SimCity nearing 'all clear' on server issues, Maxis says

SimCity's crippling server issues are on their way out. Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw said crashes are down 92 percent from launch as of Sunday night in an Electronic Arts blog post, with almost 8 million hours spent lording over virtual cities so far.

New servers, optimizations, and client-side updates are whipping the always-online game into shape, but Bradshaw said a few more elements must come together before she'll issue an "all clear." Hopefully that includes re-enabling features like "Cheetah" speed and leaderboards, which were deactivated in a patch to lessen server load.

The good news continues for SimCity players--in an earlier post, Bradshaw said everyone who has activated the game as of March 18 will receive a complimentary downloadable PC game "from the EA portfolio." Expect further instructions to arrive via email that day.

"I know that’s a little contrived--kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy," Bradshaw wrote. "But we feel bad about what happened. We’re hoping you won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent."

Oh, and Amazon's started selling digital editions of the game again. That's always a good sign.