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SimCity players to get free game from EA
by Andrew Yoon, Mar 08, 2013 8:45pm PSTSimCity's launch has been a mess, nay, a disaster. With server problems plaguing the always-online simulation game, many fans are rightfully pissed.
Well, EA is trying to offer an olive branch following the game's troubled launch. No, you won't be able to get a refund. Instead, EA is offering a free game.
Maxis GM Lucy Bradshaw offered the closest thing to an apology from EA so far, admitting that not foreseeing the game's demand was "dumb" and that "we feel bad about what happened." See? Almost an apology! Stating the obvious, Bradshaw added that "if you can't get a stable connection, you're NOT having a good experience."
According to Bradshaw, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an email describing how to get a free PC download game from EA's catalog on March 18th. There's no detail on what games you'll be able to choose from, but at least it's better than nothing. "I know that's a little contrived," she said. "Kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy."
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EA is offering a free PC game to SimCity players as an apology for the game's bungled launch.
EA is offering a free PC game to SimCity players as an apology for the game's bungled launch. : Shacknews
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Diablo 3's RMAH worked because Blizzard has spent over a decade building Battle.net to withstand this kind of load, and adapt to growing loads. EA Maxis apparently started from scratch, or from piecemeal vague knowledge from other teams like the Origin infrastructure team, who don't have that much experience either. They probably said, "Let's use EC2!", and spun up a few EC2 instances, and load tested against a simulation of hundreds or thousands of clients... and then it fell on its face when hit with well over tens of thousands of clients.
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