Before we start, I want to say that the other headline we considered using for this article was "EA releases fail whale into the wild."
In what can only be described as an online debacle, EA released the new Sim City game and entered a world of Internet problems.
Within the first week of its release, people began complaining about the requirement that the game be on the Internet at all times. Although this is nothing new with EA, the biggest problem was the requirement for the Internet connection to play in single-player mode.
Articles from CNET, BBC and more have blasted the new game, saying that though it contains some great graphics, playability is key. Apparently EA's servers have been crashing everywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, with a complete loss of saved progress. This means that customers are currently bound to a risky gaming endeavor that does not under any circumstances promise in-game progress.
Amazon's reviews of the game have directly reflected these problems. Out of 1,317 reviews of the product, 1,118 of these reviews are one-star reviews. I repeat: About 97 percent of the Sim City reviews are one star. This completely unheard of with the Sim City franchise.
The release of the previous Sim City Societies game drew less-than-stellar reviews, but nothing has compared to the customer backlash the new game has incurred.
EA has released a statement about the debacle, saying that it is working hard to increase server capacity to allow for the current server taxation to diminish, allowing more people to play free of fear from server malfunctions or crashes.
There is also a petition on Change.org to EA requesting they make the game offline for single-player modes.
Server problems aside, the game looks great and apparently functions well when it works. We'll keep you updated on EA's actions and what happens with the server issues.
