EA Shuts down SimCity Social.... less than 1 year after it launched.

[Patticus]

EA's customer support is legendary for being some of the absolute worst around. Cuts there are... well, it's going to make the bad stuff even badder.

[SuperLink]

That ain't the end of the bad news:

EA cuts jobs at customer support center

Seems ironically reflective of the whole "EA deleting/censoring their customer support number so no one can complain" thing.

 

"If no one calls for help or complaint, then technically no one is complaining!" - EA

[Tara]

I...

 

Really, I mean...

 

How do...

 

Why...

 

What were you...
 

 

Okay, EA, I have been pretty neutral towards you ever since you lost the license to produce James Bond games, which weren't really that good anyway but they weren't necessarily horrible, but I'm starting to see why people are dubbing you "worst game company ever."  Someone else brought up game companies like LJN and some others I'm unfamiliar with.  Just going to say right now that LJN is relic of a different time and can't be judged accurately by today's standards.  Yes, they've made some mediocre to downright terrible works, but see, their only sin was making bad games.  If they continued to exist today, they might still be a terrible company, but since they went defunct before they could prove themselves, we can't know for sure.

 

EA has been around for over thirty years now and has made some great games and some not-so-great games.  Since I don't consistently follow them, I wouldn't know how their more recent titles fare, but what baffles me about them is not the quality of their games, but the treatment of the games they release and the treatment of the customers who pay money for them, and this shows what I mean.  Yes, it's true that the game was going to go away one day anyway.  Yes, it's true that this is the nature of social gaming, but if you're going to shut down a game that is not only not even a year old, but is still extremely active, then at least have the courtesy to offer something in return to those who literally just got into the game and have spent money to improve their experience.

 

At the very least, they could, I don't know, disable microtransactions before they shut it down.  That would at least ensure that nobody tries to purchase something and then isn't able to use it because the game is getting shut down the next day.  Oh and you gotta love the advice they give.  If you still have money left in your account, spend it all, because it's not going to mean a thing anyway.  That's nice.  That's real nice.

 

I apologize for being a bit snarky and angry-sounding, but I'm just so... dumbfounded.  As a big fan of Sim City games, I would love it if Maxis completely removed itself from EA so I could play the games without feeling guilty for supporting EA.  But that doesn't look to be happening because as someone else brought up, they're going to be making millions regardless of rather or not they continue down this road of questionable marketing.

 

Oh and cutting jobs at their support center?  Yeah, pretty dumb, too.

[Gavvie]

When I said "some bad things" I did not mean "3 or 4 bad things". I really don't care WHAT EA does as long as they aren't doing something actually morally corrupt. No one at EA forced you guys to splash some cash on this game and yes, it sucks complete ass that your money is essentially getting vaporized, but that's not gonna stop me from buying a fun game that just so happens to have EA's logo on the box. $60 isn't going to make or brake the bank for them, and they're going to make millions wether I like it or not so what's the point?

And am I the only one that finds microtransactions harmless?

 

Microtransactions are harmless, if the end user (that's us) knows how to use them properly. Give a F2P game to a child and watch the media turn into frenzied harpies.

 

On point: EA aren't going for the dick move here with closing SimCity Social down - it must not be making them enough money to keep it open, especially as they took Zynga to task for that "no, we're not cloning you at all" game called CityVille. Bear in mind that they're also closing The Sims Social down as well, a game that was online a lot longer. The servers for their console games tend to be up for a good 4-5 years. SC Social getting shuttered can only be narrowed down to two things - Not as many active users as anticipated (this would've been gauged by Sims Social, I'm guessing), and those that do play aren't generating the cashflow needed to keep it active.

 

I'm not defending/attacking EA here, just stating facts. Yes, they've made some serious missteps, but then name me a game developer who haven't taken a walk down Shit Street at some point or another.

[Emmett L. Brown]

I'm not defending/attacking EA here, just stating facts. Yes, they've made some serious missteps, but then name me a game developer who haven't taken a walk down Shit Street at some point or another.

I can't think of one, and that's why each and every single one of those developers get well-earned negative PR every time that happens.

 

"Everybody else is doing it" is not a valid excuse in this industry or any other.

 

Westwood, Maxis and Bioware are some of my all-time favourite game developers. But no matter how much I love their old games, I'm gonna give them a piece of my mind when they make incredibly stupid decisions that don't pay off.

 

That those three all made their incredibly stupid decisions that didn't pay off after being bought up by EA is notable.

Edited April 15, 2013 by Emmett L. Brown

[Gavvie]

Hey, I'm not saying you're wrong for stating an opinion. Far from it. I didn't want to come across as being all "now come on, EA aren't that bad...apologise, and go back to playing The Urbz together" XD

[krazystitch]

This is just unbelievable. I didn't play the game myself and I don't really get into those kind of Facebook games, but holy crap, seriously? Just about a year from release and this game is already shut down? I could maybe understand if the game wasn't as strong as they expected it to be, but a million people were playing this and using money to improve their city. The excuse that it wasn't bringing in any money would be complete bullshit.

 

I wasn't very impressed with EA before, honestly, but wow, I really can't even grasp this one. So many people who put in the effort to make a strong city with their friends have nothing but wasted time and money now. Had they kept the game on for a decent amount of time, it would have been better. Hell, transferring their towns over to the new Sim City game actually would have been pretty good because they could continue the multiplayer aspect of it, but the fact that it's just simply gone with nothing but "Gee, that sucks" is such an asshole move.

[Autosaver]

That ain't the end of the bad news:

EA cuts jobs at customer support center

It took me 3 1/2 hours to talk to a customer rep. Oh god.. I can't imagine how long it'll take now.

[Conando]

Electronic Putz. I find it kind of hilarious that they do this right after Rich Moore was trying to say they're not terrible, and talking about what they would improve on. Yeeeeeep. This is a sign of things to come, I guess. Yeah, it's just a Facebook game that exists to suck money, but it no longer existing really screws those people over. 

[Gabz Girl]

You can't spell EA without ignorant. Oh wait...

Seriously though, this is getting out of hand. By now I would've expected EA to close down, but why are they still around and WHY are people still buying their games? The last EA game I bought new was Mass Effect 2 a year ago, but I ain't buying any EA games new now!

This reminds me, I can't wait to see what EA has in store for this year's E3.

[Patticus]

EA is still going strong because many of its products are designed specifically to appeal to the lowest common denominator. It's the same reason why TV networks air shitty shows, while all the ones with the most potential for true greatness are so often the first to go.

[The Kid]

I find it hard to get mad about this Incident specifically when the whole freemium model is designed to rip off customers.

[JezMM]

I find it hard to get mad about this Incident specifically when the whole freemium model is designed to rip off customers.

 

*When done badly.

 

 

I don't hear much complaining about Farmville or Team Fortress 2.

[Tara]

*When done badly.

 

 

I don't hear much complaining about Farmville or Team Fortress 2.

Aside from the fact that the former was conceived through shameless plagiarism, but that's a moot point because society was quick to not care one way or the other.  But yeah, you're right.  "Freemium" doesn't have to be bad by definition, but so far only a handful have managed to find a system that truly works.

[The Kid]

*When done badly.

 

 

I don't hear much complaining about Farmville or Team Fortress 2.

 

You just aren't looking in the right places. The only reason this is getting the spotlight is because EA has been under a microscope for the last 1-2 years.

[Tara]

You just aren't looking in the right places. The only reason this is getting the spotlight is because EA has been under a microscope for the last 1-2 years.

The only complaints I've ever heard about TF2 are the fact that the new, buyable items kind of break the balance the game previously prided itself in, and I can't say I disagree with that.  As for Farmville, aside from the fact that a major component apparently involves sending your friends annoying requests that you have to block, I don't know of any major complaints, although as someone else has mentioned, Zynga is totally in hot water for its other games already, so maybe it's because Farmville is the less terrible of their gradually-increasing library of lackluster games.

 

Of course, there will always be unsatisfied customers.  There's no way around that.  As the saying goes, you can't please everyone, but as far as I've seen, the ratio seems considerably higher on EA's end than on Valve's end.

Edited April 16, 2013 by Akito

[The Kid]

But that is partly due to EA being a target in the first place. Anything EA does nowadays is going to be criticized. They haven't done anything worse than other companies that use a "freemium" model, they're just the ones being called on it.

[Jix Hedgehog]

I used to play and love Restaurant City.. That company was bought out by EA and the closure followed shortly.. Of course I loathed EA beforehand for years, but the game was extremely addictive. A whole bunch of people swore to boycott them and it looks like many more will follow.

If anyone is familiar with Pet Society, that game is also shutting down

Edit: wow, Sims Social is also done..

Edited April 17, 2013 by Jix Hedgehog

[Tara]

But that is partly due to EA being a target in the first place. Anything EA does nowadays is going to be criticized. They haven't done anything worse than other companies that use a "freemium" model, they're just the ones being called on it.

Well, naturally a major game company, especially one with an increasingly notorious reputation for being bad, is going to get the most scorn than, say, some indie game that somehow got greenlit on Steam without any sort of business sense.  You expect a company that's been around for thirty years to have some respect for their consumers by this point.  Even if it's not any worse than what some other companies that use the same model have done, that doesn't mean it's okay.  Stupid decisions are still stupid decisions and they add up quickly.

 

But again, it's all about how it's handled.  As far as I've seen, TF2 and Farmville have it handled pretty well, bar some far-spread incidents that pretty much comes down to the fact that this kind of model is still in its infancy.  EA shutting down a still-active game less than a year after release is a stupid move no matter how you look at it, and they deserve every bit of scorn they get for it.  Being in hot water because of other atrocious business practices doesn't help their case any, though.