EA suspends some SimCity marketing - Report
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
In wake of server issues, publisher reportedly asks online affiliates to "please stop actively promoting the game" for the time being.
Amid ongoing SimCity server woes, Electronic Arts has reportedly suspended some of its online marketing for the just-released city-building game. Polygon has obtained an email from EA Origin that asks advertising affiliates to "please stop actively promoting the game" for the time being.
The email, which was sent this morning to marketing partners, states EA Origin has "deactivated all SimCity text links and creative and we ask you to please remove any copy promoting SimCity from your website for the time-being."
An Electronic Arts representative declined to comment.
"To be clear, we are continuing to pay out commissions on all SimCity sales that are referred, however, we are requesting that you please stop actively promoting the game," the email goes on. "We will notify you as soon as the SimCity marketing campaigns have been resumed and our promotional links are once again live in the Linkshare interface. We apologize for any inconveniences that this may cause, and we thank you for your cooperation."
SimCity launched Tuesday in North America and today in the United Kingdom. Developer Maxis has apologized for widespread server issues in America, and the UK launch is not faring much better.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
219 comments
with technology as far along as it is, why do we need publishers? indie devs dont use EA as a publisher yet ive spend hundreds of dollars on product, that for the most part is high quality. so why does a large company like maxis need to go into the hands of an evil entity like EA?
What do you mean they stopped marketing?
Probably the only game out there on the mainstream media having a field day ... of its shitty company.
EA PR spin doctors at work. sad to see another great franchise ran threw the mud by EA, so sad
5 Like why this game is multilayer is ridiculous anyways ... this is a game you play BY YOURSELF!!!!
moan moan moan complain complain complain... o wait... the servers are fixed 8)... ime glad i wasent so hasty at being an impaciant arse 8)
1 Like I really have to wonder though, WHY Maxis would let EA publish their game if it means always online DRM. I mean, if the game is going to be always online, no one without an internet connection is going to buy it. You may as well drop EA as a publisher and distribute it through Steam, Amazon, and your own site, etc... and leave them out of it. For christ's sake man, digitally distribute your own game and say f*** EA. No one buys box copies anymore, but if they insist, you can always add an option to mail them one for extra. Just saying, if EA is forcing the always online issue on you, you may as well make it download only and get their grubby paws out of your cookie jar.
1 Like @midgar It's because Maxis has put an online element (no one actually asked them to do this crap) in a pure single player game. Constant online is needed to calculate "region economy" or whatever it is called. The thing is - you are playing in a region with some strangers who are affecting your game. You can turn it off, though, but you still need the constant connection to Origin server... I'm so glad I didn't buy this shit.
1 Like "..We apologize for any inconveniences that this may cause, and we thank you for your cooperation.." they wrote.
so much hypocrisy in that faceless, tasteless sentence, it means nothing. it's like they put it in the text out of obligation.
also, we do not use commas before "and", with a couple of exceptions.
@Mega_Loser "also, we do not use commas before "and", with a couple of exceptions."
Like the compound sentence they just used?
1 Like EA needs to do a serious beta extension. They took r jobs! I mean they took r money!
@KBABZ @Wolfie_T @IceCweam Hehe. Makes people wonder about that one. On average it takes Bethesda about 4 plus years to make an Elder Scrolls game. Afterwards they do some beta testing leading up to the release which equates to about 5 years. Even when the game is released bugs and glitch's are going to be found. This type of game is just so freaking huge to spot them all in the short beta time they give their testers. Even at the end of this month Bethesda will be releasing the official 1.9 patch via Steam for the PC version with almost two pages worth of fixes. Most of the bugs are fixed and I'm happy that they're still willing to commit time to keeping Skyrim running as smooth as can be on PC least to say. Bethesda does claim to make the Elder Scrolls games better with each release and learned from their previous experience, and I hope that their testing methods are well documented and will be improved upon too for the Elder Scrolls VI.
@blackothh @IceCweam @Wolfie_T I would think so too, but this is EA, and we all have a pretty good idea how they make there own rules to play by. EA will rush a game out just to make the profit. If they have to skip some phases in testing so be it. Money is all they care about. Some game companies like to make people happy and have fun playing their game, but EA is quite the opposite. EA used to be known as Electronic Arts, but their true identity is Exquisite Anus's.
On a related note, Consumerist is now accepting nominations for worst company in America 2013. http://consumerist.com/2013/02/28/cry-havoc-and-let-slip-the-dogs-of-wcia-send-us-your-nominations-for-worst-company-in-america-2013/
3 Like If I was a publisher I'd bill EA for the full campaign budget and send them a bill saying "It is against our policy to offer refunds"
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1 Like @jcnba28 I also hate how they do title associations with developers or publishers like we are all drooling idiots. It's getting old.
For example, they would do the title of this article as, "Publisher of Battlefield and Dead Space suspends some marketing for SimCity- Report"
Just say EA or whatever developer/publisher happens to be in the news for Christ's sake.
8 Like The rEApers are coming...Where is Commander Shepard?
Sir, Commander Shepard is in Deus Ex trying to pick one of three colors.
Oh..my...G*D! Who will save us from the rEApers?
3 Like EA needs to stop thinking "shareholder" and needs to start thinking "gamer". I mean, after all, it's in the best interest of the shareholders.
@AdamK47 You can only get away with pissing people off for so long before you implode. Look at Acclaim.
My biggest fear once this fiasco comes to a close is that this will be the last proper Simcity. I've been fortunate in playing it without a ton of problems, and its a really fun engaging game, and it would be a shame if EA decides that making a non-casual/social Simcity is just not worth it financially. Because Maxis, the developer, did a good job, and it isn't their fault that EA forced this online-DRM on them.
2 Like @prostar343 true, but while the DRM is the fault of EA, only Maxis are to blame for the bizarre small size of each city.
1 Like EA has only to blame themselves. They grossly underestimated the numbers here. Here's hoping they can fix it and repair the public image they now have. And with today's gaming community, that is going to be very, very difficult.
@Ceclor Agreed, gamers have long memories (and lasting forum posts). My wish is that EA would follow a route that Ubisoft did in first acknowledging it's image problem, then slowing trying to rebuild it's customer repore. I guess it's another product rushed out the door without QA given the time to properly playtest it or stress test the servers.
I hope with consumer backlash over this, plus the less than projected actual sales of Dead Space 3 will be the final wake up call to EA to focus on product quality, customer service (focus given to digital sales customers and policy) and creative autonomy for their developers.
"The social media revolution helps here a lot. Having all these places on Facebook, Twitter and forums where people post 24/7 ? they can share their opinions much easier, faster and on a much larger scale. If they do not like how a certain game works, they can flame it in just a few hours, and that news makes its rounds quite quickly.
This is the only way to get the Excel guys moving. If they hear that they have a couple hundred or thousand negative comments on Amazon, Metacritic, Twitter, etc, they will most probably do something about it. Some of them already did."
Marcin Iwinski - CEO and Founder of CD Projekt - 2011 Interview
2 Like Saw this whole fiasco coming a mile away. I think most well-informed people did. Always online is a terrible practice, and I must admit to being slightly giddy over the fact that it's failing so spectacularly here if only because it means they might see why it's such a horrible idea and never do it again.
@CaptainDingo "Saw this whole fiasco coming a mile away. I think most well-informed people did. Always online is a terrible practice, and I must admit to being slightly giddy over the fact that it's failing so spectacularly" -Like-
"they might see why it's such a horrible idea and never do it again." Hahahaha, good one :P, EA being EA they must have figured or thinking they have figured, how to use implement better DRM in games to come, but then again... it´s EA.
1 Like Simcity interview - Online only was decision by the developers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nsbA7s5HlBA#!
Stupid idea. I wish Will Wright would just come in and get all his IPs back and take them away from EA.
@ken_archer17 Yeah that's the typical PR bullshit Blizzard said about D3 too. Raise your hand if you're an idiot, everyone.
1 Like @ken_archer17 You would think they would have thought about the notion of people wanting to have single city play as a separate entity, but no. And as most reviews have pointed out they pretty much bully you into multi-city play by making it so a single city doesn't have the room to expand enough to support itself on its own that easily; so you're stuck looking for friends or risking randoms doing things that may mess your city up for you.
2 Like I see, so EA is run by stupid people after-all. Developers should never have the final say in dictating the terms to how a game is supposed to run.
They really want Sega's fate if this is how they are being run now, cause you know? Developers really do live in fantasy world and will ruin the business side of any company. Literally. You do not want this.
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