SimCity Societies for the PC

From http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070612/20070612005415.html?.v=1

Not trying to spam, but this one seemed kind of close to home for SD, so I thought
I'd post it.


Press Release Source: Electronic Arts Inc.

SimCity Series Makes Highly- Anticipated Homecoming as EA Announces SimCity Societies for the PC
Tuesday June 12, 12:00 pm ET
Create Your Own Kinds of Cities with SimCity Societies

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The return of one of PC gaming's most popular series - SimCity(TM) - is here! Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS - News) announced today that SimCity(TM) Societies(TM) is in development and is scheduled to hit retail stores this holiday season. Featuring an all-new, revolutionary feature set, SimCity Societies allows players to construct not only the cities they desire, but create their cultures, societal behaviors and environments as well. Build an artistic city, haunted town, green city, spiritual community or most any society you want! Using the accessible, innovative and versatile city-builder, players can create their own kind of city in SimCity Societies.

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"SimCity Societies allows players to create a variety of cities with the unique societies they desire," said Vice President and Studio Head of The Sims Division, Rod Humble. "There is such a variety of cities to build from in SimCity Societies - and they're all such a blast to play. Sometimes I build an aggressive police state where stragglers are dragged off to re-conditioning centers and emerge ready for work. Other times, I build a green community in the tropics, where the citizens grow their own food and have a small environmental footprint. With so many options to choose from, SimCity Societies is the most flexible city building game ever!"

Players start by choosing from a variety of more than 350 building types, each of which allows them to combine, connect and re-arrange structures freely. Players can challenge authority and experiment with what happens when citizens flagrantly disobey power in an unruly Orwellian society. Or if players are feeling happy, they can build a Fun City filled with Ferris Wheels, Gingerbread Houses and Chocolate Factories! Inspiration can come from a wide range of architectural periods ranging from the realistic to the fanciful; from the industrial age to futuristic designs, with each structure reflecting its name and nature, many offering a click-on action for fans to play upon! As each city evolves, players will be able to unlock new buildings that can help advance - or regress - their society.

SimCity Societies introduces an all-new, revolutionary feature set for players to combine buildings that will produce or consume new kinds of resources called "social energies." How you mix and match these resources - industry, wealth, obedience, knowledge, devotion, or creativity--determines the social energy of your city. Will your city be happy and creative, spiritual and knowledgeable, will it be wealthy and powerful or obedient and fearful? Its fate is in your hands!

Not only will players be able to build from any or all energies, but the cities will look and behave differently depending on the energy combinations the player makes. From futuristic metropolises and fantastical haunted cities to obedient Orwellian states and devout contemplative towns - what to combine and connect is up to the creator.

The SimCity franchise is one of the most popular PC gaming franchises in history, having sold more than 17 million games worldwide to date since the SimCity launch in 1989. Subsequent base game releases include SimCity 2000(TM) (1993), SimCity 3000(TM) (1999) and SimCity 4(TM) (2003).

SimCity Societies is being published by Electronic Arts and developed by Tilted Mill Entertainment. It is scheduled to be available in retails stores across North America and Europe in November 2007.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS(TM), EA(TM), EA SPORTS BIG(TM) and POGO(TM). In fiscal 2007, EA posted revenue of $3.09 billion and had 24 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

Electronic Arts, EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS BIG, POGO and The Sims are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


Contact:

EA
Amanda Taggart, 650-628-2729
Sr. Publicist
[email protected]
or
fortyseven communications
Sibel Sunar / Brian Rubin, 323-658-1200
[email protected] / [email protected]

Source: Electronic Arts Inc.
9,235 views 6 replies
Reply #1 Top
You'll also find screenshots at the official site.

WWW Link
Reply #2 Top
Sounds like a revamped version of SimTown.
Reply #3 Top
I'm not an avid city builder.
But i do like grabbing a few dmo's and checking out whats new.

Can't say I'll be collecting cans to pay for this one but hey.
it does look like fun if you are into the genre,
I guess it will all be decided on how innovative it is and how the critics manage to find differences with current games.

I do think that the first sim city was a great leap into the unknown that paid off with loads of new ideas, but this is a hard thing to keep improving upon, there's only so far ahead you can leap.

I guess the same goes for all games now.

Neil.
Reply #4 Top
I wonder of this was spun into a MMORPG if it'd be like SD's plans for their own Society MMORPG....
Reply #5 Top
If they do anything "massively online," it is likely to be like that "massively single player online" thing in Spore, where you play against your PC but it collects input chunks from other players who participate in the posting system.

In Spore, your game universe can include worlds and species that other players upload. I'd be almost suprised if you can't post and download Societies components the same way.

Other than Stardock's NotMoM2, Spore and possibly this Societies thing look like the only likely distractions from GC2 for me.
Reply #6 Top
This game I found deeply disapointing, ahving been a fan of the series it has lowered my opinion of EA, it just hasn't got the depts of sim city4 or the thrill of being able to watch your city physically grow and bust, I' say aviod this one, EA trying to reach a new market for the series but in the process leaving behind the faithful.....