Did anyone get bitten by the EA Games/SimCity debacle?

The active Internet connection is obviously an attempt to prevent piracy, but they've lost far more money from people returning or not buying their game than they could ever "lose" to piracy.




***The reason I put "lose" in quotes is that there is no reason to believe that folks who pirate a game would have actually paid to play the game. Sure, they're freeloaders, but the evidence supports the idea that pirates do not represent lost revenue.

I'm out of this since I don't do internet games (and gawd help me if I ever start; it would take a different computer). But - if there is one game I would be a natural addict to by self definition, it's Sim City.

My sympathies to people frustrated by this situation.

That kind of DRM only hurts the EA gamers who are faithfully obeying their respective laws.

It's just dumb.

That DRM adds a bunch of cost and subtracts a bunch of revenue.

If I were an EA Games stock holder, I'd be pissed.

(Costs added: servers, payroll to maintain the servers, bandwidth, etc.)
(Revenue subtracted: Anyone who returned the game, or waited until after the rollout to buy, or refused to accept the DRM, or wanted it mainly to play when Internet is not available.)

But there's no piracy!

Let’s see -- the company that pulled the plug on Madden PC version:

even though there was a large and enthusiastic crowd
stamped it out completely
no fixes
no support
no new rosters updates so owners could still play a “current” roster
a company whose top execs actually made fun of the die-hard PC customers who attempted to get some fair transition.

Yea, who ever could have predicted that this company would do something that wasn’t completely customer centered?
Yea that’s the company I’d want to be depending on to ensure my (forced) online game experience.

Betcha’ even Nostradamus is sitting there with his 5.0 going…”who would have thought!”

Have you seen the Hitler reacts to the SimCity launch?

It occurred to me that EA DDOS'd their own servers....

(Distributed Denial of Service)

Electronic Arts Announces Change in Executive Leadership

EA Games was named the worst company in America by Consumerist.

Here's their reply:

EA Games won the award two years running:
EA Makes Worst Company In America History, Wins Title For Second Year In A Row!
http://consumerist.com/2013/04/09/ea-makes-worst-company-in-america-history-wins-title-for-second-year-in-a-row/

The voters to that infamous award truly lacked perspective.

SimCity still broken despite EA 'fix', users moan
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gamesgear/simcity-still-broken-despite-ea-fix-users-moan-50011046/