IGN - SimCity Burning: A Warning to Microsoft, Sony, and All Publishers...

It has been out for three days, and SimCity is broken. Seriously, unplayably broken. As a long-time fan who's been looking forward to this week for many years, this is a huge, frustrating disappointment.

[a_bro]

another reason why steam DRM is the best DRM? I guess so.

[2pacalypsenow]

Steam is not a publisher or developer its just a place to buy and download games . If Simcity was on Steam it would have the same Always on DRM and it would be just as unplayable

[Th3 Chr0nic]

steam aka VALVE (they make steam you know) is a developer. they only made half life series and so much much more

[RememberThe357]

Publishers have to do something about pirating, they can't just sit back and let people steal their product. But there is a right way to do DRM, EA doesn't do it the right way. Origin was the stupidest idea they've come up with in years and it's been ruining their games since it launched.

[Bimkoblerutso]

The difference is that Steam is a viable service. Sure, you are technically paying for an indefinite rental rather a product when you buy from Steam, but the games are often ridiculously cheap, the servers are generally very reliable and fast, games are easily organizable, and it actually makes playing games between multiple computers very convenient (as long as it's with the same account).

Valve seems to be the only such service that treats it AS A SERVICE rather than an underhanded means of consumer control.

[Wagz22]

As horrible as it is, if you look at all the reviews for it on amazon, its like comedy gold. Alot of really funny reviews, but that's the only good the game has done sadly.

[nypifisel]

Gabe Newell is the only big shot I've heard who actually gets it, he believes that piracy is a product of poor legal options, and HE'S RIGHT! 1 pirated game doesn't translate to 1 lost sale, the ease and the good service Steam provides makes pirating obsolete, whoever pirates a game more often than not would never get the game unless pirating it wasn't available. (Steam - In a sense Valve, is a developer, publisher and a distributor^^). There's a reason Valve and Gabe is so loved amongst gamers and their games sell like hotcakes, they give us services we are willing to pay for. I'm not willing to pay for a game I'm not able to play.

[morganfell]

Sorry Chronic but Steam is run by Valve, it isn't Valve. Steam is a service, a great one, but nevertheless just a service.

Steam does not set the DRM rules for titles fro non-Valve developed titles.

Steam provides hosting, patching and updates, beta abiilities, payment mechanisms, etc, but Steam is not Valve in the sense that whether a game is broken or not is not the responsibility of Steam when that game is developed by other than Valve. The game has to pass a very basic QA to get on to Steam.

Plenty of broken titles have appeared on Steam that were developed by third parties.

[DeadlyFire]

I disagree. I believe if it were on Steam it would be playable day 1. EA's Origin is a rocky ship right now. They have no clue what they are doing with DRM on it. They need vast improvements before it will be perfected.

This is why I don't buy on Day one anymore. Its worst idea ever unless you know someone else that says it works great.

[Megaton]

@357 - Steam sales do more to combat piracy than any 3rd party DRM ever will. It always gets cracked and fosters nothing but resentment among paying customers.

[kryteris]

you do not always have to be connected to play steam games. There is an offline mode. To install/update it I am sure you have to be connected, but who cares.

[DonteDemonSlayer]

@ a_bro
You are a moron. Though Steam is better in regards to this, it's still better to not have it at all.
This article makes me laugh knowing that IGN is no longer in the pockets of EA. With the many recent EA titles getting sub par reviews, and the fact that IGN used to defend EA games to the death (Mass Effect 3 ending comes to mind) going as far to call people "entitled". It's all about the money, and if IGN owed EA the article would say "Why Single Player DRM is good for the industry" instead of this, which is just trying to get quick hits for the site.

[a_bro]

call me a moron. dont care. but i haven't experienced this in steam games, well, with the exception of assassin's creed.

[Mainsqueeze]

Bahahaha always has to be that IGN is getting paid off by someone. No no your right its not possible for different people to have different opinions on different pieces of software...

[ThanatosDMC]

Ubisoft games on Steam has the annoying Uplay game launcher. Damn, thing actually eats a lot of cpu, gpu, and ram. Wish we can turn it off because it doesnt stop us from gaining Uplay points and playing the game.

[Tr10wn]

idk they give ME3 Citadel DLC a pretty decent review 9.1 heck if they are not in the EA payroll then the DLC must be really good then.

[hesido]

Steam rocks. Its default DRM, unless enforced othwerwise by the publisher, has an offline mode. It is DRM, but the best of its kind. Again, by default, it lets you install games on unlimited number of systems, again, if the stupid publisher doesn't ask otherwise.

Steam doesn't require you to be online all the time, it doesn't boot you out of games if you are not online.

[DonteDemonSlayer]

Steam uses a sort of online DRM, but it isn't always on. It's possible to use steam in offline mode, or losing a connection while playing a game won't kick you out. UBISOFT titles from a few years back all had always on DRM for PC. This was obviously a terrible idea, and did nothing in the fight against piracy, and only served to hurt paying customers. DRM is a form of control, but for anyone with a brain you can't fight pirates as they will always find a way past it. In the end you only hurt your consumers who are paying. Regarding this game a pirate would only need to create a fake server to trick the game, and then they would be able to have a better experience than the paying customer, and that's just wrong. Not that I expect EA to stop being EA.

[hesido]

A friend of mine bought FIFA. He couldn't play it on his first day (single player). He downloaded the cracked torrent version later on.

[SilentNegotiator]

Steam's DRM is still annoying, but it's the best of a bad thing. Tolerable.

"best DRM" still sounds like an idiom, however. If circumstances arise in which I can't afford internet one day, my Steam collection is about as good as gone....I wouldn't call that good.

[Muffins1223]

Well pirates are the reason drm even exists

[SignifiedSix91]

Poor development/policies from developers and publishers are why pirates exist.

I love the hell out of maxis and the SimCity series, but EA ruins that for me. They destroy games and great companies.

I wish Maxis would just leave EA and its crap behind and find someone else to publish for them.

Poor Maxis. :/

The new SimCity looks great, but part of me doesn't want to purchase it for the route EA forced it into.

Sadly, I'd pirate it if it ever hit TPB just to teach scummy EA a lesson, but i don't see that happening any time soon as the game runs most of the calculations off of the EA servers...

[InTheZoneAC]

anyone that tries to argue otherwise is just a b**** making excuses for other reasons why they pirate games.

[Rainstorm81]

Signified

EA bought Maxis in 1997....are you saying Maxis hasn't had a good game since then because of EAs meddling?

The thing is this situation is bad, and EA does some stupid things that effect gamers negatively ....but let's not act like EA can do no good....Maxis became a stronger company with better games after being acquired by EA (the Sims come to mind)just like Criterion.

Lets judge each incident of its own and not take one incident and label every EA product the same because of it

[Th3 Chr0nic]

@morgan all i said is valve is a dev, cause they are. yea they run steam but i didnt say steam was a dev. you read a lot into what ppl say and put a lot of your own meaning into it dont you

[Viper7]

//Steam provides digital rights management (DRM) for software titles, by providing "custom executable generation" for executable files that are unique for each user, but allow that user to install the software on multiple computing devices via Steam or through software backups without limitations.// -wikipedia.

a_bro was just saying that DRM provided by steam is far better than the alternatives.

Sure, they allow publishers and developers to use additional DRM methods as well.

[MaideninBlack]

Sad. I was looking forward to playing this too. Was excited when it was announced since I've enjoyed all other Sim City games in the past.

Guess I'll stick to SC:RH.

[lociefer]

i just hate seeing the EA logo now , WTF IS HAPPENING TO THIS INDUSTRY !

[PirateThom]

It's about to suffer a major crash. It will hurt a lot of people and companies, but the strong ones, the ones who have built good customer relations and not screwed customers around will come back stronger.

[RioKing]

(cough) R* (cough)

[Hingle_Mcringleberry]

One can only hope.

[Double_O_Revan]

I've believed one is coming for a while now. The way things are headed just isn't good.

[00001]

as a long time gamer, my sentiment is the same. i hope for a good crash to set the industry back on the right path.

[clintagious650]

Whats the objective of this game? Watched a video & it looks like your just building stuff around the city lol. Is that suppose to be fun? Not trying to say the game is bad but if thats all u do, i dont see the fun in it.

Edit: I see thanx for the explanation. I guess it could be fun, i just thought it would be funner if u could build the city like this & actually get to run around with other online friends and check out the city u created lol. Just a thought.

[PirateThom]

I can't speak for anyone else, but managing a city is pretty fun. I haven't played this one, but have played the old ones and other games like Theme Park and Theme Hospital and the whole mangement aspect is, honestly, a lot of fun.

[Elwenil]

It's not for everyone but considering the popularity of the series, a lot of people find it fun. The challenge is designing and building a city that works. I haven't played the new one but if it's anything like the old ones you start out with a plot of land, start building roads and neighborhoods, commercial and industrial zones, add a power plant, water supply and pipes, etc.

As your city grows your sims will demand more residential, commercial or industrial zones. They might complain that there is not enough police or fire coverage in an area, the traffic on a particular road is too high or pollution from the new airport you just built is too high. You have to balance the complaints with what you are able to fix by adding more police and fire stations, larger roads, or doing something to reduce pollution. Since your income is taxes, you have to balance sim happiness with what you can afford. There are tons of options and assets you can add that change various things like education, transportation, pollution, power and water, sim happiness, etc.

It's a pretty good challenge to get a city up and running and not run into financial difficulties or all your sims leaving town because they are unhappy for one of a million reasons. It is what it says it is, a "sim city" or simulation city. Simulations are not everyone's cup of tea but tons of people love them.

[wantedboys]

well Said

[KillerPwned]

The sad part is after those pirate teams have had their time with the game the pirated version will be better than the retail for some time most likely.

[GribbleGrunger]

Wow. This is getting out of control. EA must be retreating to their bunkers about now because the s**t has hit the fan everywhere from Facebook to Twitter. I've never seen hate go viral before lol. Sony, take note.

EA: "What we saw was that players were having such a good time they didn't want to leave the game..." Nice one!

[Gr81]

This is why I stress fans of whichever consoles, don't just blindly cosign on the things these companies do just because of the name on the plastic box. The only way these corporations change is when they start to feel the pain of losing money.

Consumers will be getting seriously f**&^% this gen if they go along with the program. EA was recently quoted as saying to keep up with the increase in dev costs going into this coming gen, they could just add the cost to games, so now they expect the consumers to pay $69.99 for games, and then micro-transactions after that.

This industry is in some deep $hit my friend.

[Soldierone]

I remember stating I lost interest when EA announced the always on DRM for the game, and people jumped out and defended them for it. Yeah.... uh.... where are those people?

[Pumbli]

They're busy watching the "Server Busy" screen in SimCity.

[titans9999]

I for one was really looking forward to this game, but because of DRM, I will not be purchasing this piece of crap! I will stick to sim city 4. Any game company that makes you have an on line always connection can go FUCK themselves!

[arbitor365]

i dont even like playing these types of games online. so to me, DRM like this is totally unacceptable.

[KillrateOmega]

I keep seeing more and more articles on this topic. I don't play the game, but, based on what I've seen thus far, it looks like they REALLY sh*t the bed on this one.

Eh, they screwed up one of my favorite series ever (Dead Space), so they deserve what they're getting imo.

[DJ]

Expect this to be a huge topic at DICE 2014

[Dagobert]

Cities XL. That's what real hood nigga's play.

[Red_Devilz]

Give me one good reason why someone should not file a class action lawsuit against EA for selling a defective product? (since, being online is an absolute essential to be able to use this product, defunct server most certainly becomes dysfunction of the entire product) I guess this is high time video game purchases should be protected under the same consumer laws.

[cyguration]

IGN...pro-consumerism?!

Mind = blown.

[clrlite]

"1UP burning: a warning to IGN."

[Cueil]

bubbles...
reminds me of this

[iNFAMOUZ1]

uh who cares its just a game, jesus, your life will go on tomorrow, i promise...

[aLucidMind]

If you bought a product that cost $60 or more that didn't work or you couldn't use because the manufacturer screwed up in the production, you certainly will be complaining. This is the exact same scenario; a video game is still a product. Thinking it is not the same and thinking gamers complaining about this are whiny children only makes you out to look like a jackass.

[FlyingFoxy]

Valve are one of few devs left who give free DLC and not churn out sequel after sequel like COD, Halo etc.. their games are pure quality.

[JAMurida]

Wasn't Starcraft II also an always online DRM game? I think it still sold/did very well, can't remember how it's launch went though.

[LoaMcLoa]

You could play the campaign in offline-mode though.

[Bladesfist]

You needed to be online to play online. There is no lan play though but I would not call it DRM.

[eddvdm]

Just stating here from someone who bought the game (because simcity is 20% of all my game life) and is struggling to play it:

1. One cannot understate the mess it was the launch. If it is the old greedy EA or the old incompetent EA I can't say but from a technical point of view it's almost absurd the lack of prudence after all the hype and (apparently) huge pre-order sales the game had. I work specifically at software deployment and this was like lucy in the sky with diamonds trying to argue with Wonderlands rabbit.

2. When it works, it's very good. I'm sure this is MAxis's merit - most of EA Simcity-related people would fail at tutorial if you ask me. Wonderful vision on a (to not say old) maybe-obsolete game mechanics. I'm almost a Simcity purist, I'll be probably wealthier by now if wasn't for Simcity games (and XL too, 100s of hours on steam if someone cares to check), but I'm sure a happier person because of them. But if you're a good observer you'll see how ingeniously they injected social in a naturally "autistic" game. Most QQs will say that Simcity is not a game for social (and I'll agree 80% of the time) but what they did was very clever.

It'd be a huge text here if I'd explain the whys but I really liked it and I think, if people can wait to it be really ready, most would love it, because it's Simcity in its veins but it's refreshing, challenging (ok maybe easy for veterans, but still enjoying) and a great new experience.

There, just wanted to give some hope for those who love the series - or those who are curious about it - and had not the luck I had to play it much time without any issues. Keep the hope, it's very good.

[Bladesfist]

Steam is DRM in the same way that PSN and Xbox Live are DRM. They lock content to your account and everything works great as long as you are on the right account. I prefer this to a cd key check or any other form of DRM.

[ricksjames83]

Stuff like this is why i didn't get excited when i heard about Sony and this giakia stuff. As a person who has been banned by Sony cause the psn store was malfunctioning around the time Socum confrontation was released. My wife lost the bank card i had on file in the system.(she didnt tell me.)i purchased socum confrontation online thru the store and instead of the system working properly. It just went thru

[ricksjames83]

The store was giving out free games that night to everyone. So when the system corrected. Sony band my whole Ps3. Couldn't log on under any name on my ps3. They disabled all my games and wouldn't accept my new card number over the phone. I had to mail them a money order to get my Ps3 unband. then on top of that Socum confrontation was straight trash that never worked. $40 wasted.

[HeroPsychoDreamer]

What is the point having to be online at all times when playing Sim City? Last time I played Sim City it was a single player game..

[STEWIE_PLAY_PS4]

EA suck really evil. But if PC hack free game? probably best console game pay $60 online free game than PC if agree.

[HarryB]

I've said this many times. When a big game comes out on steam or origin don't buy it right away. Just learn patience because there usually are problems in the begining. And make sure your pc can handle the game. Simcity is a great looking game but when I heard that you had to have an online connection I didn't bother buying it. Just wait until they make it an option which they probably will.

[Xian]

At some point your Internet connection is going to go down, maybe only a few seconds blip, but that makes the games that use this form of DRM unplayable during that time. Some people have more reliable connections than others, so it might not affect them as much, but I know plenty of people that have frequent disconnects - I see them every day rejoining multiplayer games saying that their connection hiccuped. Mine is pretty reliable, but even with that I got disconnected from Diablo III several times and had to retrace ground I had already been over.

[snake_eater]

I feel bad for maxis... ea can burn in hell for all I care

[EffectO]

Always online DRM sucks,I never buy games with online DRM.

[Xian]

Another question is how long are they going to keep the servers up and running? I can still play the original Sim City and Sim City 2000 decades after their release. EA has a habit of shutting down servers after a few years, especially with their sports titles. Since SC5 requires a connection to their servers, the game will be unplayable once they turn them off.

[tweet75]

DRM always on gaming on all games will equal the death of gaming and any company that tries it.

[sarshelyam]

I don't know what to say about SimCity, I didn't buy it. I was looking forward to it, but perhaps I'm too "old school" in that I don't like my games to have an undetermined shelf life post-purchase. If I want to play this 10 years down the road, I shouldn't be bound to EA's server support, or the lack thereof. It really makes an argument for what our money is worth, and what it gets us...a rental in this case (apparently).

[Jek_Porkins]

They should have learned from Diablo 3, you cant force something that isn't 100% on the population. The technology just isn't there and in the end people will just find a way around it if they want.

[Knightofelemia]

Its not just a DRM this just shows that companies don't care they build the game and send the game out the door. This is EA's fault for not fully testing the game with all its bugs and then taking the time to tweak those bugs. They just wanted the money from this title because they know fans love the SimCity franchise. DRM's suck but its the way gaming is going.

[chobit_A5HL3Y]

way to shit on your consumers, EA.

[kryteris]

the issue is whether or not refunds should be allowed in the digital age of gaming, and the answer is absolutely yes! The ability to revoke a game license after a refund has been issued is simple and effective. No longer is it reasonable excuse to not refund pos software because of cd burners.

[Many-hat5]

A number of comments in support of Steam service being good DRM. Firstly, there isn't such a thing as good DRM, IMHO. And secondly, I don't support Steam myself, since it's thinly disguised malware! Okay, okay, I know you guys are gonna jump me for saying that, but here's my problem with steam. If they JUST offered an honest, straight forward,download service with reasonable DRM, then yes, maybe I could see its merits. However that's not the case,is it? gamers MUST agree to have your PC 'interegated', otherwie you simply can't use the service. Forcibly installing software or scanning devices this way IS, again IMHO, the same as malware.Sim city, is the begining of the end for honest Devs. Corporate greed has sounded the death knell for the games industry, and I'm sure that makes you guys as sad as it does me.Thank god I've still got my Atari 800 and MULE !