Will Wright: SimCity’s server issues were ‘inexcusable’

‘I kind of did predict there’d be a big backlash about the DRM stuff.’

Game Industry International caught up with legendary designer Will Wright who shared his thoughts on the train wreck of a launch SimCity suffered with all of the server issues players experienced when trying to play the game.

“I feel bad for the team,” Wright stated. “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.” However Wright added that it “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 also addressed the always online requirement, for both SimCity and the controversy over the next Xbox always needing an online connection. “I think people care if it doesn’t work,” Wright said. “If you can’t play it on planes, stuff like that… I think there are some very valid concerns about it. Also there’s a perception; I don’t expect to play World of Warcraft on the airplane, because my perception is it has to be on the ‘Net. SimCity was in this very uncomfortable space, like the uncanny valley, almost; [it was caught] between was it a single player game or was it a multiplayer game?”

While people can now play SimCity, the game is still experiencing a multitude of bugs and issues. Perhaps all this was a good lesson for EA, as the company explicitly called Sims 4 a “single-player offline experience” during today’s announcement.

Be sure to read the full interview with Will Wright as shares his thoughts about the industry as a whole, and hints more at what his new studio is working on.

Will Wright: Games “falling way short” as a medium [Game Industry]