Somehow, the grand fiasco that is the latest SimCity is stretching into a fourth day. A new online petition is now demanding that the "always on" DRM that came included with the game be removed.
"When I, And millions of other people, buy a game that has a single-player experience. We expect it to work regardless of our connectivity to the internet, or quality of our connection," reads the petition. "EA has made this impossible, so many people with an unstable connection will not even be able to play the game in the first place, let alone anyone who wants to play on the go/with no internet connection."
The petition is currently sitting at 50,819 signatures, with a goal of 75,000 (bumped up from a previous 50,000).
EA and Maxis have claimed that SimCity's always on functionality is core to the game's multiplayer components. Unfortunately, this has meant that thousands of gamers so far have been locked out of the product they purchased. At best, many have been experiencing chronic connectivity issues, severely worsening their overall experience.
While EA is almost certainly taking note of this petition, they have made no indication that they are even considering removing the always on features. Instead, they've been hard at work adding additional servers, and temporarily disabling certain game features in the hopes of alleviating some of the pressure.
As a show of good will however, EA is offering anyone who purchased a copy of SimCity a free game. The offer was announced in a letter to fans from Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw. She reiterated that they are adding additional game servers, which have increased by 120% in the last few days.
"So we're close to fixed, but not quite there. I'm hoping to post another update this weekend to let everyone know that the launch issues are behind us," said Bradshaw.
Unfortunately, it was not made clear what games would be featured in this compensation offer. Bradshaw only mentioned it's "from the EA portfolio," and that more details would be sent out on the 18th.