EA's city-building game moves another 400,000 units in past three months; The Sims 4 will be offline due to SimCity feedback.
Electronic Arts' city-building game SimCity has now sold 2 million units, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau told GamesBeat in a new interview. This is up 400,000 units from 1.6 million at the end of March.
Recalling the game's rocky launch in March, Gibeau said the first week was "really rough" and an "experience nobody wants to live through again."
Despite the initial struggles, Gibeau said the company sees SimCity as a positive achievement overall.
"Since then, we've sold more than 2 million units, and the number of people logging in and playing is holding steady. SimCity is a success," Gibeau said. "However, underestimating demand in the first month was a major miss. We hope that the game and the service we’ve provided since then meets the fans' high standards."
In addition, the feedback EA received from gamers following SimCity's launch helped inspire the company to make 2014's The Sims 4 an offline game, Gibeau said.
"In the last few months, we have started making changes to the business practices that gamers clearly don't like," Gibeau said. "In the spring, we dropped our online pass program for consoles--both next-generation and current-generation. We listened to the feedback on SimCity and decided that The Sims 4 would be built as a single-player, offline experience."
