SimCity, one of the most anticipated releases of the year, launched in the US early this morning but that doesn’t mean everyone that purchased the game got to play it right away. The title, which requires EA’s Origin PC download client to operate even in single player mode, was seemingly met with much higher demand than anticipated, causing Origin’s servers to crumple under the pressure.
Origin has published nearly a dozen tweets on their official Twitter account addressing various issues. It all started just around midnight when the team said they were experiencing delays due to heavy traffic. Moments later we were told that they were aware of an issue affecting customers trying to download the Digital Deluxe edition of SimCity.
Part of the problem lies in the fact that customers were not allowed to pre-load the 10GB title. What’s worse, however, is that EA says some players attempting to redeem a code may not actually have the code applied to their account. The remedy, EA said, is to wait to redeem codes until further word has been handed down.
The latest news from Origin’s Twitter account points out that high demand for the game is causing delays for a small percentage of users. The team is also making changes to prevent further issues and is confident that Origin will be stable for international launches later this week.
You’d think at this point that publishers would want to avoid the negative press that’s associated with virtually every high-profile game launch that requires an online connection. Instead, gamers are forced to deal with the situation time and time again as companies take a reactive approach instead of being proactive.
