EA Origin struggling to meet SimCity demands at launch

EA digital distribution service Origin is still struggling to meet the demands of some users trying to access the newly launched SimCity, Origin global community manager Marcel Hatam told Polygon.

"We are still in the process of delivering SimCity to some U.S. customers, but the majority has been fulfilled," he said. This follows numerous service updates from the official Origin Twitter account revealing server and download issues related to the game, with the latest update posted four hours ago.

According to the account, the service experienced delays due to heavy traffic during the early hours of launch. While download issues have since been resolved, users were warned downloads of the game could take up to three hours due to issues with server load.

Unlike other large-scale releases from EA, SimCity did not allow users to pre-load the title ahead of time, adding to the initial download wait. Hatam took to the publisher's official forums to explain: "We agree, pre-loads are very important, which is why we usually offer them (as we did for all of our last big releases like Crysis 3 and Dead Space 3). This didn't come together for SimCity unfortunately, for which I again apologize."

SimCity released today across the U.S. It is scheduled to hit the U.K. on March 8, while the game's other regional release dates can be found here.