Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
UK EditionUK US EditionUS CA EditionCanada AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Black Friday
    • Gaming
      • Black Friday PS5 Deals
      • Black Friday Switch Deals
      • Black Friday Xbox Deals
      • Black Friday Retro Deals
    • PC
      • Black Friday Gaming Laptop Deals
      • Black Friday Gaming Monitor Deals
      • Black Friday Graphics Card Deals
      • Black Friday Alienware Deals
    • Tabletop & Merch
      • Black Friday Lego Deals
      • Black Friday Board Game Deals
      • Black Friday Pokémon Card Deals
      • Black Friday Warhammer Deals
      • Gift Guides
  • Games
    • Game Insights
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
    • Genres
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
    • Franchises
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • Insights
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
    • Computing
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
    • Accessories & Tech
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
    • Quizzes
    • Newsletters
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Total Film
  • home
  • Black Friday
    • View Black Friday
      • Black Friday PS5 Deals
      • Black Friday Switch Deals
      • Black Friday Xbox Deals
      • Black Friday Retro Deals
      • Black Friday Gaming Laptop Deals
      • Black Friday Gaming Monitor Deals
      • Black Friday Graphics Card Deals
      • Black Friday Alienware Deals
      • Black Friday Lego Deals
      • Black Friday Board Game Deals
      • Black Friday Pokémon Card Deals
      • Black Friday Warhammer Deals
      • Gift Guides
  • Games
    • View Games
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • View Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • View Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • View TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • View Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • View Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • View Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • View Hardware
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • View Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • View Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
    • Quizzes
    • Newsletters
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
Subscribe now
Don't miss these
Hollow Knight
Action Games Steam and the Switch eShop are down, or at least struggling, the very second Hollow Knight: Silksong has launched, and you couldn't write better chaos
Arc Raiders
Third Person Shooters Arc Raiders servers crash after hitting a peak of 337,000 concurrent players on Steam, and matchmaking may still take "longer than usual" while devs fix the extraction shooter
The Sims 4 screenshot showing a young woman with shoulder-length wavy brown hair and an academic green coat, her expression surprised
The Sims The Sims 4 legend behind piracy tool rendering nearly $1,500 of DLC totally free quits town and takes his loot with 'em, players pay tribute as copycats immediately try to charge for alternatives
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith got to play Cyberpunk 2077 before the RPG's infamous launch, only to see his V randomly T-pose pantsless: "We're fixing that, right?"
Battlefield 6
Battlefield Battlefield 6 players keep making maps unplayable by whacking drones with sledgehammers, and it's funny, but broken: "Ban the sledgehammer until it's fixed"
Battlefield 6 screenshot displaying soldiers creeping through a building in the dark, with night vision illuminating their silhouettes
Battlefield "They did not want to allow this to happen": Battlefield 6 lead says the controversial Battlefield 2042, which once had just 21% positive Steam reviews, even disappointed its devs
Heart of the Machine
Strategy Games Between "spider/bee stacking" to "independently realize dogs exist," the latest major update from Manor Lords indie publisher's sci-fi strategy RPG includes some of the best patch notes I've ever seen
The Sims 4 Adventure Awaits
The Sims New Sims 4 Adventure Awaits expansion features "a really crappy design choice" fans wish wasn't intentional on EA's part: "This has got to be a bug, right?"
Arc Raiders survivors in metal and fabric armor
FPS Games Arc Raiders devs already patch Server Slam disconnect errors as Steam players queue to get in: "This time around, it's a full redownload of the game"
A screenshot from the game Generation Exile shows a woman smiling in a character creator
City Builder Games 7 years and 35,000 wishlists later, one of Steam's most popular city-builder demos failed miserably enough at Early Access for its creator to question everything: "None of this means we were owed anything"
Fortnite character Jonesy looks shocked in the story trailer for Season X.
Fortnite Fortnite, Roblox, Wordle, and other popular games down as Amazon Web Services outage sends the internet toppling
Arc Raiders
Third Person Shooters After 30 million rounds and 816,162 rubber ducks, Arc Raiders celebrates successful Server Slam open beta with some prompt bug squashing: "We took immediate action"
Battlefield 6
Battlefield Battlefield 6 release live coverage – all the patch note highlights, launch information, and more that you need to know
Skate 4
Open World Games Skate launches to 'Mixed' reviews on Steam, with fans dubbing it a "gentrified version of Skate 3"
Hollow Knight
Action Games "You just delayed Silksong another year thanks to this idea": As the 6-year wait for the Hollow Knight sequel finally ends, the community says goodbye in the most absurd ways
Trending
  • Black Friday gaming deals
  • Fallout Season 2
  • New Games for 2025
  • Gift Guides
  1. Games
  2. City Builder
  3. Sim City

SimCity's botched launch: The best jokes and memes we've seen so far

Features
By Matt Bradford published 9 March 2013

Finding humor in SimCity's DRM distaster

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Failure to launch

Failure to launch

111 best gaming memes

about the problems

We can't solve your SimCity woes, but we can help you kill some time while you wait for that server to connect. Introducing our gallery of SimCity jokes, memes, and other images from the botched launch (as recruited from the likes of memegenerator, Reddit (r/SimCity), quickmeme, etc...).

Page 1 of 37
Page 1 of 37

Page 2 of 37
Page 2 of 37

Page 3 of 37
Page 3 of 37

Page 4 of 37
Page 4 of 37

Page 5 of 37
Page 5 of 37

Page 6 of 37
Page 6 of 37

Page 7 of 37
Page 7 of 37

Page 8 of 37
Page 8 of 37

Page 9 of 37
Page 9 of 37

Page 10 of 37
Page 10 of 37

Page 11 of 37
Page 11 of 37

Page 12 of 37
Page 12 of 37

Page 13 of 37
Page 13 of 37

Page 14 of 37
Page 14 of 37

Page 15 of 37
Page 15 of 37

Page 16 of 37
Page 16 of 37

Page 17 of 37
Page 17 of 37

Page 18 of 37
Page 18 of 37

Page 19 of 37
Page 19 of 37

Page 20 of 37
Page 20 of 37

Page 21 of 37
Page 21 of 37

Page 22 of 37
Page 22 of 37

Page 23 of 37
Page 23 of 37

Page 24 of 37
Page 24 of 37

Page 25 of 37
Page 25 of 37

Page 26 of 37
Page 26 of 37

Page 27 of 37
Page 27 of 37

Page 28 of 37
Page 28 of 37

Page 29 of 37
Page 29 of 37

Page 30 of 37
Page 30 of 37

Page 31 of 37
Page 31 of 37

Page 32 of 37
Page 32 of 37

Page 33 of 37
Page 33 of 37

Page 34 of 37
Page 34 of 37

Page 35 of 37
Page 35 of 37

Page 36 of 37
Page 36 of 37
...reticulating splines...

...reticulating splines...

refund denials

Angry? Amused? Ready to give up on gaming? Let us know in the comments...

For more SimCity launch news and opinions, read EA, your SimCity is broke, SimCity marketing campaigns suspended, and our SimCity review in-progress.

Page 37 of 37
Page 37 of 37
CATEGORIES
PC Gaming Platforms
PRODUCTS
Sim City SimCity
Matt Bradford
Social Links Navigation

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries. 

Read more
Hollow Knight
Steam and the Switch eShop are down, or at least struggling, the very second Hollow Knight: Silksong has launched, and you couldn't write better chaos
 
 
Arc Raiders
Arc Raiders servers crash after hitting a peak of 337,000 concurrent players on Steam, and matchmaking may still take "longer than usual" while devs fix the extraction shooter
 
 
The Sims 4 screenshot showing a young woman with shoulder-length wavy brown hair and an academic green coat, her expression surprised
The Sims 4 legend behind piracy tool rendering nearly $1,500 of DLC totally free quits town and takes his loot with 'em, players pay tribute as copycats immediately try to charge for alternatives
 
 
Battlefield 6
Battlefield 6 players keep making maps unplayable by whacking drones with sledgehammers, and it's funny, but broken: "Ban the sledgehammer until it's fixed"
 
 
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith got to play Cyberpunk 2077 before the RPG's infamous launch, only to see his V randomly T-pose pantsless: "We're fixing that, right?"
 
 
Battlefield 6 screenshot displaying soldiers creeping through a building in the dark, with night vision illuminating their silhouettes
"They did not want to allow this to happen": Battlefield 6 lead says the controversial Battlefield 2042, which once had just 21% positive Steam reviews, even disappointed its devs
 
 
Latest in Sim City
SimCopter
Unreleased SimCopter 64 build turns up over 25 years later
 
 
EA's shutting down Maxis Emeryville, home of SimCity and Spore
 
 
SimCity owners getting the offline mode they (thought they) want(ed)
 
 
SimCitys Cities of Tomorrow expansion is part Demolition Man, part Judge Dredd
 
 
Maxis is 'exploring' offline mode for SimCity
 
 
SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow expansion pack coming in November
 
 
Latest in Features
100 Nights of Hero
I'm not a fan of rom-coms or romantic fantasy – but the delightfully queer 100 Nights of Hero made me a believer
 
 
Picard and Ryker in Star Trek Next Generation looking at the GamesRadar+ Quiz icon
How well do you know Star Trek?
 
 
A spooky necromancer's city with a green sky in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era
As Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era soars, Hooded Horse boss Tim Bender says passion-publishing trumps chasing money: "Why would anyone want to work with you if not for total lack of choice?"
 
 
Jotun in Troll 2
Troll 2 director on the kaiju-sized sequel to Netflix's most-watched non-English language movie: "We wanted the troll to feel very different to the first movie"
 
 
Robert rides the elevator to work in Dispatch with his dog Beef, looking out of place surrounded by superheroes
How Dispatch helped me to see my father's death in a new light
 
 
The Big Preview art of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era showing a vampire holding a glowing skull
The Big Preview for Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era – Exclusive dev access and hands-on with the strategy RPG revival
 
 
  1. Escape from Tarkov review
    1
    Escape from Tarkov review: "An extraction shooter that will make you truly miserable if you let it, but can offer dizzying highs you won't find elsewhere"
  2. 2
    Fans think this is the best strategy board game ever made, and I have to admit that they've got a point
  3. 3
    Constance review: "If Hollow Knight: Silksong seems too daunting, this wonderful paint powered adventure should do nicely"
  4. 4
    This enthralling team board game is perfect for playing with family this Thanksgiving
  5. 5
    Kirby Air Riders review: "This racer is also equal parts fighting game, minigame collection, and roguelike – and I'm shocked at how well that works"
  1. Josh O'Connor and Daniel Craig in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
    1
    Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review: "Brings Knives Out back to its roots for a sequel that's almost on a par with the original"
  2. 2
    Wicked: For Good review: "Builds to an incredibly cathartic conclusion, but isn't quite as captivating as Part 1"
  3. 3
    The Running Man review: "Some fun action and Glen Powell's star power aren't enough to energize this disappointing Stephen King adaptation"
  4. 4
    Predator: Badlands review: "Die-hard fans may be disappointed, but as a blockbuster action-adventure, Badlands kills it"
  5. 5
    Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc review "Storytelling just as compelling as the chainsaws, devils, and visually excessive fight scenes"
  1. Noah Schnapp as Will Byers and Jamie Campbell Bower as Vecna in Stranger Things season 5
    1
    Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 review: “Can the Duffer brothers stick the landing? It’s sure looking like they will”
  2. 2
    Pluribus season 1 review: "Easily one of the year's best dramas"
  3. 3
    The Witcher season 4 review: "The Henry Cavill-less fourth season is the best yet"
  4. 4
    IT: Welcome to Derry review: "A supremely confident step back into the history of Stephen King's cursed town and killer clown"
  5. 5
    Splinter Cell: Deathwatch review: "A pale imitation of the long-dormant stealth franchise"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google
  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...