SimCity: Now With 92% Less Crashing; Maxis Walks Back from Offline Comment

SimCity Update #4 is penned by EA Maxis SVP Lucy Bradshaw, who is "happy to report that the core problem with getting in and having a great SimCity experience is almost behind us," saying they have "reduced game crashes by 92% from day one." She admits she's not able to offer the "all clear" for the game she'd hoped to, but seems optimistic that they've turned the corner from the game's rocky launch. There's also a new tweet on the SimCity account quickly walking back from this tweet they posted over the weekend which said: "We have no intention of offlining SimCity any time soon but we'll look into that as part of our earning back your trust efforts." It seems there is a disagreement among the operators of their twitter account, because the new update states this isn't actually possible: "The game was designed for MP, we sim the entire region on the server so this is just not possible."
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Re: SimCity: Now With 92% Less Crashing; Maxis Walks Back from Offline Comment
Mar 11, 2013, 14:04
48.
Re: SimCity: Now With 92% Less Crashing; Maxis Walks Back from Offline Comment Mar 11, 2013, 14:04
Mar 11, 2013, 14:04
 
It's clear from the way the Internet is evolving (IPv6, more mobile devices, cloud computing, geolocation load balancing, etc.) that things like Nvidia's Grid and online games like this and Diablo 3 will rapidly become the norm. Even the way Gabe Newell talks about an online ecosystem and his Big Picture/SteamBox seem to orient in this direction, with an emphasis on streaming. You can quite clearly see that SimCity is partway to that end, as is Diablo 3, etc.

It would be interesting to see if "NEW IP" would be massively successful with an always on DRM.

As it stands today, these big publishers are taking well known game titles, that were primarily SP, and holding them hostage with always on DRM.

So I wouldn't say, just yet, the online DRM is the future. I'd say it's significantly easier to get success from a well known title, that MILLIONS want to ALREADY play, then it would be to get a brand new IP with always on DRM and get people on board to buy it.

SimCity and Diablo 3 would sell millions if they contained a pile of shit in the box, not really a good reference point for the acceptance for always on DRM.

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Mar 11, 2013Mar 11 2013
 Re: SimCity: Now With 92% Less Crashing; Maxis Walks Back from Offline Comment