Post-release
EA responded to server issues by adding additional servers and developing a server patch that disables "non-critical gameplay features leaderboards, achievements and region filters." On the evening of March 7, Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw issued a statement in response to the launch problems, stating that more servers would be added over the weekend and that thousands of players were playing and that "more than 700,000 cities have been built by our players in just 24 hours". She went on to acknowledge that "many are experiencing server instability" and that "players across Europe and Asia are experiencing the same frustration". She confirmed that the number of servers would be increased stating "We added servers today, and there will be several more added over the weekend."
Senior producer Kip Katsarelis commented that the game servers were constantly at maximum capacity, partly due to the large number of players connected for extended periods of time, which has made it difficult for new users to connect: "We added more servers to accommodate the launch in ... our plan is to continue to bring more servers online until we have enough to meet the demand, increase player capacity and let more people through the gates and into the game."
In an article about "games as a service", Nathan Grayson from Rock, Paper Shotgun said that the situation was unacceptable and that EA was handling the situation as well as could be expected, but the problem was that they had damaged the idea of "games as a service" and lamented the fact that games publishers hadn't learned from previous similar launch failures; "this just keeps on happening. ... servers have gone toe-to-toe with day-one stampedes in much the same fashion as a turtle against an 18-wheeler: ... Then nature runs its course, and developers and publishers alike scramble to glue one billion bits of finely pulped turtle back together again." and said "A strong service – the kind people latch onto and ultimately demand as the norm – doesn’t just react."
On March 8, 2013, EA suspended some of SimCity's online marketing campaigns because of the game's ongoing technical issues. EA has stated it will not be offering refunds for users.
In a blog post on March 8, Maxis SVP Lucy Bradshaw gave an update on the server situation, reporting that the issues had improved and server space had expanded, but acknowledged that some users were still suffering stability problems. She also explained the reason for the failure; "So what went wrong? The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta." and called their error "dumb". She reported that server capacity had been increased by 120 percent and that errors had dropped by 80 percent. She also promised another update during the weekend. She also announced an offer of a free game from the EA catalogue, saying "I know that’s a little contrived – kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy. But we feel bad about what happened. We’re hoping you won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent." Maxis ruled out making the game able to be played offline, saying it would take a significant amount of engineering work for this to happen. Shortly afterwards, it was discovered that a single line of code could be commented out, allowing the game to be played offline indefinitely. In addition, an article published by Rock, Paper Shotgun highlighted ways in which, "They could make an entire region single player offline with absolute ease."
To compensate for the issues during the release, EA offered to early purchasers a free game on March 2013. All Origin users which purchased and registered the game before March 23 were allowed to choose a game for free among a small list of recent titles including SimCity 4, Battlefield 3, Dead Space 3, Mass Effect 3 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
EA now maintains a Server Status page in the SimCity website. This allows players to check the status of SimCity servers around the world.
Read more about this topic: Sim City (2013 Video Game)