It’s funny how history can repeat itself. Not quite a year
ago Blizzard was weathering a storm of their own making for the launch of
Diablo 3. Now EA is scrambling for the umbrella due to the abysmal
launch of SimCity.
You’d think EA would have learned from the past. Both
Ubisoft and Blizzard have received heavy criticism for their always online DRM,
and EA have just joined the club. The launch week has seen long queue times to
get onto a server after a faltering start filled with crashes and rollbacks.
Like Diablo 3, SimCity’s always online requirement has been
heavily touted as a feature; with multiplayer elements making their first appearance
in the series. Players can now choose to be neighbours on large over-world
maps, allowing cities to interact with each other in new ways.
The option to play SimCity as a traditional solo experience
is still there, however you now have to log into the game through Origin and
remain online at all times. The game itself does do some calculations server
side, taking some of the burden off your machine. But this can only really be
seen as a feature for those running a PC from a decade ago. No doubt there will
be a group of players in this bracket due to SimCity’s wide appeal. Realistically
it’s an extra level off DRM protection to keep the pirates at bay.
And I would have no problem with that, if the game I bought
on release day worked and was guaranteed to be playable after the servers are
shut down. However EA clearly missed the former and completely refuse to commit
to the latter. It’s worrying to see games moving in a direction where we are
not only technically renting them from the publisher, but that the publisher
reserves the right to shut down a game when it suits them.
Ubisoft has already backed down from this idea on a number
of titles due to the bad publicity. So it will be interesting to see if EA and
Blizzard try it again. There is scope for always online requirements to work in
certain games (not in anything action heavy). But publishers need to realise
that not all gamers have stable connections, and need to put consumers first
with reliable servers and DRM removal at the end of the game’s shelf life.
