Since its inception back in 1989, the <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>series has been a constant joy for fans of city-building sims and god games. Masterminded <\/span>by legendary designer Will Wright<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>placed players in the shoes of a mayor asked to plan and oversee the development and continued prosperity of a city. Beyond that goal, everything was up to the player. The layout, identity, and direction of progress the city took were all up for grabs, and so players loved setting up and living out their city-building fantasies with Wright\u2019s phenomenally popular game.<\/span><\/p>\n SimCity <\/span><\/i>has spawned a number of sequels, spin-offs, and other titles, with the latest being 2013\u2019s <\/span>somewhat controversial<\/span><\/a> SimCity<\/span><\/i>. It\u2019s been some time since the last major <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>instalment, which has some players asking the question: will we see another <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>game made by EA? After all, the launch of the previous <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>didn\u2019t go particularly well, so it wouldn\u2019t be a total shock if the franchise was allowed to lay dormant for a while. We\u2019re going to take a dive into <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>and hopefully answer that very question.<\/span><\/p>\n Will Wright created <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>in 1989 after making <\/span>Raid on Bungeling Bay<\/span><\/i>. That game was a 2D shooter with fairly complex maps and mechanics, but Wright was <\/span>particularly interested<\/span><\/a> in the feature by which he created maps for the game. He discovered that he enjoyed creating those maps more than he actually liked playing <\/span>Bungeling Bay<\/span><\/i>, and thus was <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>created; a game in which making maps was the principal objective rather than engaging in any kind of action in those maps.<\/span><\/p>\n After the release of the original 1989 game, several sequels followed. The best-known of these is arguably <\/span>SimCity 2000<\/span><\/i>, released in 1993 and still played by gamers around the world. <\/span>SimCity 2000 <\/span><\/i>was ported to several other systems, including the SNES, Sega Saturn, and even the Game Boy Advance. For a time in 2014, EA even offered <\/span>SimCity 2000 <\/span><\/i>for free via its PC Origin gaming platform<\/span><\/a>. Several other sequels followed, of course – including <\/span>SimCity 3000<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>SimCity 4<\/span><\/i>, and a number of console spin-offs – but <\/span>SimCity 2000 <\/span><\/i>remains the game for which gamers are most nostalgic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, in 2013, EA and Maxis would arguably taint the <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>brand name for the foreseeable future. <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>was <\/span>an unmitigated disaster at launch<\/span><\/a>. A game which had traditionally been multiplayer-only was now forcing players to have working internet connections if they wanted to play it. At the game\u2019s outset, thousands upon thousands of players <\/span>piled in to check out the game<\/span><\/a>, crashing it and ensuring that nobody could play with a stable experience. It\u2019s worth noting that Will Wright wasn\u2019t involved in this one; he even <\/span>called the messy pile-up of the launch \u201cinexcusable\u201d<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Since then, <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>has been patched to include a single-player mode, and EA has <\/span>shut down the studio<\/span><\/a> responsible for its development. Today, <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>is a <\/span>playable, if basic, city-building sim<\/span><\/a>. It doesn\u2019t quite offer the depth and complexity its forebears brought to the table, but it\u2019s pretty, well-crafted, and absorbing even to this day. Unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t seem like the brand name has done a great job of recovering post-<\/span>SimCity<\/span><\/i>; the series has lain dormant since 2014, when a mobile freemium game titled <\/span>SimCity BuildIt <\/span><\/i>was released. That game remains operational today, but it doesn\u2019t really evoke the spirit of classic <\/span>SimCity<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n At time of writing, EA being interested in creating another <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>seems unlikely. The studio responsible for <\/span>SimCity<\/span><\/i>\u2019s creation has been shut down, and original franchise creator Will Wright is currently working on a <\/span>rather mysterious mobile game<\/span><\/a> called <\/span>Proxi<\/span><\/i>. Without the franchise\u2019s creative leading light to guide it, another <\/span>SimCity<\/span><\/i>-style disaster could happen. Of course, EA has likely learned its lesson, and it does still retain the rights to the name, so never say never. However, given EA\u2019s reluctance to announce anything, it\u2019s not looking likely.<\/span><\/p>\n Thankfully, we don\u2019t need <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>to scratch the itch it\u2019s left behind. Paradox Interactive\u2019s excellent <\/span>Cities: Skylines <\/span><\/i>has <\/span>stepped in to fill the void<\/span><\/a> left by Wright\u2019s baby after the 2013 game debacle. Many gamers think <\/span>Cities: Skylines <\/span><\/i>is actually superior to <\/span>SimCity<\/span><\/i>; it\u2019s deeper, has more features, and is regularly updated with free and paid DLC packs to tide gamers over. <\/span>Cities: Skylines <\/span><\/i>is the game everyone wanted <\/span>SimCity <\/span><\/i>– the 2013 version – to be, and if you\u2019re looking for a superlative city-builder in 2021, you should look no further than that game.<\/span><\/p>\n There might be some hope for another EA-led city builder, although it\u2019s fairly slim. Early last year, EA Maxis began advertising for staff to <\/span>create a brand new IP<\/span><\/a>. They didn\u2019t specify what that IP might be, and it\u2019s true that it probably won\u2019t turn out to be a spiritual successor to <\/span>SimCity<\/span><\/i>, given how much <\/span>Cities: Skylines <\/span><\/i>has cornered the market. However, Maxis\u2019 involvement in a new game should be cause for excitement in and of itself. Some murmurs have been rippling regarding \u201clive service\u201d gaming, which won\u2019t be much of a balm to gamers who still remember 2013\u2019s <\/span>SimCity<\/span><\/i>, but there\u2019s cause for cautious optimism, as EA clearly hasn\u2019t forgotten Maxis.<\/span><\/p>\n To answer the question, then: it\u2019s very unlikely that there will be another EA-led <\/span>SimCity<\/span><\/i>. EA knows the brand is worth a lot in terms of player kudos and potential profit, so it\u2019s also unlikely to let go of the brand in order to allow other developers to work with it. Thankfully, we have <\/span>Cities: Skylines<\/span><\/i> – as well as a number of other excellent city-building games including <\/span>Frostpunk<\/span><\/i> – to keep us entertained in <\/span>SimCity<\/span><\/i>\u2019s absence. Let\u2019s hope that if there is another <\/span>SimCity<\/span><\/i>, EA learns the lessons imparted to it in 2013 and simply creates what gamers want: a deep, complex, and player-friendly city-builder.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since its inception back in 1989, the SimCity series has been a constant joy for fans of city-building sims and god games. Masterminded by legendary designer Will Wright, SimCity placed players in the shoes of a mayor asked to plan and oversee the development and continued prosperity of a city. Beyond that goal, everything was … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,27,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videogames","category-general","category-rumors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A brief history of <\/b>SimCity<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
SimCity <\/i><\/b>(2013) – a postmortem<\/b><\/h2>\n
Will EA create another <\/b>SimCity<\/i><\/b>?<\/b><\/h2>\n