Plagued with server connection issues, removal of features, game marketing halts, and even being taken off Amazon for a short while; SimCity has experienced a very rough release.
Well last night Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw took to Electronic Arts’ official site to ask for a bit of faith, and to assure SimCity purchasers that their game will indeed work, and soon.
Here are a few quotes.
“I’m happy to report that the core problem with getting in and having a great SimCity experience is almost behind us. Our players have been able to connect to their cities in the game for nearly 8 million hours of gameplay time and we’ve reduced game crashes by 92% from day one.”
“I had hoped to issue an “All-Clear” tonight, but there are still some elements coming together. Tonight and tomorrow we’ll be monitoring each server and gameplay metrics to ensure that the service remains strong and game is playing great. We need a few more days of data before we can assure you that the problem is completely solved and the game is running at 100 percent.”
“But you put your faith in us. You bought the game with the understanding that we’d quickly fix the server issues. For that support – that incredible commitment from our fans -- we are deeply grateful.”
Given that that Bradshaw was hoping for the “All-Clear” last night, it could be assumed that many of the fixes promised could be implemented as early as today. Good thing to hear, given as of right now SimCity is enjoying a Metacritic user score of about 1.7 and an Amazon customer rating of a little over one star.
Seeing the customer outrage at the botched launch, even if all the fixes were implemented immediately, Bradshaw and her coworkers at Maxis/Electronic Arts are going to have a rough go at getting back that lost customer loyalty.
Hopefully the promise of a good game underneath all the server issues and a free game on top of that will assuage fans. If not, Electronic Arts and Maxis may have inadvertently injured one of their most treasured franchises.
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