what's happening is they're selling the company. they'd rather have instant money from in-game purchases so they can squeeze every penny possible out of us before it changes hands. actual game development and customer care stopped being important as soon as they decided they were going to sell it. now they're just tying up the last loose ends and getting ready to hand us over.
I'm really looking forward to the new owners taking over. they certainly can't do worse than eA has been doing.
I heard the new owners plan to scrap the game altogether due to its age to focus on newer more profitable projects. They are going to bring in even more Ai technology to complete various tasks and lay off real people. They took on a huge debt to seal the deal so Simcity might not survive.
