Ah yes, the old we hate the game yet still bought it routine. Despite all the anger over its ill received launch, SimCity made over $1 Million in sales in only two weeks. This may come as a shock, especially if you’ve read a review of the game, but as it turns out there were still enough people out there who were willing to buy the game despite its launch problems. Perhaps that total would have been much higher if EA allowed for offline play, but it’s still a large chunk of change no matter how you slice it. It’s pretty amazing really with all the outrage that the game would still do this well and it only reinforces EA’s decision to make the game they want instead of the game the fans wanted. Love it or hate it, it appears that SimCity is going to be a success, at least financially.
That $1 million figure is a bit misleading as most who purchased the game are also receiving a free game as compensation for their terrible launch. This does water down the figure a bit especially considering that the games they are giving away for free are all triple-A titles that could have perhaps been sold at a premium price. I don’t know if it completely makes up for SimCity’s launch troubles, but it does help to take the sting off a bit.
It really makes one wonder doesn’t it? If the game is so terrible and EA is such an evil empire, how come so many still purchased the game? Maybe SimCity is such a popular franchise that any game with the name would have sold well or perhaps people simply enjoy raging in between building cities, but if people were hoping EA “got the message” regarding online only play I’m willing to bet selling this many copies drowns out any logic argument against it.
Regardless it seems that SimCity’s awkward success will most likely encourage EA and its subsidiaries to continue with their online only strategy. Sure the fans may complain, but if the game is selling well I’m pretty sure that’s all they care about.
