Cloud Computing is Why the New SimCity Needs an Always-On Connection, Studi

By +Frank B.
in PC Gaming

 Share

Recommended Posts

Community Regular

Tech Geek Alex

Posted
Posted

OK here is the dictionary definition of what EA is doing, and this is because they know SimCity players still play all the old versions. They can't release a new version that will still be in use years later, how will they get more money from their next version.

Planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence in industrial design is a policy of planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete, that is, unfashionable or no longer functional after a certain period of time. Planned obsolescence has potential benefits for a producer because to obtain continuing use of the product the consumer is under pressure to purchase again, whether from the same manufacturer (a replacement part or a newer model), or from a competitor which might also rely on planned obsolescence

Source of definition - Wikipedia

Grand Master

+LogicalApex MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

This is all a huge assumption.

I'm assuming the game will sell millions and EA will continue doing what they do and people will continue hating them with barely any reason.

Hating EA for barely any reason? You've got to be kidding me here...

There isn't any serious reason for EA to be doing this to the Sim City franchise other than the desire to choke off the mod community and extract what they hope to be gobs of money out of us. If they have this thing running "in the cloud" all the time it will be impossible to patch (mod patch, not game updates) and it will become a lot easier to peddle gimmicks for it that would have previous come from the mod community.

Simple logic says that forcing a game like Sim City into the cloud is a bad idea unless you have some way of extracting incremental revenue out of users. A cluster of cloud servers don't come cheap and EA isn't a charity so I can't see them paying one red cent a month for me to have access to those servers unless in aggregate users are generating more than those operating costs on a monthly basis.

So I'm skipping this game because the online requirement is just dumb and, even more so, it confirms to me that my game would be sold to me incomplete and I'll be getting shaken down for money regularly.

Diablo got by this for Blizzard because they have that real money auction house gambit in the game. Allowing them to easily extract money out of the player base to power its servers...

But to say I have no reason to be angry at EA for this is ludicrous at best.

Grand Master

trag3dy

Posted
Posted

My sister who doesn't really know much at all about computers or gaming but has played the Sim City games for many years said she wouldn't buy it because it required an always online connection. Yeah, if my sister who doesn't even really know what DRM is can figure out why a game that requires an always online connection is bad it's surprising that the big wigs at EA can't (or rather, don't care).

Normally I'm not one to jump on the EA hate bandwagon but this time neither me or my sister will be buying this game. I had my fill of that with Blizzard and Diablo 3.

Grand Master

Aergan

Posted
Posted

EA's slogan should just be "bull****, it's in the game". A SimCity game does not need this along with EA's track record for DRM instability.

Mentor

abysal

Posted
Posted

So EA is devoting server processing time greater than my Core i7 just to run **my** individual game?

Bull.

The game would never be profitable. It'd cost them more than what they're making per copy if I played the game for 100 hours.

This is an explanation designed to appeal to people who don't understand how these things work. They're throwing out "cloud computing" as a magical term to make it sound good.

yep, I call BS on this as well.

Grand Master

Glassed Silver

Posted
Posted

Hmmm... Crap.

The game looked amazing and I heard a few showstoppers about Cities XL 2012 and Cities in Motion, but I surely won't invest into a single player game with an expiration date and this kind of bullsh*t internet requirement.

May my non-purchase amongst that of many others be a strong signal, I hope the game flops really hard.

Glassed Silver:mac

Grand Master

n_K

Posted
Posted

I wasn't overly interested in getting this but was gonna be on the look out for when it was in heavially reduced sales...

This has now cancelled any interest I had in it.

  • Glassed Silver
  • Like 1
Grand Master

The_Decryptor Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

It's funny, Anno 2070 requires an always on internet connection, but I honestly don't mind it because it gives you stuff like persistent item storage across saves, votes in the "council", special actions, etc. But what does it add to Sim City? The cloud computing excuse is a load of crap.

Grand Master

spaceelf

Posted
Posted

It's funny, Anno 2070 requires an always on internet connection, but I honestly don't mind it because it gives you stuff like persistent item storage across saves, votes in the "council", special actions, etc. But what does it add to Sim City? The cloud computing excuse is a load of crap.

Is it? Have you played the game via some methods I don't know?

Grand Master

Elliot B.

Posted
Posted

It's funny, Anno 2070 requires an always on internet connection, but I honestly don't mind it because it gives you stuff like persistent item storage across saves, votes in the "council", special actions, etc. But what does it add to Sim City? The cloud computing excuse is a load of crap.

What happens when they inevitably turn off the servers in Anno 2070?

That's the issue people here have.

  • Glassed Silver
  • Like 1
Grand Master

The_Decryptor Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

What happens when they inevitably turn off the servers in Anno 2070?

That's the issue people here have.

I have the same issue, My complaint is that they're coming up with excuses instead of providing an actual reason, or benefits for the scheme.

Like I said, I don't mind it in Anno because it gives you benefits, take away the benefits and then it's just something that will get in your way of playing the game.

Grand Master

+LogicalApex MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

What happens when they inevitably turn off the servers in Anno 2070?

That's the issue people here have.

Thing is Anno feeds back for stuff like achievements and chat, among other things, but the game is still actually running locally. So, theoretically, they could patch Anno and allow the servers to go away without issue. The new Sim City is actually all running in the cloud so to remove the server would take a whole game rewrite and not just a simple patch to remove the online extras.

Playing Anno you can finish out a game if you lose internet in the middle, but the new Sim City will just shut off on you.

  • Glassed Silver and Brandon H
  • Like 2
Grand Master

spaceelf

Posted
Posted

to justify the 'always-on cloud-ness'

very likely E.A will chop-off the single-player mode,

therefore i'll predict that actual release of the new SimCity will be MMO mode only.

even though it isn't an MMO? how's that work?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • Bypassed Windows 11 shows surprising stability on ancient, completely unsupported hardware

      By +Spark99 · Posted

      My experience in the past with older Windows 11 builds was not great on unsupported machines but I recently used Rufus to put the latest build on a older 5th Gen Core Thinkpad T that we upgraded with a SATA SSD and 8GB of RAM four years ago when hardware was reasonable and it seemed pretty fast and solid. Customer is very happy with the performance and will probably get four more years out of that venerable laptop that he loves so much. Another customer just retired his Dell Studio laptop from 2009 running Windows 10. It got an SSD over 10 years ago and did everything he needed it to for 17 years but he also retired last year and is happy doing everything on his iPad now.
    • Apple's newest AirTag 2 gets first big discount

      By TarasBuria · Posted

      Apple's newest AirTag 2 gets first big discount by Taras Buria In late January 2026, Apple introduced its second-generation AirTag trackers, bringing a refresh to the old model that has been on the market for half a decade. Now, you can get these new trackers at an all-time low price, thanks to the first big discount that brought the price down by 17% on Amazon. While the second-generation AirTag looks identical to its predecessor, it packs meaningful upgrades inside. The second-gen ultrawideband chip works 50% farther than the original AirTag, allowing you to detect lost items in a wider range. In addition, the second-generation AirTag features an upgraded Bluetooth chip for extended range and a significantly louder speaker (up to 50%) so that you can hear it better when locating a lost item. Note that the second-gen AirTag only works with iPhones and iPads that run iOS/iPadOS 26 and newer, so you need a compatible device to use the tracker. Like the original AirTag, the AirTag 2 is available in two packs: one and four pieces. Both are now available at a notable discount on Amazon, and you can purchase them using the links below. Apple AirTag 2 tracker - $24 | 17% off on Amazon Apple AirTag 2 tracker (four-pack) - $89 | 10% off on Amazon Good to know This Amazon deal is U.S.- specific and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • Tidal won't monetize AI slop music, company says

      By monterxz · Posted

      I've been on Deezer for over a decade, but glad that Tidal joined them in fighting AI slop. Can't stand such takes as Spotify's: "Spotify's CEO recently pushed back against listeners who call AI music "slop," urging people to stop using the term and instead embrace the creative potential of AI music."
    • Why it's almost impossible to produce a smartphone in the United States

      By Cosmocronos · Posted

      “Could” … in the IS the healthcare is run by insurance companies that make indecent profits denying basic treatments to people that are paying money for nothing. Besides, where are all the Trump epigones who were stating that the tariffs were going to paid by foreign companies and not the US citizens? …
    • Microsoft Teams gets smarter at spotting sneaky meeting bots

      By Usama Jawad96 · Posted

      Microsoft Teams gets smarter at spotting sneaky meeting bots by Usama Jawad Microsoft Teams is set to receive a couple of new features soon, including a dedicated Recap app and a rather controversial location tracking functionality. The Redmond tech giant has also explained how it has made online communication and collaboration a lot more performant this year. Now, the company has detailed more secure bot admission mechanisms, as first reported by us in March 2026, and now available in Teams. As the use of AI has expanded across enterprise environments, Microsoft has begun allowing users to integrate bots into their meetings for various tasks, such as note-taking. While this has a tangible productivity benefit for users, Microsoft has highlighted how misconfiguration has allowed bots to join meetings that they shouldn't. This has created security and privacy risks, which Microsoft is now combating using a new Teams admin policy that allows organizers to control how external bots access meetings. Admins can leverage a policy called Manage external bots and their access to meetings. The default configuration is "When detected, require approval before joining", which places detected bots in a lobby before they are explicitly admitted into the meeting. The other option disables the experience. Microsoft has also requested admins to only allow organizers and co-organizers to manage access to a meeting, so that other people don't randomly allow bots into meetings. Teams will now be able to leverage infrastructure signals to intelligently detect and distinguish between bots and humans. Microsoft will soon also trial a registration experience for independent software vendors (ISVs) to build a system that registers a bot with Microsoft, so it is marked as a "known" bot. Teams will also categorize bots as trusted and suspected threats so that organizers can quickly identify which bots they want to allow into a meeting. Additional safeguards to block accidental admission of a bot into a meeting include: No one-click Admit option for identified bots Confirmation prompts when admitting participants that include bots Warnings when organizers choose Admit all, and bots are included Microsoft has begun rolling out this experience, and it will be retiring the current CAPTCHA verification implementation. In the future, the company plans to roll out new capabilities like allow-lists, organization-wide policies, admin reports, audit logs, and more granular controls.

  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      KMilenkoski1202 earned a badge
      First Post

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      538
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      266
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      151
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      98
    5. 5
      macoman
      66
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!