10 Video Games That Instantly Pissed Fans Off
9. SimCity (2013)
SimCity fans had been waiting an entire decade for a new entry when this franchise reboot finally released in 2013, so as you can expect, excitement was at an absolute fever pitch.
But that swiftly deflated when the game launched with an always-online requirement, and because EA's servers couldn't keep up with player demand, network outages prevented players from, y'know, playing the game for days on end. Even those who could get in suffered crashes and unexpected disconnections, and when EA refused to offer refunds, fans responded by petitioning the White House to enact legislation mandating returns for games with always-online DRM.
In so desperately trying to prevent SimCity from being pirated, Maxis and EA alienated their most eager fans, and with an offline mode only being added to the game a year after launch, it's little surprise that it underperformed commercially.
This led to the closure of Maxis Emeryville in 2015, just as Paradox Interactive released their own city-builder Cities: Skylines, which went on to critical and financial success and basically devoured SimCity's place in the market.
The always-online nonsense didn't just piss off fans - it straight-up killed the franchise.