As is often the case with games that rely heavily on "always online" schemes, EA's SimCity had a bit of trouble today as it officially launched servers for the latest entry in the popular city building simulation. EA's biggest problem seems to be related to its digital distribution platform Origin, which has struggled to keep up with fans' demand to buy and play the game on launch day. Users have encountered a number of problems today including trouble downloading their digitally purchased copies and problems with unlocking physical copies of the game.

Here's a story I can get behind - and if I owned a Wii U - I likely would have thrown my .02 in the mix. For years North American gamers have been begging Nintendo to bring another Earthbound game to our shores. For no real reason Nintendo has refused to do so, despite releasing multiple titles (it's called Mother in Japan) in its home country - Mother on NES, Mother 3 on Game Boy Advance, and various sequels.

Gearbox Software has finally issued an update that deals with the bug that stripped some players of their "Badass tokens" in Borderlands 2. The update for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game enables the game to analyze save games and detect Badass Rank that might have been lost due to the glitch. Players first reported issues with their Badass Tokens inexplicably disappearing.

According to this Reuters report, Apple is now complying with local warranty laws in Italy after the company was threatened by the Italian government with shut downs of its local businesses and hefty fines if it did not comply. Last week Apple stopped selling its AppleCare warranty plans in its retail stores in Italy. The paid warranty program from Apple offers coverage after the limited warranty on an Apple product expires.

The state of Minnesota apparently doesn't like free online education that could benefit its citizens. The state has decided to tell California-based online education startup Coursera that it is not allowed to offer its online courses to the state’s residents without first getting permission from the state and paying a registration fee. Coursera was founded by Stanford computer science professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, and partners with top universities around the world to offer certain classes online for free to anyone who wants access to them.

iPhone iOS 6 users are complaining that since they have started using Apple's new operating system for its hand-held devices, they have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of data they consume. UK publication The Guardian is reporting that a number of iOS 6 users have been complaining about a "significant hike" in their data usage, which translates into higher monthly mobile data usage bills.

Sometimes if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself. When From Software couldn't fix a graphical error after a year of trying one NeoGAF user took matters into his own hands and fixed the problem - in 23 minutes! NeoGAF user Durante was able to put together his own resolution fix within 23 minutes of release, and made it available online for everyone to boot. From an Escapist report on the story comes this quote from Durante describing his fix:

This interesting GamesBeat report details a bit of controversy and an exodus related to the Facebook game Mystery Manor. Fans of the hidden object game (the Facebook game had 20 million registered users, according to the report) are apparently pretty upset with Game Insight over a recent change it made to the iPad version of the game, and they are taking the fight anywhere the company can read their angry replies.

In a short statement posted on the Saints Row: The Third forums, Volition acknowledges that there are still problems with the PC version of the popular over-the-top action game several months after it was released on Steam, and that they are still hard at work trying to iron out problems that still exist.

One thing customers do not want to hear is something along the lines of "we can't do the right thing because it costs too much money." That is exactly what Fez developer Polytron has said about a broken patch that it plans to re-deploy for the game on Xbox Live. Polytron quickly yanked a patch it released earlier in the month because it corrupted some players' save game files.

A recent patch that was supposed to fix exploits in the popular indie puzzler Fez has apparently broken save games. Developer Polytron urged those who had not already downloaded it to avoid doing so, before Microsoft yanked the update off of Xbox Live .

On the official company blog the developer said the following:

BioWare announced today via its official Blog that it will release the "Extended Cut" DLC next week. The DLC was in response to a firestorm online about how the things players do within the game didn't have a significant impact on the ending of the game. The DLC will be released on June 26 in the U.S and Europe for Xbox 360 and PC. While U.S. customers will be able to get the PS3 DLC on June 26, European players will have to wait until July 4.

A new petition is online to protest the release of DLC for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. More specifically protest organizers are urging the CoD community not to download and buy any DLC for the game until Infinity Ward and Activsion fix a number of problems with the core game. So far the petition has 240 signatures, the Twitter feed dedicated to it has 1183 followers and a YouTube video explaining what the protest is all about has been viewed 2400 times.

According to this C&VG report, the reason that owners of Mass Effect 3 on the PlayStation 3 do not have access to the multiplayer challenges that other platforms enjoy is because "Sony won't approve them."

Eurogamer has conducted a test of the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Mass Effect 3 and has come to the conclusion that problems with frames per second slowdown identified when the PS3 demo for the game was released still remain. The Xbox 360 version of the game runs at about 30 FPS, while the PS3 version runs at 20 FPS - the same as the demo. A side-by-side comparison tracks it in real-time, which you can see in the video embedded in this Eurogamer story.

According to an admin on the game's official forums (as reported by Joystiq), there is a glitch in Gotham City Imposters that resets earned stats and unlocked content. The thread already has 63 pages of angry Gotham City Imposters owners complaining at length about the problem.

While Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim continues to be popular, owners of the PS3 version still have plenty of complaints about the game's lack of memory optimization. Luckily developer Bethesda is still trying to work out the kinks and this week has promised a new update to deal with the remaining issues.

Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 3 online matchmaking won't work properly in countries that are not supported by Xbox Live, according to a report in Eurogamer. Some customers in countries where the service isn't official are having trouble playing Modern Warfare 3 and there's nothing that can be done about it, according to tweets from Activision and Microsoft to users complaining about problems.

In a post called "Skyrim — what we’re working on" over at Bethesda's official blog, the company admits that it has to take better care before releasing updates to its games. The post refers to the patch for Skyrim that was released earlier this week which caused dragons to fly backwards and make things like magic resistance stop working for some players. Bethesda acknowledges that the update adding bugs instead of fixing them is not a good thing ...

Warner Bros. has been trying to figure out how to fix a save game bug in the Xbox 360 version of Batman: Arkham City, but have thus far been unable to reproduce the error and are turning to the community for help. The company said that it is working hard on a fix for the glitch that causes save games to be erased, but it's hard to "fix something you can't detect." It is asking Arkham City players having this problem to help them by providing as much information as they can.

What (we assume) is a small amount of gamers are experiencing some trouble with the Catwoman DLC code in the retail version of Batman Arkham City. According to complaints by some consumers in both North America and the United Kingdom, the retail box seems to be missing the code.

Gamers in North America have been complaining about missing codes since the game launched there earlier this week and now UK gamers are joining the rising chorus of complaints. Earlier today, a VideoGamer employee Tweeted that his copy of the game purchased through GameStop UK was missing the DLC code.

RAGE may represent the first original IP for id Software since 1996, but the PC version of the game has been marred with so many technical issues that many critics are saying that the game could have used months of additional development and play testing. Those comments are not isolated to the PC version either (long load times are a serious issue with the PS3 version from what I've been told). The game launched earlier this week on various platforms including the PC. Out of the gate PC users noticed some serious issue with the game such as screen tearing and texture issues.

Forget about the "rent is too damned high" party, gamers down under are getting robbed by retailers, according to a consumer group. Australian consumer rights publication CHOICE has submitted a document to the government's Productivity Commission last week demanding retailers lower the price of games.

The group called on "importers, distributors and retailers to pass some of the savings they are enjoying thanks to the strong Aussie dollar on to Australian consumers." As an example, CHOICE claims that Australian consumers can save about 90 percent on the price of Portal 2 if they purchase it abroad instead of at home.

The Australian dollar is worth about as much as the US dollar, CHOICE says, but the price of video games has not come down in the country.

An update to fix a bug that causes the Xbox 360 version of THQ's Homefront to freeze is a day or two away from Microsoft certification, according to a Eurogamer report. The title update to the game addresses the Profile Corruption error, or "freeze bug" that some Xbox 360 users have experienced while playing Homefront. THQ says that this issue is its highest priority.

"We are also including a fix for multiplayer connectivity and ping time issues, where players are being sent to distant server locations at the expense of performance. We expect this update to be submitted to Microsoft really soon and we will be working with them very closely to get this approved and deployed as quickly as possible," said THQ on its Homefront blog.

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Ma.) has asked the Federal Trade Commission to take a closer look at the marketing practices of applications on Apple's App store and Google's Android Marketplace. Markey's concerns relate to programs geared towards children that may not adequately inform users of potential charges - particularly micro-transactions.

On Tuesday Markey sent a letter to FTC Chairman Jon Liebowtiz (and copied to Google and Apple), pointing to a story in The Washington Post about how in-app purchases on iPad, iPod and iPhone games such as Smurfs' Village and Tap Zoo have caught some parents off guard. The Children apparently used parents' passwords to buy in-game items instantly.

"I am concerned about how these applications are being promoted and delivered to consumers, particularly with respect to children, who are unlikely to understand the ramifications of in-app purchases," Markey wrote in the letter.

Paradox Entertainment's action RPG adventure, Magicka, has managed to move 30,000 units in its first day of availability - in spite of some incredibly horrendous technical problems and bugs. While Paradox says that the single player campaign is solid, the company admits that the $10 game has a lot of problems in multiplayer. That is a real shame, because no one can deny its old school charm and new school cooperative multiplayer peril.

Here is what Paradox has said about the game's technical shortcomings: "[Singe-player] works fine for the most part, Multiplayer does not -- patch on the way for both! (as soon as [Steam] pushes the button). We'll patch the game as often as possible." According to a celebratory press release, Arrowhead Game Studios is "working around the sundial and is fully committed to ongoing support by zapping glitches and communicating with players."

UK gamer advocacy group Gamers' Voice is taking the kid gloves off and reporting Activision to the Office of Fair Trading over Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer on PC and PS3. The move follows an open letter sent to Activision on December 22 informing the publisher that the group had been "inundated with complaints from people who have bought copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops."

The letter asked Activision if they planned to compensate consumers that bought the game in the UK and gave them one month to respond. This week the group took action by asking the government agency to look into the matter.

If you have already read our story about Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward blaming Sony for the rash of hacks and exploits, then you get a good sense of how the PS3 Call of Duty community feels. They are pissed off, frustrated and feel like no one wants to help them. No doubt, Infinity Ward and Treyarch are equally frustrated with the problems they have encountered on the PS3 related to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops.

According to a VooDoo Extreme report, Riot Games, makers of the online strategy game League of Legends, has fired a customer service representative who live-streamed his misuse of administrative powers during a League of Legends bout. According to the report, the Riot Games employee "verbally abused a player and inappropriately banned him."

Riot Games' community relations director Steve Mescon announced that the employee has been fired. He added that the company will do a thorough review of its internal policy and training procedures to "prevent such incidents from happening in the future."

It seems like just hours ago that we linked to a report claiming that Germany had surpassed the UK as Europe's number-one video game market.

Oh, wait. It was just hours ago. Well, put a big oops! on that one.

gamesindustry.biz, which was among several sites that also carried the original story, is now reporting that the source of the data, Gfk Chart-Track, has admitted to a screwup. Germany is not ahead of the UK in game sales:

Gfk Chart-Track in the UK has contacted GamesIndustry.biz to admit that the press release it issued earlier today had been written using incorrect data. The company is expected to release a correction shortly. It is understood that Germany is not a bigger games market than the UK.

This is the second time in as many weeks that GfK Chart-Track data has been publicly questioned. Last week, Nintendo contacted GamesIndustry.biz following confusion over UK sales figures for the first half of the year.

GP: Somebody at Gfk needs to get their act together...