SimCity launches smoothly in the UK; Amazon pulls digital game from sale in the US

After what has been a wretched start to life this week, SimCity has finally arrived in the UK – and everything’s fine!

Gamers have been reporting a largely trouble-free time both downloading the game and logging into its servers ever since it went live at midnight. EA confirmed via Twitter the addition of a third Europe East serve, which no doubt played its part.

However, the situation remains imperfect in North America.

Amazon.com has stopped selling digital versions of the game, stating: Many customers are having issues connecting to the SimCity servers. EA is actively working to resolve these issues, but at this time we do not know when the issue will be fixed.”

And as you can imagine the title has attracted some heartfelt and complimentary user reviews.

EA has also been fighting fire on another front. Reports started to appear yesterday of EA Origin reps not only refusing refunds – despite company claims that it would honour them – but also threatening to ban people from Origin if they dared protest.

Fortunately, EA moved quickly to correct the problem.

"We will not ban players for requesting refunds,” a statement confirmed. Please review our returns and cancellations policy. All physical products purchased through our Origin Store come with a 14-day unconditional guarantee. If you don’t like it, you can return it within 14 days of its delivery for a prompt refund – no questions asked.”

Digital buyers are not so fortunate, however: "As a general policy, EA does not offer refunds on any products downloaded through Origin.”

Note, too, that all is not well in other parts of Europe, either. Sister site MCV Nordic describes the launch in its region and across much of Europe as "disastrous".