SimCity sales top 1.1 million

Brett Molina, USA TODAY | USATODAY

Despite connection problems plaguing the opening days after launch, city-building simulation SimCity has sold more than 1.1 million copies, publisher Electronic Arts announced.

More than half of those copies purchased were digital downloads, EA says in a statement.

"SimCity is one of the storied brands in gaming, and Maxis delivered a game re-envisioned and engineered for the online age," says EA chief operating officer Peter Moore in a statement.

Launched two weeks ago, SimCity had suffered through a myriad of technical issues, most notably an inability to log on and start building cities. The game requires players to maintain an online connection throughout, even when exploring single-player components.

Since then, EA says they have increased server capacity by 400% to cut back on wait times and allow users to log on. The publisher says players have logged more than 15 million hours of online play.

In an effort to win back players upset by the launch woes, EA is offering a free game available through digital download. SimCity copies registered before March 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT are eligible, and those owners have until March 30 to grab their title.

Options include Battlefield 3 (Standard Edition), Bejeweled 3, Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition), Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition)

Medal of Honor Warfighter (Standard Edition), Need For Speed Most Wanted (Standard Edition), Plants vs. Zombies and SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition.

In a separate post on EA's official blog, Bradshaw defended the use of an "always-on" connection for SimCity. "Could we have built a subset offline mode? Yes," she says. "But we rejected that idea because it didn't fit with our vision."