Sim City stability update and EA compensates customers

Here in Europe there has been less issues with Sim City than in the US, in fact it’s not been that bad at all apart from a few queues.

That doesn’t mean EA customers are happy. There’s been calls for compensation and refunds after players found it hard or impossible to get online in the US. With complaints about not beingf offered refunds on Origin, DRM and poor customer support, EA has had a lot to deal with for Sim City’s launch.

Throughout the week there’s been updates from the community team regarding the progress to stabilise the servers, but perhaps not quite as often enough as some would have liked. The issue with this launch has been the servers and underestimating the amount of interest in the game, which I have to say us puzzling, Sim City was always going to be one of the biggest game launches this year.

So where are we now? Unusual for a Saturday, EA and Maxis sent us a press release from Maxis’ Lucy Bradshaw which includes updates on the current status of the servers and also includes news of compensation. Anyone who has activated their game will receive a free PC game to download from the EA portfolio which is excellent news for anyone who has been upset by the launch.

Here’s a quick update on the problems we were experiencing with SimCity – and a little something extra for people who bought the game.

The server issues which began at launch have improved significantly as we added more capacity. But some people are still experiencing response and stability problems that we’re working fast to address.
So what went wrong? The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta.

OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it. In the last 48 hours we increased server capacity by 120 percent. It’s working – the number of people who have gotten in and built cities has improved dramatically. The number of disrupted experiences has dropped by roughly 80 percent.

So we’re close to fixed, but not quite there. I’m hoping to post another update this weekend to let everyone know that the launch issues are behind us.

Something Special for Your Trouble
The good news is that SimCity is a solid hit in all major markets. The consensus among critics and players is that this is fundamentally a great game. But this SimCity is made to be played online, and if you can’t get a stable connection, you’re NOT having a good experience. So we’re not going to rest until we’ve fixed the remaining server issues.

And to get us back in your good graces, we’re going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio. On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an email telling them how to redeem their free game.

I know that’s a little contrived – kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy. But we feel bad about what happened. We’re hoping you won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent.

SimCity is a GREAT game and the people who made it are incredibly proud. Hang in there – we’ll be providing more updates throughout the weekend.

We’ll keep you up to date here on IncGamers of any further Sim City news as it comes in.