Electronic Arts (EA) has suspended some of its online marketing campaigns for SimCity (2013) in the wake of public backlash due to ongoing server issues, asking its affiliates (including Non-Fiction Gaming) to “pause all SimCity marketing campaigns temporarily, until further notice.”
In an email sent this morning to marketing affiliate partners, EA Origin says it has,
“deactivated all SimCity text links and creative and we ask you to please remove any copy promoting SimCity from your website for the time-being.”
The email, is directed at affiliates of EA Origin’s Rakuten LinkShare program.
“To be clear we are continuing to payout commissions on all SimCity sales that are referred, however we are requesting that you please stop actively promoting the game,” the email reads. “We will notify you as soon as the SimCity marketing campaigns have been resumed and our promotional links are once again live in the Linkshare interface. We apologize for any inconveniences that this may cause, and we thank you for your cooperation.”
SimCity launched earlier this week and has since struggled to meet player demand. Developer Maxis has deactivated certain gameplay features such as cheetah speed’ to try to reduce server issues. According to the official forums SimCity it will continue to have patches rolled out to address “server instability” and player frustration.
Some consumers have also expressed dissatisfaction at EA’s refund policies in light of the game being unplayable at times. Players who bought their copy through third-party retailers like Amazon have some success with obtaining refunds. Consumers who bought directly through Origin as a direct download have run into EA’s refund policy,
“What is your refund policy for PC digital downloads?
As a general policy, EA does not offer refunds on any products downloaded through Origin.
EA’s always on DRM launch issues are similar to the problems Blizzard had with Diablo III. Have EA screwed up big time or are people over reacting? Let us know in the comments below.
We’ve had a great time with our hard copy EA games Need for Speed: Most Wanted check out our review.
[…] have come under fire previously for launch issues, most recently with Sim City. We also saw Blizzard apologise for the Diablo 3 launch issues. Troedsson goes on to offer the […]