Despite launch marred by various server issues, EA's latest city-building game is "biggest SimCity launch of all time."
SimCity has sold over 1.1 million copies since its rocky launch March 5, publisher Electronic Arts announced today. Sales at that level make this year's entry the "biggest SimCity launch of all time."
Of the 1.1 million SimCity sales, about 54 percent were digital copies purchased through Origin or other download services, EA said. Origin digital sales alone made up 44 percent of all copies purchased.
"SimCity is one of the storied brands in gaming, and Maxis delivered a game re-envisioned and engineered for the online age," EA chief operating officer Peter Moore said in a statement.
Some may contest that claim, as SimCity server woes made the game unplayable for many during the game's North American and European launches earlier this month.
As recompense for SimCity's hobbled launch, EA announced earlier today that gamers can download one free PC digital copy of any of the following titles if they have a registered copy of the game by March 25: Battlefield 3, Bejeweled 3, Dead Space 3, Mass Effect 3, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Plants vs. Zombies, or SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition.
SimCity's arrival helped Origin set a new record for peak concurrent users at 1.3 million "and rising," according to EA. By comparison, competitor Valve's Steam service has 4.8 million concurrent players right now and a peak concurrent userbase of 5.7 million.
EA also revealed several other SimCity statistics for the game's first two weeks. Since launch, players have logged more than 15 million hours of online gameplay and built more than 5.7 million original cities. In all, players have created 780 million buildings and SimCity mayors together have built enough road and railroad tracks to circle the globe 40,000 times, EA said.
SimCity will launch on Mac later this year. For more, check out GameSpot's review of SimCity.
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.
Thats quite a false number though, because it doesn't take into account how many ppl got refunds through charge-backs, and how many weren't ALLOWED to get refunds... so i think that number is kind of bogus, and dont expect that number to jump too much higher then that for quite some time. They've got all they're going to sell for now coz of the fundamental issues thats with the actual game engine itself, never lone all the online issues.
Actually not a bad mark to hit being a PC only game. I think if it would of only sold 750k copies because of all the launch problems, it would be good in their eyes.
How many of those sales were pre-orders? How many more saw the early reviews giving 95% and even 100% (I mean how can that Swedish site give 100% to such a bugged game - where would they go if the same game had shipped WITHOUT all the bugs and failings... 110%, 120%?) Hopefully like Roger Daltry said "Won't get fooled again" Never pre-ordering another game - never buying on the first 2 or 3 reviews Essp when they were clearly done pre-release and not in the environments that actual players would use.
1 Like Just think how much more successful the game would have been without the launch issues.
If you need proof that the always-on connection issues and buggy release lost Maxis customers, here I am.
1 Like Here's a statistic they never included - 1 million out of 1.1 million customers angry from terrible servers! (Also, a user hacked the game and found out that you can build more in your region than what they let you. They are saving it for DLC)
New 'Xbox 720 leak' says it is "Always On, Always Connected" - will only install from optical discs
4 Like With all the bad press around it???????????????????
Shouldve called it SheepCity
"...biggest SimCity launch of all time"
Of course it is. This isn't a new... The point is there are going to be no more sells. This game is never going to reach 5 millions, or even 4, or even 3 i believe.
2 Like Why are people acting like this is a bad thing? 1.1 million sales in two weeks is BAD. That is just not good at all, once the second week passes the games sales are more or less done with. They might be able to push 1.5 million bucks, and considering they probably only take in $30 per sale they will end up with 45 million bucks. Do you think the cost to make AND support this game is really less than that? My bet is that SimCity will be a bust because, despite how much attention it got, not that many people have it and not many more will get it it seems like. While it might suck for the people who wanted the game it does go to show you can't fuck over the customer and expect long term profits.
@vault-boy Yeah, game sales are a lot more front-loaded these days. A much larger percentage of their total sales happen in the first week, due to all the emphasis on hype and advertising nowadays.
SimCity4 might not have sold as well, as soon as it launched, but I'd bet it sold a lot better over time than this SimCity will.
The other provblem for EA is that they put SO much in advertising that they need a really big amount of sales just to break even. Dead space 3 sold not bad but for them it's not good because their overall production cost is just too big.
please your bragging about your concurrent users EA.that numbers your showing is only part of 1 game in steam and its even free to play
EA is now offering free game downloads for who ever downloaded SimShitty. They are BF3, Dead Space 3, Mass Effect 3, Medal Of Honor Warfighter, Simcity 4, Need For Speed Most Wanted, Bejewelwed 3, Plans Vs Zombies. Which one should I get? SimCity 4 is 10 times better then 5. :D But I prefer getting my money back!!! SimCity5 maps are freakin to TINY!!!!!
@billlabowskiThe numbers actually seem to be valid, as people are proving by analyzing publically available server data : http://www.reddit.com/r/SimCity/comments/1aicwk/publicly_available_data_scraped_unique_user_count/
These 1 million poor souls will however be pretty pissed about having been lured into this broken online fiasco, getting their cities deleted and all the server issues, so most of them will probably never buy another EA game again.
2 Like Success of marketing, failure of implementation.
SimCity is already an established brand. It's just like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Mario, Zelda, and other iconic game. It's to be expected that it would make a lot of "Day 1" sales, which contributes a lot to weekly sales reports. These Day 1 sales rely heavily on hype and marketing and can only attest to the popularity of a title. Still, just because something sold very well on its first day doesn't mean the product itself is very great. It happens with movies, books, tv shows, and everything. It's like the people are being sold a popular box, but what is inside you'll never know until you've already spent your money.
8 Like @fredyellowone @liam82517 you don't mind a games company treated you like a moron ? took you for a fool and took your hard earned money for a shoddy down right half asrsed effort of a game ? ?
um oooookay.....
3 Like @DiscGuru101 megacitys and terraforming that should have been part of the game in the first place ?D hehe
9 Like Big business won again. Ea and maxis will do what they like and you will take it because it's simcity. People wait desperately for companies to provide a good gaming experience. Pathetic. Sick and tired of betas, kickstarter bs, online only, dlc, collector's edition with crap for 150 bones, nintendo, everyone and their fucking dog coming out with a system, and now this simcity shite. Will not be buying that mess!
I will look at a game entirely not from its lackluster online issues. This game looks so fun, I will buy it when I have the money.
10 Like Congratulations, 1.1 million people. You've proven their point, and we can expect more crap.
Thanks for that.
i feel like this game is just disappointing on every level, i cant even find myself wanting to play it.
It is still 1.1 million biggest disappointments and non refundable of all time too.. For EA atleast
2 Like Those figures are crap if you work them out.
An average of an hour of play per person per day.
Most companies would apologise again at this point, not brag about it.
Congrats to Maxis/EA. Hope they improve the service and EA learn for the next launch.
I am doubting the 15 million hours. If the watchdog had more powers. Then again if these numbers were even slightly true, then real feat of it all is that there are 1.1 million disappointed and annoyed SimCity gamers out there. A good percentage of these players could possibly be very casual gamerz who purchased the game from seeing a advertisement poster. EA is the dark side to me and the only one i don't trust in gaming. Wasn't EA the first to start charging for a new MP network code? or usually the first to take gaming in a worse direction? Anyway i never had anything against EA but after this move with SimCity and some other passed times EA stunts I now think EA suck.
5 Like I wonder if EA has made more money off sales from the bad press than they would have if they had just flown under the radar, the amount of ink (pixels) they have gotten is ridiculous.
1 Like @sunyatanada76 @simonsez112 Weird, a news site posting news? Who woulda thunk....
@JoiLambell Not pointless. I was able to express my frustration. That was the whole point to begin with.
4 Like Your frustration was adequately expressed in your initial post. Though succinct, I could definitely feel the passion you have for gaming. Very effective use of sarcasm and bonus points are rewarded for utilizing the word "lemmings."
I award your comment a full five out of five stars and would like to encourage you to post more in the future. I also want to formally thank you for enriching the Gamespot community with your contributions. You definitely have a gift...don't let it go to waste.
Maxis GM says developer recognizes some fans want offline mode, but even more are praising the game's always-on features.
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