14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts made The Sims 4 an offline, single-player experience after it saw the problematic launch of SimCity earlier this year and after it received the dubious honor of being the "Worst Company in America" for the second year in a row, according to an executive.
EA went through some troubled times earlier this year, as the launch of SimCity, an always-online city building simulator, didn't go as planned and resulted in huge waiting and offline periods, leaving owners unable to access the game they bought.
Quickly after that, EA once again won the "Worst Company in America" survey for the second year in a row, prompting the company to pledge to do better for its consumers.
EA Games Label President, Frank Gibeau, emphasized how important those two experiences had been for the company, in an interview with VentureBeat.
"In retrospect, our biggest takeaway is that we are lucky that SimCity has an enormous number of loyal fans. That first week after launch was really rough — an experience nobody wants to live through again."
"Since then, we’ve sold more than 2 million units, and the number of people logging in and playing is holding steady. SimCity is a success. However, underestimating demand in the first month was a major miss. We hope that the game and the service we’ve provided since then meets the fans’ high standards."
The Worst Company award also prompted quite a few changes, from turning The Sims 4 into an offline experience to getting rid of the Online Pass system.
"In the last few months, we have started making changes to the business practices that gamers clearly don’t like. In the spring, we dropped our online pass program for consoles — both next-generation and current-generation."
"We listened to the feedback on SimCity and decided that The Sims 4 would be built as a single-player, offline experience. We announced some new intellectual properties at E3 and will unveil more new games in the months ahead."
EA will continue these efforts, according to Gibeau, so fans should look forward to more benefits.