EA "aggressively undergoing server maintenance" to fix SimCity woes

The clock is ticking ahead of the UK launch of SimCity at midnight.

The game has endured a torrid start to life so far thanks to a combination of always-on internet DRM and Origin server woes. The result has been multiple reports of gamers being locked out of the single-player game. Problems persist now, even as we enter the third day after the US launch.

The game launches at midnight tonight in the UK, and EA has told MCV it is working around the clock to fix things – although it does warn that server issues are likely to remain a problem throughout the weekend.

We are experiencing extremely high server volume and it’s preventing some players from gaining access to the game,” an EA spokesperson told MCV. Our server team is working around the clock to resolve this issue so that we can get the rest of our fans into the game.

We are aggressively undergoing maintenance on our servers to add the necessary capacity to meet the demand. Players may continue to play throughout the weekend but we want to note that performance will fluctuate during this time. We thank our fans for their continued patience.”

A quick fix is imperative both for EA and for Origin. Always-on internet DRM is already hated by gamers. Every instance such as this simply erodes consumer confidence further and makes it harder for publishers to implement measures to protect their games in the future

And as long as the status quo persists, EA will have to endure further attacks online – the game’s Facebook page and Twitter mentions column makes for sorry reading for the publisher.