5 ms·

The way handled this game is really quite sad. I was excited for it, the previews looked promising ... but the fact that the server performance was newsworthy,

The way handled this game is really quite sad. I was excited for it, the previews looked promising ... but the fact that the server performance was newsworthy, and the small-city problem, meant that I never bothered buying it. I imagine I'm not alone. Not having actually bought the game I can't say for sure, but I wonder if the much-touted online features haven't been as popular as they hoped ... which means that this now 7-month old game is probably quite expensive for them to keep running into perpetuity. Ripping the online features out, and allowing offline only, could allow them to save on running costs?

EnderMB 13y ago
I have absolutely nothing to back this up, but I feel that the vast majority of gamers that would be interested in this game probably didn't have the slightest clue about any issues the game has had. I read tech sites regularly and as such I, like you, chose not to buy it, but it wouldn't surprise me if sales were to still be fairly good. The problems were newsworthy, but in the UK I only noticed a few articles stating the issues, and compared to other games the news seemed fairly tame when you look at the severity of the issues. It wouldn't surprise me if this news was largely ignored by those that found out through mainstream news sites. The thought of being happy about a games failure feels quite bad, considering those that worked on it are real people who would probably like some successful projects under their belt, but in a way I'd be quite happy to see that EA had suffered because of this release.
- robgough 13y ago
  I'm in the UK too, and I believe it was frontpage BBC news for a fair while. Also, don't underestimate the network effect of twitter & facebook for the non-tech crowd ... if people see their friends moaning about their woes I would suggest it is likely to make them think twice. How many people were making positive comments about sim city during it's launch period?
  - hobs 13y ago
    As both non-owners, you both dont know that features were disabled in SS for literally months for some users. The entire launch and release was a fiasco.
brianherbert 13y ago
I'm in the same boat as you. I was anticipating this game but after all of the issues, I never even thought twice about passing on it.

EnderMB 13y ago

I have absolutely nothing to back this up, but I feel that the vast majority of gamers that would be interested in this game probably didn't have the slightest clue about any issues the game has had. I read tech sites regularly and as such I, like you, chose not to buy it, but it wouldn't surprise me if sales were to still be fairly good. The problems were newsworthy, but in the UK I only noticed a few articles stating the issues, and compared to other games the news seemed fairly tame when you look at the severity of the issues. It wouldn't surprise me if this news was largely ignored by those that found out through mainstream news sites. The thought of being happy about a games failure feels quite bad, considering those that worked on it are real people who would probably like some successful projects under their belt, but in a way I'd be quite happy to see that EA had suffered because of this release.

robgough 13y ago
I'm in the UK too, and I believe it was frontpage BBC news for a fair while. Also, don't underestimate the network effect of twitter & facebook for the non-tech crowd ... if people see their friends moaning about their woes I would suggest it is likely to make them think twice. How many people were making positive comments about sim city during it's launch period?
- hobs 13y ago
  As both non-owners, you both dont know that features were disabled in SS for literally months for some users. The entire launch and release was a fiasco.

brianherbert 13y ago

I'm in the same boat as you. I was anticipating this game but after all of the issues, I never even thought twice about passing on it.