What makes the Internet-required single player a deal breaker for me isn't even the launch problems (those will go away), but the fact that the game will ultimately be terminated once EA no longer finds it worthwhile to run the servers.
Someone will probably eventually reverse-engineer the system to create a local fake server, but that's no substitute for a game to not be broken by design.
This sort of cock-up is just one of the reasons why always-connected DRM is an immediate deal-breaker for me.
> What we are doing is deploying more servers over the coming two days, which will alleviate many of the ongoing issues.
The issues are entirely artificial and should have been no surprise to EA. Every single time a game protected by always-connected DRM has been launched, this same sad story unfolds. Einstein's definition of insanity seems like a relevant item to mention here.
Always-connected DRM is a crutch for companies who are unable or unwilling to replace a business model built around the premise that duplicating a digital product is costly, which is simply not the case. Making it costly through DRM only punishes paying customers, and makes cheap/pirated versions that much more valuable.
For a more obscure game I had been raving about, Anno 2070, has a similar issue. If you earn any achievements (which affect ingame stats, enough to break a game if they go missing), and your internet connection or more likely, their teeny weeny little server goes down, those achievements go missing. This thing was enough to dissuade me from buying a game I had been raving for months about (read the reviews first, all about this DRM problem).
Penny Arcade and at least a couple other reviewers anticipated this:
>My recommendation? Don’t preorder or buy the game unless you’d be fine with non-functioning servers tomorrow. If that sort of thing would make you angry, hold off until you know things are stable.
That said the game is getting glowing reviews from reviewers who didn't have to deal with the server issues. When these issues settle down I think it will be a well received game. Personally I tend to play games like this when I'm traveling and have no internet connection, so I'm not going to purchase it until I know there is a way to play without an internet connection.
Someone will probably eventually reverse-engineer the system to create a local fake server, but that's no substitute for a game to not be broken by design.