Sides with consumers, if always-on connectivity stops enjoyment of games
Veteran game designer Will Wright has called EA’s handling of its SimCity launch “inexcusable”.
Speaking to Games Industry, the founder of Maxis and creator of SimCity, who had no involvement in the latest game himself, sympathised with the many gamers who found themselves unable to play, because of the title’s always-on server demands.
“I could have predicted – I kind of did predict there'd be a big backlash about the DRM stuff. It's a good game; I enjoy playing it a lot,” said Will.
“It was kind of like, 'EA is the evil empire, there was a lot of ‘Let’s bash EA over it’. That was basically inexcusable, that you charge somebody $60 for a game and they can’t play it. I can understand the outrage. If I was a consumer buying the game and that happened to me, I’d feel the same.”
Wright expressed regrets that the SimCity team had to face such turmoil. Yet, his views on always-on connectivity remain pro-consumer.