EA and SimCity have been in the news quite a lot this past couple of weeks. SimCity was released in the first week of March and despite the fact that it was very highly anticipated by gamers, it still managed to bring in a lot of negative press. This due to the fact that SimCity features always-on DRM, which requires players to be connected to the internet at all times. EA sold more copies than it had anticipated, which in turn caused server issues at their end. They started deploying more servers and that particular issue has finally been resolved.
As a token of appreciation for all the SimCity mayors that soldiered on during the server debacle, EA is now offering a host of games to them, absolutely free. Every user that has activated their copy of SimCity will receive an email from EA with instructions on how to redeem this offer. All users must register their SimCity copies by March 25 if they want a free game from EA. The redemption portal will be made live country wise and it will be open worldwide by March 22. The free game offer must be redeemed before midnight of March 30. Following are the games being offered:
- Battlefield 3 (Standard Edition)
- Bejeweled 3
- Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition)
- Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition)
- Medal of Honor Warfighter (Standard Edition)
- Need For Speed Most Wanted (Standard Edition)
- Plants vs. Zombies
- SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition
It is ironic that EA is also offering SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition for free, considering it does not have DRM restrictions and allows offline play. SimCity on the other hand does not allow offline play, and EA has been criticized a lot for it. Do you think EA shouldn’t have placed the DRM restriction? Drop a comment below.