SimCity Server Woes Earn Apology from EA

If you bought the new "SimCity" game last week, fear not: You should be able to play it now.

Electronic Arts in Redwood City is apologizing to buyers of the new "SimCity" after server errors kept users -- who must be online to play the game, even in single player mode -- in the dark and not building cities, according to reports.

The latest version of the 24-year-old city-building franchise was released Tuesday, but some retailers stopped selling the game after angry gamers reported no gaming available.

The problem was too much success: Servers faced far more users than anticipated, according to game developer Maxis.

"More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta," said a company representative. "OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it. In the last 48 hours, we increased server capacity by 120 percent. It's working -- the number of people who have gotten in and built cities has improved dramatically."

EA is also offering jilted users a free PC game in the hope that they won't stay mad, the Associated Press reported.