EA Lives Down to Its Reputation
I'm an expert at all the SimCity series games. After playing the new SimCIty for a couple hours, I would say there are some good points but they are vastly over-shadowed by the cons.
The need to have persistent internet connectivity during the game prevents game use anywhere but at home. EA clearly hasn't heard about the mobile revolution that hit the globe more than a decade ago.
Many people like to have the option play Sim City by themselves. As a matter of fact the people who play Sim City and the Sims are generally a different crowd. EA clearly hasn't done their homework. The Sims is most often frequented by those craving social contact while SimCity fans likes to create... often on their own. Multi-player feature for SimCity is not as beneficial as the ability to run stand alone. And if the server you saved your game on is down... oh well.
The economics engine in Sim City may have been implemented without proper regression testing as it doesn't always seem to make sense at a very basic logic level. EA is the master of the shoddy and rushed product to make money, so this is not surprising.
And lastly the launch day debacle: how could anyone with a scrap of server network education and experience under estimate the launch day requirements? And guess what? The load will drop some after launch week, but not as much as they think...unless people just give up on Sim City. Which is of course the EA business model: expensive marketing, shoddy software development, budget cloud hardware=big bucks for EA and a poor customer experience. EA has learned a very important lesson... there really is a sucker born every minute.