Well we did it - whoever we are. We managed to buy enough copies of the broken, buggy, always-on fiasco that is SimCity and now EA is happy to continue pumping DLC into it like unicorn blood until it eventually dries up and dies. But that won't be for a long time, because 1.6 million people ponied up the cash and left EA shareholders happy.
This comes from the mouth of EA Labels head Frank Gibeau, who said during a shareholder call that SimCity was a "great game that has recovered from a challenging launch."
Gibeau admitted that yes, there we some teething issues to begin with, but they were just temporary... right? "The short explanation for the launch is that the initial rush of consumers overwhelmed our game service, disrupting the consumer experience," he said. "As we stabilized the game and improved service in the first week, fans continued to pour in."
Pour in. That's what you people that bought SimCity did. You poured money and time into a game that was so horribly broken at launch due to its idiotic DRM that most people couldn't login to what was basically a single player experience. On top of that, for weeks after launch, many more simply couldn't play because of game breaking bugs.
Despite all this, SimCity sold enough copies to show EA that it doesn't really matter how badly it screws up, people will still give it boat loads of money.
Ultimately Gibeau did say the company had learned from the mistakes and would do its best to make sure it didn't happen again, but it's not like it needs to try. It'll make money either way.