Once upon a time, in a magical land, customers could buy a video game and it would actually work when they tried to play it.
It's not an outrageous request, but lately it's gotten a little trickier.
On Tuesday, Electronic Arts officially released its newest SimCity title only to find the game flooded with players. This is normally a good thing, but apparently EA wasn't expecting a successful launch because its servers promptly went down and have been plagued with issues ever since.
Although there are some users who have been able to play SimCity since the problems occurred, many users across North America, Europe and Asia have not been able to connect. Since SimCity has an always-online requirement, it means that the game needs a constant Internet connection to work, regardless of whether one is playing single player or multiplayer.
"Many are experiencing server instability and consequently, the rollout in North America has been challenging," said Maxis General Manager Lucy Bradshaw to Kotaku. "It's also now evident that players across Europe and Asia are experiencing the same frustration."
"Our priority now is to quickly and dramatically increase the number and stability of our servers and, with that, the number of players who can simultaneously access the game. We added servers today, and there will be several more added over the weekend."
Many players are understandably upset they've purchased a game that doesn't work, but SimCity's online woes caused even more of a stir in South Korea. The game's official Facebook page sparked a big outcry among Koreans when it blamed the lack of dedicated Asian servers on South Korea's rampant piracy.
"There is a lot of piracy in Asia, so it would be difficult for the time being," wrote EA Korea's Facebook manager, according to Kotaku.
Considering that this is the Internet, Koreans were quick to shoot back.
"It's so hard to legitimately play games even when you buy the official product," wrote one user. Another quipped that EA should "Change the company name to MA: Money Arts." Many demanded refunds, and one user lamented, "It's so hard to legitimately play games even when you buy the official product."
For what it's worth, the EA representative has since apologized for his comments and taken responsibility, saying he/she was only speaking personally. The game requires users to register online to play, so piracy isn't as big an issue as suggested, and the manager even admitted to not knowing how EA's online service works.
If it's any consolation to South Koreans, they aren't the only ones upset about SimCity or EA. On the game's English Facebook page, one user said, "I paid 120 dollars for two copies of the game and cant play either of them," before raising his volume to all caps: "DONT SELL A GAME THAT YOU CANNOT HANDLE WHEN WE PLAY!"
Wise words, indeed.
