My problem is not EA and SimCity, but Steam is. The leader of the DRM trend that is slowly killing pc gaming. EA has minimal influence over the gamers community. EA is pretty much hated by everyone. I wouldn't worry too much about their extreme DRM experimentations. What bothers me is that huge Valve fan base that literally enjoys to eat the dog food they are served. DRM is bad, but Valve-DRM is a must! Wake up people, good offers and a friendly interface can't hide the fact that they are in total control of your games. You don't own any of it, you are only "allowed" to play your games under certain conditions.

Ok, first of all, I agree with this writing.

Secondly, lessons won't most likely be learned. Reaason, D3 has been the same, and was done well before this, was anything learned from that? No.

Thirdly, and "most funnily enough", anti-piracy, will NEVER deter those who pirate the games, or want to play pirated games. It will ALWAYS hurt the legit customers only. When will the gaming industry in general learn this? I think never.

It's not just EA. Nearly everyone of these companies do exactly the same. And then what happens, the ones who bought the games get all the crap, online-only/perma-online with essentially single player games, glitches caused by anti-piracy software etc., not forgetting the fact that using these methods will put the prices up as well, and who pays for this, yes, the legit customer.

As long as the industry thinks that they can get rid of piracy, there is going to be more and more ridiculous ways of trying to fight it, and as long as this happens, the ones that actually support the very industry by buying the products and pay for the games, are the the ones that will get screwed over and over again.

EA's no refund policy on digital copies is highway robbery.  That's a lesson in always online DRM for everybody.  And they can get away with some stupid clause / fine print agreement included on it the moment you purchase their product so you can't sue back. No refunds? Very anti-consumer company.

I just hope that Mricrosoft take this into consideration ,a permanent online connection is in general a bad idea and is going to harm at long and short terms either,customers and videogame companies. And if they still considering for it, they are just hanging in the tightrope.

It's not just the bottom line, it's their shareholders. They don't work for their customers, the people that buy their products, they work for their investors. If you see a jerk move that negatively effects paying customers, don't be surprised if the company is public.

Their stupid (alleged) online-only rules with the XBox720 may well be the console which tips the masses in favour of the PS4 instead of the xbox720.  If it is confirmed as being online-only, then there is no way I'll buy a 720, instead I will definitely go for the PS4 instead.  I just don't believe that the online-only with the 720 will work properly and there is no way in hell I'm going to play £40 (approx.$60-70 bucks I think?) for a broken system.  I'm certainly not a fan-boi, I was 50:50 between choosing the 720 & PS4, I simply don't trust their online-only systems, its a recipe for a massive PR disaster and when it happens Microsoft will be the only people surprised at the car-crash.

I stopped buying EA games for the past two years because of their "war on used games", and their ridiculous DRM practices. After renting battlefield 3 and realizing I was unable to play online without a separate pass, I stopped buying all EA games. The funny part is that I was only renting it to play online with my clan 2 days before I was going to buy it. After seeing that I was restricted from playing online, I never bought Battlefield 3, and have stopped buying all EA games since then.

Any other company that joins the war on used games will be added to my personal boycott.

The only way we can prevent unfair DRM practices is by voicing our concerns and maintaining the self-control to not support these companies no matter how awesome the game looks.

If I can't lend my games to my friends, or borrow their's, then it goes against everything I'm used to experiencing in video games. We can't play at the same time, so what's the big deal? These companies aren't fighting piracy, they're trying to milk more money from their paying, loyal customers.

They should be happy that somebody bought the game in the first place.

If you buy this, why don´t just give them all your money right now, and wear a nice little "owned property of [insert corporation name here] " collar....
Parasites like EA need to know there are limits

Sadly, this isn't really so much a "cautionary tale" as it is "what we've been expecting to happen" since these things have happened before and we all knew it was going to happen on a much larger scale as it has now.

I was looking forward to this game but after the many bad reviews about it and the lack of being able to build one huge metropolis I think I will give it a miss.

I think that Sim City is a good game, I didn't suffer from all the problems that half the world suffered this past week

Love correlation between this and gun laws. Honest citizens who pay for their products and services are the ones in the end who get hurt. Witcher 2 creators have no DRM and they made a bundle off their games

That's EA for you. Testing the boundaries to see how much they can get away with...

It sucks that the game is almost unplayable due to DRM.  I was excited about the new SimCity until I had heard about the always online thing and saw K. VanOrd's review.  I am against always online DRM on principle alone, but if a company is going to implement it then they should at least do it well.  Shame this new SimCity will be remembered best for being nigh unplayable due to EA's shoddy service.

Yes, for all publishers there is a lesson to be learned from the SimCity launch saga.

There also is a lesson to be learned for all games reviewers, and Kevin VanOrd's review of SimCity did impress me in that sense.

More and more publishers enforce "online only" on us these days, even for dedicated single player games and games that at least have single player components. I'm not even going to start discussing their motives and how valid/invalid those motives are.

Review policies therfor have to change too. No longer can games, that force us to be connected to a service, be reviewed on their own merrit.

Service and game are one, and for that reason need to be reviewed as one.

My hope is that the sheer scale of the SimCity disaster will change review policies towards that end.

And that in itself could have in impact on the gaming industry, making them aware that a great game (not saying that SimCity is) and a crap service will bag them nothing but a 6/10.

I'd also recommend Anno 2070, which does have an offline mode, contrary to the GS review (it was patched it after release). There are online features of the game you cannot access while offline, but it does not hinder your offline play at all, but add value when you are online.

Nintendo don't even make PC games, so the comparison there is a little unfair. If they did, they would have to enact near-impossible protections as well, and this is why they stay out of that market (and the mobile market to boot).

The worst part in all of this is that DRM doesn't affect piracy at all. Pirates still manage to get a hold of these games and, in fact, manage to play them with even less hassles and worry than actual paying consumers who bought the game do.

I remember the Witcher 2 launch having similar issues (though not quite as game breaking, still very annoying). While I was struggling to get the thing to run and to get all my DLC, someone I know who pirated the game (I won't name names) was already playing to his heart's content, as if there wasn't a care in the world. It really grated me that I, a paying customer, was being forced to deal with issues that were meant to prevent piracy and were completely failing to do so.

very good points and close to my heart. can honestly say that i have totally neglected my xbox of lately. since the last few updates it has became an advertising machine, nothing else. before i go into digital download gaming i would like to see better consumer rights, or i am out.

nice blog. Sometimes i felt sorry for buying pirated game (not that original copy is available in my country anyway) but these 'moves' by gaming industry is just ridiculous. I'm sad that honest people who could and would buy the game must suffer for it. They should get discount, free DLC, free online service, free merchandise, free beta access, and many more because they rather spend $60 to support your company than give you the finger and just download it through torrent.

I really wish that Microsoft would stop putting such a strong emphasis on online gaming. Sure, it helps with replayability, but if your game relies entirely on online play, it's going to die eventually.

For anyone just tuning in, do not scroll down as theres a "omggunzrbad" war going on down below.

*applauds* Bravo kbaily, bravo. A very well-written blog that I agree very much with.

Agreed.

While I do use Steam, I prefer non-DRMed games. Steam is tolerable because you can play most of their games in offline mode (Start Menu/All Programs/Steam/game). But, if a game is offered by both Steam and GOG, I buy the GOG version without blinking.

Fortunately, sites like GOG and Gamersgate offer non-DRMed games. With Gamersgate, it's up to the publisher. And even Amazon is starting to carry non-DRMed games. I like knowing I can copy my purchases to an external harddrive for safe keeping.

But if you bring these things up, alotta Sony fanboys immediately accuse you of being a pirate. It's as if they've placed Sony above any level of critique or question. And they've gone so far with it that they'll attack those who do question Sony. They're as bad as Apple fanboys with their iGadget worship. Talk about brainwashed drones.

I like playing games that were released 20 years ago.

I'd like to play today's games in 20 years.

I fucking loved your praise of Nintendo. I'm so tired of them being bashed for not delievering the best hardware on the market, at least you're not tricked into buying a 'rental'-machine. Well this isn't about Nintendo anyway -

EA, Activision and Ubisoft are the major publishers of this gen, and they have all tried to screw over their customers one way or another at some point, and yet again people don't do the necessary, which quite frankly is to boycott them, or at least those games that requires you to be online. Let us not forget the trashware that was Diablo 3, sometimes i feel they used more time developing that horrible Auction House and DRM than the actual game, but then again, that too was barely playable at launch. 

Can't blame EVERYBODY for not joining in on it, but people should be better than to just say "i don't like them" only to actually buy the game! Yeah we might not see you buy it, but the numbers still go in the system, and whatever you buy, is still support to what's become companies who don't give 2 craps about games. They are companies, they want money, they don't care about the individual, if they deliever crap over and over, but the money still flows, their gonna repeat, this is a basic strategy. 

They're slapping their loyal customers in the face, and for some reason we act as if it's aye-okay, as if "that's the way the industry is evolving", what a load of nonsense! That's like being fat and saying "well that's just the way it is, can't do anything about" and then stuffing your face with burgers and cola.

People need to stand up, and as soon as these always-online feautures are introduced to incoming games, we shout out in rage! They said that this game was basically impossible to create without the always-online feature, what a BUNCH OF BULL! 

I just get really pissed because this industry was respectable once, but it's going down the drain the same way Hollywood and the music industry is, and it's doing it in it's own horrible ways.

I wish people realized that if you buy a game that requires you to be online, when the servers are taken down you will never be able to play that game again.

This is why I will never buy SimCity or Diablo 3 because I will not pay money for a game I can only play if I am online.  With MMO's it is different because internet is required and you know before the game even comes out it will require internet.  If a small company like CD Projekt can have all their games be DRM free and make big titles like The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 and be doing fine than there is no excuse for EA and Blizzard.