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Last week, EA launched The Simpsons: Tapped Out, a new title that is a big part of its expanded strategy into freemium. The game appears to be one part The Sims and another Tiny Tower.
Using the same writers and voice actors as the TV series, the game features a Springfield wiped out by a nuclear explosion caused by Homer. The town isn't actually destroyed, but players must rebuild the city, using quests to gain donuts -- the game's currency -- and unlock the town's various characters. Players who want to advance more quickly can use in-app purchases to buy more donuts.
The game, however, proved more popular than EA expected. The game has been pulled from the App Store just 4 days after it went live because overwhelming demand on the game's servers was causing a degradation in experience -- though players who have already downloaded the game can continue playing.
To make sure you current players have the best possible experience, we’ve temporarily removed The Simpsons: Tapped Out from the App Store. Yes, as a current player you can keep playing -- and things should only get better as we make improvements to connectivity. Once we have a solution, we’ll return the game to the App Store so new players can join in the fun. Meanwhile, thank you for your patience and support.
EA says it will post updates about The Simpsons: Tapped Out on the game's Facebook page.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)Good thing i wasnt the only one!
Sounds like EA's server capacity is Tapped Out.
yeeeeaaaaahhhh!!!
Sorry mods, I had to.
Rocketman
LOL! Pun of the day!
But seriously, this is a huge capacity planning failure. How does EA, of all game devs, not have a contingency plan for success?
Maybe I'm just a cynic, but I would guess EA is trying to generate a little bit of news. Deliberately launch a game with inadequate severs to support it, then when capacity is overloaded, pull an app and make a press release about how well it's doing. A week later, put out another press release about how your servers are now ready again, repost, and end up having a lot more people know about the game, and thus more players, than would have happened otherwise.
Sounds like a good publicity stunt to me. Everyone clambers for a pulled app!
As a Simpsons fan and an iPhone fan, I should have heard of this game sooner. But now that it's been "pulled" I not only know about it but I'll get it as soon as I can. :)