EA Suspending SimCity Marketing

[Guest]

The SimCity server issues are bad enough for EA to want less people to buy the game, apparently.

EA Suspending SimCity Marketing : Read more

 

[janetonly42]

Die EA Die and take Activision with you and all the rest that employ Draconian DRM.

 

[tiamos]

Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo, take warning, this is how you ruin a successful, multi-decade franchise....

 

[noblerabbit]

If I were a CEO beancounter at EA, you bet your bottom dollar I'd suspend my own marketing, as Reddit is doing it for me every 3 minutes! Woohoo! Thank you people that whine to expose us, AND buy our product! This just in ===> EA lays off 2,000 marketing positions.

 

[edogawa]

This is why I hate EA more than ever with anti-consumer practices, BAD*online single player*BAD, and ruining games.

 

[ibjeepr]

Meh, I'm still having fun playing. I'll cross my fingers (but not hold my breath) that they create an update that kills the need for DRM though.

I'll second the opinion that EA is killing the marketing because the game clearly doesn't need it. Even if the publicity is bad at this point, the game is clearly so immensely popular that marketing would yield very little return on the dollar. I mean, they even talked about it on Bob and Tom on the radio this morning. It's everywhere.

I'll support Maxis and SimCity even with the birthing pains. I want there to be a future for SimCity and expansions for this one.

 

[Markon101]

This is pretty rough. I love Maxis, but EA is just screwing it all up.

 

[AndreT]

Somebody is capitalizing on the current situation. Quite smart if you ask me.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...evelop-and-manage-the-city-of-your-d?ref=live

 

[AndreT]

For some reason the kickstarter link didn't want to be included.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects...evelop-and-manage-the-city-of-your-d?ref=live

 

[skit75]

EA Controller: "Get Amazon on the phone..." "WTF did you pull our game!!!"

Amazon Marketing Consultant: "No amount of marketing dollars can compete with the size of the shoe in your mouth, at this time."

EA Controller: "You are over re-acting... WE HAVE SOCIAL BENEFITS IN OUR GAME!!!"

Amazon Marketing Consultant: "Have you seen ANY of the internet in the last 2-3 days sir?"

Click.

 

[d_kuhn]

"despite Maxis cutting non-essential game functions" - so they cut the "Always online" requirement? It's about as non-essential as a single player game function can get.

 

[Guest]

Let me preface this by saying I don't hate EA. I do think they have made some extremely questionable deccisions that were very anti-consumer. However, you shouldn't just hate EA. You should have made it extra clear that this would happen to whoever was going to purchase it, everybody here who bought it;

You should've seen this coming if you kept up with it at all and you shouldn't buy things on day 1/pre-order something either without being prepared to deal with bullshit like this.

Was EA extremely douchey to do this? Absolutely, but buyer beware also comes into this. I'm extremely glad people aren't taking EA's crap after this whole fiasco, they were definetley underprepared. But remember, EA has done some great things. Thanks to them a lot of studios/games get deserved attention. Origin also has a lot of amazing deals. EA is aware that they messed up and I'm sure they'll learn from this(either by getting good servers or no BS DRM)

 

[turbotong]

I wonder if I can kickstart a class action lawsuit...

 

[ko888]

[citation][nom]d_kuhn[/nom]"despite Maxis cutting non-essential game functions" - so they cut the "Always online" requirement? It's about as non-essential as a single player game function can get.[/citation]Since when would EA ever look at it from a customer's perspective? What you see as non-essential is seen as essential by EA and their decisions and actions will always be based on that view since they spent so much money on implementing it to just discard it. I won't ever buy this game just because of the "Always online" requirement.

 

[jalek]

[citation][nom]ibjeepr[/nom]I want there to be a future for SimCity and expansions for this one.[/citation]

I doubt the franchise would die from one bad release, and that's probably what EA thought when they changed the nature of the game. Relying on others to keep playing is a mechanic used by many Facebook games, not sandbox games.

 

[fearless1333]

EA is a company that makes Blizzard look really good when it comes to caring about your customers and their feedback.

 

[tomfreak]

EA has sold so many titles, yet they cant afford to get more servers? Proves that your money spent on them are not reinvest.

 

[bgunner]

WOW now that is a great fix strategy, not letting people know the game is out. But at he same time it can be damage control, the less people know there are major issues the better the company will still look. I don't play the sims games but I owned the game I would be SO furious right now. Sounds like they released a beta but on disk and called it finished.

 

[internetlad]

"Sir, the servers are still failing, too many people are buying the game and are overloading the servers we've provided. We can't let any more people play on these servers"

"WELL STOP SELLING SO MANY COPIES OF THE GAME LOL"

"That's it, I quit."

 

[anxiousinfusion]

It's the fault of the big wig investors who are probably 60+ years old and couldn't possibly understand the very product they're funding.

 

[nolarrow]

I got into the sim city beta. Could never log on. Not once. Not a single time. Always booted. Had my fingers crossed when the game was released that the problem would be fix. Trolllolol guess not. And this children, is why you don't preorder something digital. Preorder - finite PHYSICAL supply of something, you do it to guarantee that you receive it. Why on earth you would preorder something with an infinite VIRTUAL supply is beyond me.

 

[n1tr0]

Possibly the worst rated major game on Amazon AND currently flagged as the "#1 Best Seller" ... I wonder what the rating would be like if Amazon actually allowed 0 or 1/2 star ratings.
I don't see EA taking a hit on this particular game, but it is another kick in the nuts for the PC market as a whole. Thanks EA for crapping in the pool yet again.

 

[retrophe]

Bwahahaha The reviews and customer screenshots for the game on Amazon are quite humorous. I participated in the beta for a while and was disappointed, and that wasn't even due to server issues. I am sooo glad I didn't buy the game.

 

[assasin32]

There is no way someone can be this dumb, especially a whole corporation, right? To literally sabotage your own game like this, it has to be deliberate or they have the dumbest people known to man running them.

I seriously wonder if they are doing this just to get free publicity for their game in attempts to keep making news like diablo III. Release game with horrible DRM and lock people out due to "incompetence" make every headline for gaming/tech site and probably several other news sources. And than finally connect additional servers to fix the "problem".

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]janetonly42[/nom]Die EA Die and take Activision with you and all the rest that employ Draconian DRM.[/citation]

i want ea to stick around, i want it to live, i want it to make games, not because i like them, but the ceos are part of a big company.

have you ever heard of the term "failing up"

its a unique thing that happens when you are the ceo or a high ranking position in a company that is also high up there. if you screw up, and tank a company, you can easily get re highered in the same industry even if you are the sole reason for the tanking.

im afraid if ea dies, their leadership will infect other companys i like.