Let's face it - we still have no idea whether SimCity 5 will ever get made. Clearly SimCity Societies is not that game, it's got nothing to do with SimCity. It's like saying that Ms. Pacman is the sequel to Space Invaders. It makes no sense, and it's prompted this long-time lurker to post in the forum for the first time. Look at this snippet from E3 2007, this is from the Electronic Arts press conference:
[2:12] The lights go down. A presentation starts to play, showing a montage of upcoming games, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, playground, mobiles, a Wii trivia game, and Boogie.
[2:13] An exec takes to the stage and encourages the audience to visit the company's booth in the Barker Hangar to see the games there. She introduces Kathy Vrabeck, head of the company's casual game division.
[2:14] Vrabeck talks about the company's lofty goals, to get to the 2 billion consumers that are not gamers but the company thinks are out there "ready to game."
[2:15] She's been thinking about what's next for the gaming industry. She says the issue with casual entertainment is that its different business models, game sensibilities, and the like are different from those in core gaming.
[2:16] The company wants to "truly bring gaming to the masses," going after kids, middle-aged women, girls--anyone who doesn't self-identify as a traditional gamer.
[2:17] Casual is very much a multiplatform genre, she says. Consoles like the Wii and the DS handhelds are good because they are family friendly. EA will become the "clear leader" in casual gaming, Vrabeck vows.
[2:18] The first group at EA to get casual was Pogo.com, which has more than 6.5 million subscribers, half of whom are women over 30, and it will be coming to Asia soon.
[2:19] A short montage showing off Pogo.com.quote>
Casual gaming has a specific term here, it refers to quick pick-up-and-play-for-a minute games, like those Flash games you get on free online gaming sites. Minigolf, TextTwist, Bejeweled, etc., the type of game that's perfect for handhelds. And they're ubiquitous; they even feature regularly in web ads (Punch The Monkey, anyone?) Could this be an indication of where we're headed? "EA will become the 'clear leader' in casual gaming, Vrabeck vows." EA can clearly see that the Wii has opened up a big new market of casual gamers and they want a piece of it. Look at this sentence: "The company wants to 'truly bring gaming to the masses,' going after kids, middle-aged women, girls--anyone who doesn't self-identify as a traditional gamer." I don't think she's talking about the people who are already here on Simtropolis - I think most of us would consider ourselves traditional gamers. I also wouldn't be surprised if Societies didn't show up on the Wii before long - after all, The Sims is already there (also in a newer, more cartoonish iteration). EA are still going to have their sports games, and their hardcore action games, because those are consistent money-makers. Sports games especially - you can basically sell the same thing with a few small changes to the same fanbase year in and year out. But EA is also seeing a big new market in casual gaming, and the people who don't self-identify as traditional gamers must easily outnumber people who do. My point is that SimCity Societies is not SimCity 5, it's a sort of bastardized parallel-universe version of the game designed to do two things: 1) prompt brand recognition in people who vaguely remember the popularity of the game back in the day but haven't played it for years, and 2) simultaneously appeal to the "casual gamer." At the end of the day, people who've grown up on the Sims rather than SimCity don't want to build roads or lay pipes, they want to see clowns herded into detention centers, and at this point I suspect there are rather more of them than there are of us. Maybe we are the clowns being herded into the detention center, a-haha. So obviously this is all complete speculation, but based on the message board posts, screenshots, previews, interviews, and dubiously-staged videos of charmingly over-enthusiastic bloggers, I think it's reasonable to assume that we are no longer their target audience. Sure, they're trying to sort of whip up interest in the city-simming community, but it's not much of an effort compared to the way, say, Microsoft has treated the flight-simming community. "Oh, yeah, sorry folks, we kinda took out all the stuff which pretty much defined the game, but we think you'll still be able to enjoy that genuine SimCity experience. Look, it says SimCity right here on the box. Now if you'll excuse me, I was just in the middle of telling this young lady about how much fun it is to disenfranchise the mimes." I'm not speculating on the future of the brand. Will they ever make SimCity 5? Is SimCity Societies just a spin-off? Is this ultimately the new direction for the series? No clue. Although if this works out for EA, I expect they'll be farming out the SimCity brand for use on other franchises that might need a pick-me-up. SimCity Pirates! Build the city of your dreams on the Spanish Main, hunt for buried treasure, and fly the Skull & Crossbones atop your mighty mainmast, er, I mean, commerical business district. SimCity Chessmaster 5000 Build anything you want as long as it's a castle. SimCity fans will delight in the simple grid system. SimCity Deer Hunter 3 Gold Sure you can build that high tech industrial park - but first you're going to have to get rid of those pesky deer!
