NEWS
by Mark Barley

If you purchased 'SimCity' through Origin you won't be getting a refund


EA's recently released building simulator SimCity has been bogged by a slew of problems - much to do with the servers - and this much is known, if you bought the game through Origin you won't be getting your money back.

Since Tuesday, EA has been backtracking and altering their stance on the problems plaguing the title and what exactly gamers can and can't do regarding getting the most bang for their buck. On Tuesday an EA community manager stated on the forums;
“If you regrettably feel that we let you down, you can of course request a refund for your order at [Origin's "contact us" page], though we’re currently still in the process of resolving this issue.”
That particular statement has since been edited. It doesn't out right state (anymore) that you can not get your money back but it hints that it may be possible.

Origin's policy states that refunds will not be given for digital copies unless there are "special mitigating circumstances". What everyone wants to know though, is what is a "mitigating circumstance"? Wouldn't EA's server issues count as one of those "circumstances" since, ya know, it's not your fault that their servers are terrible? Polygon was told, by EA, that you may have been given a refund had you purchased the title then realized that your PC did not meet the minimum requirements. But that's almost just as bad as not giving a refund at all. That's not a "special mitigating circumstance" in the slightest. That's actually your fault, not EA's. However, server issues are not your fault. And you should be given a refund if you wanted.

Then there was this screenshot of one Origin user's chat log of a conversation between the user and an Origin customer service agent. The user wanted a refund and when they were told they would not be given a refund the user threatened to dispute the charge with his bank. Thus prompted the customer service rep to threaten to ban him from Origin all together. Seems legit, right? The official Origin twitter account later tweeted that you not be banned from the service for seeking a refund.

Oh wait, it doesn't end there; Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw issued a statement on the matter to Kotaku;
“Thousands of players across the world are playing and having a good experience – in fact, more than 700,000 cities have been built by our players in just 24 hours. But many are experiencing server instability and consequently, the rollout in North America has been challenging. It’s also now evident that players across Europe and Asia are experiencing the same frustration,” she admitted.

“Our priority now is to quickly and dramatically increase the number and stability of our servers and, with that, the number of players who can simultaneously access the game. We added servers today, and there will be several more added over the weekend. We’re working as hard as possible to make sure everyone gets to experience the amazing game we built in SimCity.”
Online retailers, such as Amazon, have stopped selling digital copies of SimCity altogether while certain features on the game have been disabled while issues are resolved.

Do you have any SimCity war stories so far? Share in the comments below.

Via VG247