumer seems to eat s*** and like it, but what do I know, I’m posting on an internet forum.
I had purchased this game from the store but did not open it. And due to all the problems people are having, I’m returning the game. I feel bad for the people who are unable to get refunds for their game.
SimCity was supposed to be one of the best new games released that also replenished an old popular franchise. Too bad the player population is going to drop drastically. Diablo 3 saw a loss of 70% of its player base in 5 months. So will SimCity in a month or two.
Aw, this was an incredibly good post. Spending some time and actual effort to produce
a great article… but what can I say… I hesitate a
lot and never seem to get nearly anything done.
Thanks! I think…
Wow, you would think that a company like EA would have learned from Ubisoft and Activision/Blizzard that always-online DRM is a headache to run and turn’s off the purchasing consumer from purchasing their product. Why can’t publisher’s learn from the mistakes and headaches that these types of DRM cause and find something else to keep customers coming back for more product instead of driving them away, or into the arms of other publishers? I guess it’s true what they say, common sense *isn’t* common at all these days.
I am absolutely bummed at this news. I was looking so forward to buying and playing the new Sim City and now to find that not only does it not work, but you also have to play online and you have to buy subscriptions on top of the purchase price in order to play…Oh well, time to grow up.