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In Wake of Poor Reviews, Amazon Yanks SimCity Download

Posted by timothy on from the drawing-board-time dept.

An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from Geek.com: "In what must be a big blow for EA and Maxis, Amazon has stopped selling download copies of the just released SimCity. The game has at time of writing received 833 reviews on Amazon, and has an average rating of just one star. That's because 740 of those are one star reviews. Only 20 people gave it 5 stars. There's few better ways to gauge how a game has been received, and this is pretty damning as to how EA has handled the launch."

16 of 511 comments (clear)

  1. Not sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not sure if this is good for the PC games industry, or bad. It's good, because games with bad DRM shouldn't succeed. It's bad because I like PC games, and want the industry to focus on PC games again.

    1. Re:Not sure... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yah, I don't know why this story was tagged "failure", it's actually an epic win. Not for EA, but for everyone else.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Not sure... by 2starr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem will be if they simply see the failure as not having enough server infrastructure to handle the load as opposed to seeing the whole online DRM model as being a bad idea.

      --

      "Let your heart soar as high as it will. Refuse to be average." - A. W. Tozer

    3. Re:Not sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not sure if this is good for the PC games industry, or bad. It's good, because games with bad DRM shouldn't succeed. It's bad because I like PC games, and want the industry to focus on PC games again.

      Stop, just stop. You're completely missing the point. The point is that EA deceived consumers into thinking it was a single-player game. It's not, there is no single player mode, so no offline mode is possible. DRM is a moot point, it's like bitching about having to go online to play a single player instance in World of Warcraft.

      YA, EA sucks, they fucked this all up big time. Yes, they could and should have made an offline single player mode, but they didn't. They chose to make a game where you cannot EVER truly play a completely isolated single-player game mode... even in the "solo mode" your city is influenced by other players in an indirect fashion.

    4. Re:Not sure... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Isn't that the same thing? DRM causes excessive server load and extremely poor player experience, masses of negative reviews. DRM costs EA sales, and they only way to fix it is to throw more money at the problem.

      Better yet there is no way to recover from all those negative reviews now. Even if they fixed it tomorrow they would remain, and the chances of 800+ people bothering to write positive reviews is nil. The game is tainted forever, the disaster unrecoverable. Well, that isn't entirely true, they could release a DRM free version, that is the only thing that can turn it around.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:Not sure... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And give it three years and they will shut off the servers and ask you to buy the sequel, so it can all happen again!

    6. Re:Not sure... by Anachragnome · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Seriously, the Oceana launch that happened today is having exactly the same problems..."

      That is because this is NOT about DRM--this is about killing the Used PC Game market. The server connection is to verify first-install. After that, the game will not work on any other machine (or be whittled down to Demo functionality). That being said, all EA PC games will have this "feature" from this time forward as they and every other major game developer/publisher are all involved in a major assault on First Sale doctrine.

      Corporate Gaming is dying...don't throw it a life-preserver by purchasing their bullshit. There are a TON of Emulators and Kickstart projects out there--give THOSE folks your money.

    7. Re:Not sure... by ultranova · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The simulation is reliant on the server, it's not as simple as an "unlock patch".

      While this will of course be used as an excuse for forced obsolescence, the reality is that an unlock patch could of course simply include the server code, perhaps even running it in the same process as the main game.

      Oh well. After reading about the always connected requirement, I decided to wait and see rather than preorder. It turned out to be a wise decision.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  2. "Always on" is "Mostly Unusable For Several Weeks" by dingonix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Any other big releases with always on drm that actually are playable in the first few weeks that you can remember?... I can't remember any such titles recently.

  3. I wish I had pirated it lol by oic0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I bought the sucker yesterday and it doesn't work at all. Can't get past the launcher. If only I had just downloaded the pirated version I would have a working game.

  4. Shame the game looks good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I really want to buy SimCity, it looks pretty awesome, but I'm not going to allow EA to treat me like a thief and I'm certainly not going to pay them for the privilege.

  5. Re:Game is part server-side, not 'always on DRM' by Hatta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The game is partly calculated server-side. This is why you need a constant internet connection

    You have the causation reversed. The game is calculated server side in order to force you to need a constant internet connection. There is no reason to do this except to act as a form of DRM.

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  6. Re:Heh reviews... by CanHasDIY · · Score: 5, Insightful

    even when 740 out of 833 people give something a one star review, 20 people will still give it 5 stars.

    You mean, EA has only 20 employees?

    Only 20 dedicated to astroturfing on Amazon.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  7. Re:"Always on" is "Mostly Unusable For Several Wee by yahwotqa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Blizzard doesn't care what you do after the purchase, or whether you keep playing. They already have your money. If anything, many people stopping playing after first few days is better for them - less server load.

    Yes, Diablo 3 was a roaring success - it made Blizard loads of money. I'd hazard a guess that this is big part of why EA dared to come up with similar scheme.

  8. Re:"Always on" is "Mostly Unusable For Several Wee by znanue · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This absolutely not true. Of course Blizzard cares about whether people are going to keep playing or not. It is a brand. It is IP with value. They do not want it watered down. Future sales matter, people's passion about it fuels the RMA, people buying collectors editions of future Blizzard games because of access to D3, posters, merch, a steady stream of small sales (like D2 got). On top of those concerns, top talent wants to go to places where they make great games. There are real people in these places.

    Z

  9. It's not that bad by GrBear · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeesh.. at least there's some good reviews out there.. for instance this one.

    http://www.jonathancresswell.co.uk/2013/03/review-simcity/