Stateside: Mobile devs can learn a lot from SimCity's server strife

Keith Andrew | 13:13 - 13 March 2013

They'll be in trouble if they try and pull that routine with SimCity - the SimCity 4 and 3000 communities are still going very strong.

Kevin Corti | 11:28 - 13 March 2013

I don't disagree with any of the above - all good discussion points/actions for progressive game developers - but there is another interesting aspect to this story; that consumers who are paying up-front (not through optional IAPs or via a regular subscription) may not fully appreciate that they product that they 'own' will, at some point, stop working because EA no longer assess the ongoing back-end costs as being commercially viable. This isn't an anti-EA rant or, indeed, me being vociferously against this blend of boxed product and online GaaS, but I do have concerns that the broad consumer base simply won't understand this proposition and the inevitable outcome (the publisher electing to 'sunset' the game).

My gut feel is that if you are going to build a PC/console triple-A game that is distributed as a boxed product or as a (big) digital download then you should probably favour a free to play business model as there is a much more explicit understanding from consumers that this is a *service* that can/will be closed at some point.