EA apologises after SimCity server issues

EA has made several apologies immediately following the release of its refreshed SimCity game, which was unable to cope with the steep demand and has left players without the ability to play at all.

The restored city-building strategy game requires that users log into EA’s servers before they can play. It was released in North American on Tuesday, and is due to arrive in Europe this Friday.

EA’s handling of the launch has been called into question, as US customers complain about not being able to log in and play after ongoing attempts.

This form of online direct rights management, or DRM, has caused frustration before. Last year, the huge demand for Blizzard’s Diablo III knocked its servers offline, and connection problems in South Korea forced the publisher to refund customers.

EA released a statement to its North American owners, which said: “The SimCity servers are currently inundated with the masses of eager mayors attempting to govern their cities.

“We are working to clear traffic from the roads and hope to have all players managing their cities as soon as possible. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience while we work on a resolution to this issue.”

On the Origins Twitter feed, EA claimed that the issue is only affecting a “small percentage” of customers, and that it will be prepared for SimCity’s European launch this Friday.