So many people are talking about pirating the game due to the online-DRM. Also, the game isn't finished and has serious AI issues as well as bugs in transfers of $$$ between cities (see Eurogamer review which gave it a 4/10). Are they so narrow-minded that they think all gamers only want action style games? Their projections for this game must have been very low. After 10 years and a huge gap in strategy in the gaming market, I figure that the expectation would've been pretty high. It only goes to show you how much they don't understand the gaming market. v.v

I'm really happy with the game. I didn't buy it on launch but I bought it this weekend and never had logon issues. They are in the process of implementing fixes and hopefully they return the fastest simulation speed soon. As for Adam saying the game isn't worth your money??.. They(EA, that is...) are giving out free games for compensation just for the launch issues. Choices include: Battlefield 3 (Standard Edition) Bejeweled 3 Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition) Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition) MOHW (Standard Edition) NFS Most Wanted (Standard Edition) Plants vs. Zombies SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition I would say this game is a lot of fun. On top of that EA/Maxis just gave me a free game!

Booo. I can't imagine how many people bought that and THEN found out about the always online component and the stupid AI and the small city sizes and all the other cr** that people hate about this game. EA did a VERY good job of not mentioning any of that stuff in the marketing. Heck, they even hid it from the name - for all intents and purposes, this should be called "SimCity Online". Then people would've known to avoid it, just like they did The Sims Online. Remember that? Or The Old Republic. Or Dragon Quest Online. Or any number of other "formerly wonderful single player games gone online because marketing statistics say we can make more money this way" series. Garbage. F*** you Maxis.

I'm glad they think it was a success. Yes they had huge sales, but the launch problems made a large amount of their fans bitter and now skeptical for future releases. It just depends how you look at this data; it's all relative.

"more than 1.1 million copies within the first two weeks of its release, making it the most popular installment in the series"

And that's the story of why EA will never stop using online DRM.

Boy EA sure can pay for some advertising

Kinda like Diablo 3 was a huge success now hardly anyone plays it anymore. Myself included on that list. This game is a lot more fun then Diablo 3 though and I do enjoy it. However, I wish it wasn't such a good game, so i could be more upset about the DRM and all the filthy little lies.

just because it sold more don't make it better, it might be a good thing that that many are intrested in playing it but how many aren't happy with their purchase? .. and aside from that while i love the series and wish i could play it ( boycotted due to online) its bad that it sold so well since the better an online forced game sells the more a company will try to do it in the future..  gahh ppl need to learn to speak with their wallets better ...  

and this is why nothing will change; they've already made their money off you.

Of course this installment had the biggest launch in the series. Getting out hype over the internet has exploded in the decade since SimCity 4, so of course this will have been a highly anticipated release and everybody's going to panic and freak out and buy it. The same thing happened with Civilization 5--and there was only a 5 year gap between those games.

EA is basically wrapping up something that is common sense if you spend a moment to think about it in an attempt to shift attention away from the asinine way they handled things.

EDIT: And when I say "the same thing happened with Civilization 5", I mean all the hype around it, not whether it was a good game or what the release was like. That's all.

Count the gamers, I'm pretty sure if 50% of all gamers bought SimCity 4 in the first 2 weeks of its launch, it would still be dwarfed if 5% of today's gamers bought SimCity 5.

Protip - Pretty sure McDonald's is the most visited "restaurant" in the world. Still doesn't mean it's a 5-star joint.

Any press is good press.

My copy is on it's way back, EA.

That's kinda sad.

Now tell us how many have tried to get refunds?

Quite a different story if you ask a purchaser of the game, though.

Pre-sales are going to killing quality in video games -you no longer have to make a great game just -hype it up to be great - a million sheeple will pre-order - your costs are covered and who care if the games sucks because gamers have a short memory and will happly jump on the hype wagon for your next game.  - lather, rinse, repeat

Pre-sales are going to killing quality in video games -you no longer have to make a great game just -hype it up to be great - a million sheeple will pre-order - your costs are covered and who care if the games sucks because gamers have a short memory and will happly jump on the hype wagon for your next game.  - lather, rinse, repeat

I still believe that its a fun game.

Every time I hear Sim City, I remember reading on Kotaku that someone in an EA brief said some people loved Always-Online options