In an attempt to ease the pain of SimCity owners who have experienced server issues with their game, Electronic Arts and Maxis are offering them a free PC download from the EA archive on March 18th.

On EA's The Beat blog, Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw understands that doling out a free game won't make everything hunky dory. "I know that's a little contrived - kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy," posted Bradshaw. "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."

Addressing this week's less than stellar SimCity launch, Bradshaw added, " a lot more people logged on than we expected." She also gave a pretty huge promise, saying that she would post another update this weekend to let fans know that the launch issues, "are behind us."

No word if another free game will be offered if SimCity doesn't meet Bradshaw's bold weekend prediction.

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