Electronic Arts on Friday admitted that it was "dumb" not to realize how many people would sign on to play SimCity, and offered up a free game to players "for your trouble."
The company is offering a free PC download game from the EA portfolio. SimCity players who have activated their game will get an email on March 18 with details about how to redeem their free game.
"I know that's a little contrived – kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy. But we feel bad about what happened," Lucy Bradshaw, general manager of EA's Maxis Label, wrote in a blog post. "We're hoping you won't stay mad and that we'll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent."
The trouble began Tuesday, when SimCity returned after a 10-year hiatus. The game requires that players be connected to the Internet to play, however, and EA's servers were quickly overloaded. EA refused to issue refunds to those who purchased digital downloads, so players simply have to wait until EA figures out its capacity problem.
"A lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta," Bradshaw said. "OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it."
EA has increased its server capacity by 120 percent in the last 48 percent, she said, and "the number of people who have gotten in and built cities has improved dramatically. The number of disrupted experiences has dropped by roughly 80 percent."
Still, the experience is "not quite there," and Bradshaw promised another update over the weekend.
"SimCity is a GREAT game and the people who made it are incredibly proud. Hang in there – we'll be providing more updates throughout the weekend," she concluded.
Early reviews of SimCity were in fact favorable, but the requirement that players be online to play the game has left a bad taste in some gamers' mouths. For more on that, check out An Open Letter to EA on SimCity: You Could Have Prevented This.
Also see PCMag's first look at SimCity and the slideshow above.