The problems that have plagued the launch of SimCity are “almost behind us”, says Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw.

“Our players have been able to connect to their cities in the game for nearly 8 million hours of gameplay time and we’ve reduced game crashes by 92% from day one,” Bradshaw wrote.

“A combination of optimizing our server architecture and response times, deploying these enhancements on both a series of new and the original servers and issuing a few critical client updates has achieved getting virtually everyone into the game and, once in, having a great time building cities and sharing regions.”

However, some elements were still coming together, said Bradshaw.

“Tonight and tomorrow we’ll be monitoring each server and gameplay metrics to ensure that the service remains strong and game is playing great.

“We need a few more days of data before we can assure you that the problem is completely solved and the game is running at 100 percent,” she said.

“Our biggest fear was that people who love this franchise would be scared off by bad reviews about the connectivity issues.”

Meanwhile, a petition has popped up on change.org demanding EA remove the always-online DRM from SimCity and not consider it for future releases.

When a single player game is purchased, it should work “regardless of our connectivity to the internet, or quality of our connection,” it reads.

The petition has gathered 61,931 supporters so far, 13,069 shy of its target of 75,000.

Finally, Will Wright – the creator of the original SimCity – has praised its latest incarnation.

"I like it a lot," he told NowGamer.

"It’s interesting, in some sense it reminds me of the post-economic crash. It’s not about making your city big, it’s about making them not poor.

"I think they did a good job of balancing all the interrelated factors. At first it felt a little claustrophobic, you know with the size of the land, but after playing for a while I think it really makes a lot of sense.

"So by kind of focusing it in it feels more personal, and so I really do want to zoom down and get a sense of what it feels like on the street. I think the visuals are just amazing, I love the tilt-shift focal lens."