EA takes The Sims Social down, puts 'Coming Soon' sign up

It looks like the town of Littlehaven is having a power outage. Since around 2 a.m. Aug. 10, The Sims Social, EA's brand new ambitious attempt to bring its mega hit casual franchise to Facebook, has been out of commission.

When players head to the app through Facebook, they're greeted with an admittedly misleading sign that reads, "Coming Soon! Undergoing beta testing." However, The Sims Social is clearly already here, and is, according to EA, in its open beta. (Or, if you ask us, its release.)

EA and Playfish have clarified on The Sims Social forums that the game is currently down for repairs, and that it will not reset players' progress, as many fans already fear. Here's the full statement from Playfish Community Manager Lady Coconut:

"The Sims Social is currently in Open Beta, which means we're calibrating and fine-tuning to ensure you will have the best playing experience possible. Please bear with us while we fix some of the issues that some of you have been having, during which time the game may be unavailable from time-to-time. Rest assured that we will not be resetting the game during this maintenance period, so you won't lose any progress, SimCash or relationships that you have built up so far."

We're sure that The Sims Social would prove to be an impressive addition to the company's Facebook catalog, if we could just play it already. (Based on my brief, brief experience with the game, I'm actually enjoying it, mind you.) Yesterday, the game suffered a number of issues regarding performance, and our guess is that this is the result of those frequent crashes, freeze-ups and other errors players have been struggling to play the game through. No ETA has been given on The Sims Social's return, so I guess you could go play the original Sims games while you wait. Just remember to check back ... eventually. We've contacted EA for comment.

What do you think of EA taking its brand new game down already just after mere hours of its launch? Do you think the game will recover from the setback? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.