SimCity (2013)

SimCity launched March 5, 2013, with a mandatory always-online requirement — and servers that couldn't handle launch demand, leaving paying customers unable to play a single-player game for days; Amazon briefly delisted it. EA scaled up servers within weeks and spent a year patching, then delivered Update 10 in March 2014: a free offline mode plus modding support, directly reversing the design decision executives had claimed was nearly impossible. But goodwill never recovered, and EA closed Maxis Emeryville in March 2015 — two years after launch — effectively abandoning the franchise.

• Always-online launch left paying players unable to access even single-player for days; Amazon pulled the game from sale after ~800 poor reviews and servers took weeks to stabilize.
• Update 10 (March 2014, ~11 months post-launch) delivered free offline play and mod support — a direct reversal of the always-online requirement EA's leadership had defended as essential to the game's 'vision.'
• Maxis Emeryville, the studio behind the game, was closed by EA in March 2015, two years after launch, ending the SimCity franchise line; support was attributed to remaining Maxis studios.
• Despite the turnaround, the game never escaped the launch damage: 2 million copies sold but the franchise went dormant and the studio behind it was shuttered.