Tough Times for EA’s SimCity (#TheSkinny – Week of March 4th)

In our last #TheSkinny post, we discussed the excitement around the March 5^th launch of the newest Tomb Raider title. The game lived up to its hype, scoring rave reviews from the gaming community and our very own Katy Hollingsworth.

Fortunes weren’t so good for EA’s SimCity, which launched the very same day…

The SimCity 5 Debacle

EA was crushed by a catastrophe of SimCity-like proportions – but this time it was real life. As one of the most anticipated games in 10 years, SimCity left players disappointed and even outraged after EA was unprepared to handle the traffic to its servers. Hundreds of thousands of people are still getting kicked off and unable to log-on. With no options for refunds and poor customer service, EA needs to get its act together, fast.

Here are some not-so-nice reactions from Twitter:

Pathetic. EA turning off features just to get #simcity playable. So now users are getting even LESS for their money aol.it/YPgh6s

— Nate Burr (@BluntNate) March 7, 2013

So the @simcity & @ea issue with the game not being available or playable is blowing up. Any of you guys asking for refunds yet?

— Shibby (@Shibby2142) March 7, 2013

#SimCity I haven’t considered giving it a try…but EA server issues? Thats nothing new. Their standard practice is to deploy less at first.

— Michael Bubbo (@bubbo) March 7, 2013

Can EA Make Things Better?

If SimCity were a bad game and this happened, it would be toast. But the truth is, the core game is actually very good. When EA fixes the server issues and cleans up its customer service, we predict a SimCity resurrection. Or at least, we’re hoping for one.  

 Think we missed something?

We’re looking for #TheSkinny all week – and the real skinny comes from you. Give us a shout on Twitter, Facebook, or post in the comment section below.