EA Suspending SimCity Marketing

By Catherine Cai
published

The SimCity server issues are bad enough for EA to want less people to buy the game, apparently.

With the SimCity server situation still dire, despite Maxis cutting non-essential game functions, EA's decided to put a hold on the game's marketing probably with the hope that with fewer potential customers hearing about the game, there will be fewer new players joining the game and making the situation worse.

In a letter to EA Origin LinkShare affiliates, which Polygon has managed to get its hands on, EA's stated that it's "deactivated all SimCity text links and creative," and asks its affiliates to "please remove any copy promoting SimCity from your website for the time-being."

SimCity has had so many issues with its servers that Amazon pulled the digital download from its shelves at one point. It's only recently back on sale on Amazon, with a warning to expect connectivity issues until further notice.

The entire situation is reminiscent of Blizzard's disastrous Diablo III launch, though the worst of the connectivity issues were worked out within the first three days. Despite Maxis's frantic work into fixing servers, it looks it'll still be a while before all the kinks are worked out, especially since EA's decided that getting fewer players to buy the game is the current best solution.

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Catherine Cai
47 Comments Comment from the forums
  • janetonly42
    Die EA Die and take Activision with you and all the rest that employ Draconian DRM.
    Reply
  • tiamos
    Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo, take warning, this is how you ruin a successful, multi-decade franchise....
    Reply
  • noblerabbit
    If I were a CEO beancounter at EA, you bet your bottom dollar I'd suspend my own marketing, as Reddit is doing it for me every 3 minutes! Woohoo! Thank you people that whine to expose us, AND buy our product! This just in ===> EA lays off 2,000 marketing positions.
    Reply
  • edogawa
    This is why I hate EA more than ever with anti-consumer practices, BAD*online single player*BAD, and ruining games.
    Reply
  • ibjeepr
    Meh, I'm still having fun playing. I'll cross my fingers (but not hold my breath) that they create an update that kills the need for DRM though.

    I'll second the opinion that EA is killing the marketing because the game clearly doesn't need it. Even if the publicity is bad at this point, the game is clearly so immensely popular that marketing would yield very little return on the dollar. I mean, they even talked about it on Bob and Tom on the radio this morning. It's everywhere.

    I'll support Maxis and SimCity even with the birthing pains. I want there to be a future for SimCity and expansions for this one.
    Reply
  • Markon101
    This is pretty rough. I love Maxis, but EA is just screwing it all up.
    Reply
  • AndreT
    Somebody is capitalizing on the current situation. Quite smart if you ask me.

    Reply
  • AndreT
    For some reason the kickstarter link didn't want to be included.

    Reply
  • skit75
    EA Controller: "Get Amazon on the phone..." "WTF did you pull our game!!!"

    Amazon Marketing Consultant: "No amount of marketing dollars can compete with the size of the shoe in your mouth, at this time."

    EA Controller: "You are over re-acting... WE HAVE SOCIAL BENEFITS IN OUR GAME!!!"

    Amazon Marketing Consultant: "Have you seen ANY of the internet in the last 2-3 days sir?"

    Click.
    Reply
  • d_kuhn
    "despite Maxis cutting non-essential game functions" - so they cut the "Always online" requirement? It's about as non-essential as a single player game function can get.
    Reply