Due to an Influx of Poor Customer Feedback, Amazon Temporarily Halted SimCity Sales

Whew, EA sure can’t catch a break lately – although by this point, many would agree that it doesn’t deserve one. Earlier this week, we learned that the company would be developing all of its future titles with microtransaction capabilities, and then we saw a back-tracking to state that games would merely have the “ability”. Then came the insult to injury: the launch of SimCity.

Well before its launch, I had no doubts that the first week of SimCity would prove to be a frustrating one for gamers. I’m sure I’m not alone. When a game requires online access for single-player mode, that has to be a hint of bad things to come. Plus, with the debacle that was the launch of Diablo III, it’s pretty hard to anticipate a smooth launch from anyone anymore.

So here we have it: the SimCity launch has been, to many eyes, a total disaster. At launch, people were unable to download their game at a decent pace, and more had to sit in a ridiculous queue just to connect to a server for their single-player play. Suffice to say, this isn’t boding too well for EA, although it seems to be taking it well.

But yesterday, Amazon didn’t seem too impressed. For a time, it pulled sales of the game, no doubt thanks to the absolute influx of negative reviews being posted to the site. As of the time of writing, the game has received over 1,000 1-star reviews, with many singing their distaste much the same. I can’t help but agree entirely with one reviewer, Jonny, “There is no reason at all that anyone who shells out top-dollar for an over-hyped game should have to sit in a queue for hours at a time to even reach the main menu.”

Many others state that the game is actually quite good, but the level of service on the EA side is appalling. I think many will agree with the sentiment above – if you pay for a game, you sure as heck deserve to be able to play it. Especially right when it comes out.