EA to Offer Free Game to SimCity Owners as Apology for Launch Issues

The backlash against SimCity's disastrous launch and controversial DRM policies continues. In an attempt to dampen the flames of criticism, and perhaps generate some positive PR in the meantime, EA have announced that they intend to offer a free PC game 'from the EA portfolio' to those potentially affected by the game's launch problems.

Those who registered their copy of SimCity will receive an e-mail with instructions detailing how to redeem their free game on March 18.

No word yet on what game EA are actually giving away (or perhaps a list of games to choose from), and I'm sure most SimCity owners would rather they were able to play the game they actually paid for, rather than some other random EA title, but what the heck, a free game's a free game, right?

But perhaps the more prescient part of this announcement, at least as far as the future is concerned, is the fact that there's no apology for the DRM policies that led to this failure of a launch in the first place. The statement EA have released doesn't row back on the always-online requirement in the slightest, so it's doubtful that this will be the last time new owners of an EA game will find themselves unable to play their new game because of a failure on EA's part.