Electronic Arts has faced a number of problems with the latest SimCity since launching the title, and the ongoing issues have now led the company to call off some of its online marketing — and it's asking affiliates to do the same. Polygon reports that EA has sent an email out to members of EA Origin's LinkShare program, informing them that it has "deactivated all SimCity text links and creative," and is requesting that members of the program do so as well. EA will still pay commissions to program members for any referred sales, and pledges to let members know when it resumes the marketing efforts.

It's just the latest reaction in what has become a truly embarrassing snafu. Earlier this week "non-critical" features of the game were turned off, while Amazon has suspended digital sales of the game due to the overwhelming number of customer complaints. Polygon has also reported on an internal memo from developer Maxis about the steps it is taking to stabilize the situation, but it's still not clear when SimCity players can expect the game to function as advertised.