RedMist

Hi, Gamestar said Maxis is developing a new SimCity with a new graphic engine and a multiplayer mode. The game should be released in 2013. The official announcement was done in GameStar. Source in german : SimTimes http://www.simtimes.de/2012/electronicarts/bestaetigt-maxis-arbeitet-an-neuem-simcity-10292/ Source in french : SimCookie http://www.simcookie.com/2012/02/27/maxis-travaille-sur-un-tout-nouveau-jeu-simcity-5/

Hi, Only for SC5 players, please share your experiences with the beta or final versions. Don't forget to list the pros and cons that you found !

Hi, SimCity is an online game, then we can easily say there won't be custom contents and EA will release some content like DLC with Mass Effect and Store content with the Sims. Now I would like to know if you are ready to purchase contents in order to customize your city.

I'm curious about this new game, I'm waiting the demo version. It seems to more limited and under EA control. I think I won't be able to cheat and customize. I always love to play my own rules. With The Sims 3, I loose the control of my citizens, it's so frustating, even if I can still cheat and rule the world, it will never be like The Sims 2. EA tried to add social features like Simport but it's totally useless because I don't want the stories of other players in my game. I think Simcity will take the same way. Because the other players won't follow my rules, I don't want to play with them. In fact, I want to control everything in my city and in the other cities.

You're right ,why I'll pay 59.99€ if I can't play when I want. SimCity is useless, I'll have plenty other things to do.

Then prepare you to read this sentence "Sorry you can't play today, the server is under maintenance...."

Online means : No custom content No cheat No mod No content community No choice, new content will be only Store content Then, no freedom

I think after the success of SimCity, SimCity Deluxe and SimCity Deluxe HD from the Apple's AppStore, EA decided to give a second chance to the SimCity series on PC/Mac.

It's linked directly from SimCity's Facebook page. I think it's probably official. An unofficial person can link to SimCity's Facebook, too. I should also add, the account's existed since October, and the video went up on December 9th. I'm skeptical this is real, but stranger things have happened. -Tarkus Official SimCity link ( http://simcity.ea.com/ ) redirect to SimCity Facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/SimCity ) with the video from EA SimCity YouTube channel ( http://www.youtube.com/EASimCity )

EA Maxis isn't Will Wright's Maxis, so we can't say how this SimCity will be. Just I'll wait and see.

If EA will create a SimCity Exchange like TS3 Exchange, there is a lot of corrupted content included in the pack, it's really boring. If EA will create a SimCity Store like TS3 Store, I'll buy some items but I think STEX stuff will be better and there will be more content.

Tarkus, it seems the first source is the german magazine : GameStar http://www.gamestar.de/community/gspinboard/showthread.php?t=411270 Google Translate

SimCity Deluxe Hunt ($1’000 and Prizes) 6 August 2010 - 10:56 | No Responses EA is currently running a new competition called SimCity Deluxe Scavenger Hunt, the task of the game is to fix a number of problems in the city, and collect mobile phones which have been hidden around the city as well. Entrants will get the chance to win the following, in First Place a SimCity Box Set and $1’000, The runner up will get a SimCity Box set, and “EA Snuggle Blanket”. The game is easy to understand and worth entering – each achievement earns you another entry into the game. Please note a Facebook is required to login, as it uses Facebook Connect. Currently the competition is only open to residents of the US, but as from Monday (8 August 2010), the competition will be open to France, Great Britain and Germany. Additionally you got until 21 September 2010 to enter! Click here to go to the site Complete tasks around the city by finding and uncovering hidden objects! Each item you find and each task you complete will earn you another sweepstakes entry and increase your chances of winning deluxe prizes! It’s totally simple! To get started, check out the TASKS list right underneath the CITY NAVIGATOR at top left. The list keeps track of all of the items that you still need to find in order to earn more entries. Use the CITY NAVIGATOR to move quickly around the city and click on any location you want to see what you can find. If you’re more of an “off-the-grid” person, hide the map at any time and continue the hunt! There are phones, badges and more hidden items throughout the city for you to locate and uncover. Stay vigilant though! These items can be anywhere-even on airplanes! This isn’t just about hunting for city treasures – there are also simple action items for you to complete. Find the location on the map you feel might be associated with an action item and go ahead and click on it. Who knows what will happen next! Haven’t found anything yet? Check out the FORUM (the link near the top right) and browse through what other aspiring mayors are talking about. Oh yeah, one more thing: make sure to have fun exploring SimCity! Source : http://www.infinitesims.com/

Why EA doesn't buy it and sell it as SimCity 5 ... (Stupid thought )

Will Wrights New Project Wednesday, 08 April 2009 23:30 It appears that Will Wrights new project has made the spotlight, in a recent EA Press Release There is also a letter from Will Wright announcing his departure from EA and Maxis, which was posted on the Spore Forums, you can find it along with the rest of the press release by clicking Read-More. Will Wright and EA Partner on Stupid Fun Club || Legendary Game Designer to Explore New Projects>> REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Apr 08, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) announced today that EA is making an equity investment in Stupid Fun Club, Will Wright's new adventure. Stupid Fun Club is an entertainment think tank developing new Intellectual Properties to be deployed across multiple fronts including video games, movies, television, the internet, and toys. Will Wright is leaving EA to run Stupid Fun Club. >> EA and Will each own equal percentages of Stupid Fun Club and are the principal shareholders. In addition, EA has the right to develop game concepts that spring from Stupid Fun Club projects. Will Wright is represented by Creative Artists Agency... >> "The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change," said Will Wright. "Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms. In my twelve years at EA, I've had the pleasure to work alongside some of the brightest and most talented game developers in the industry and I look forward to working with them again in the near future." >> "We believe in Will's vision for Stupid Fun Club and we're looking forward to partnering with Will and his team long into the future," said John Riccitiello, EA's Chief Executive Officer. "Will is a great designer and he's been part of a great legacy of globally recognized game franchises like The Sims, SimCity and Spore. The teams that have been leading those franchises in recent years have a lot of exciting content coming." >> "Will has been an inspiration to our teams, and it's been rewarding for us to bring his ideas to life," said Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis. "In addition to legendary games, Will's legacy at EA will be the many talented people who worked with him and will now continue to contribute their own vision to the art of game development." >> Will Wright created Maxis with Jeff Braun in 1989, which was acquired by EA in 1997. Will is the visionary designer of blockbuster game concepts like Spore, The Sims and SimCity. Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis, will continue to run Maxis and the Spore franchise. Lucy's team is working on the upcoming expansion pack, Spore Galactic Adventures, as well asother game concepts including Spore Hero,Spore Hero Arena and Spore Creature Keeper. Rod Humble is head of the EA Play Label and his team will launch The Sims 3 in June of this year. # # # # # # # # # # Letter from Will Wright Hey everyone. There's a little press release going out today as we speak (well actually I'm not speaking, I'm typing... (and I guess you're not even listening, you're reading (unless you're having your new Kindle read this to you in which case you are listening) but you're definitely not reading this "as" the press release is going out, and I'm certainly typing this hours before the fact....) anyway. (I suck at writing) The gist of the story is that I'm leaving EA (well, not really, I'll explain) to start (well, not quite start, it's actually been around for quite a while in a rather different form) ... let's say dive into a new venture, The Stupid Fun Club. The Stupid Fun was actually started many years ago by myself and my friend Mike Winter, we met while competing in Robot Wars and Battlebots. It was apparent to us that one day the robots would take over the world and we decided we wanted to be on the winning side, so our initial charter was to do whatever we could to usher in our new mechanical overlords. Along the way we ending up building and prototyping a lot of... odd stuff. People would come by our shop and get interested in this stuff for various reasons. Some of this stuff sparked new creative ideas, even (*gasp*) ideas that may have "commercial, entertainment value" (this is how you talk when you've been around lawyers and MBA's too long). At some point we started showing some of this stuff to the people at EA. They got excited by the prospect of us pursuing these projects commercially (or that's what they said anyway, I think they just want to be on the winning side of the coming robotic revolution as well). So we started talking to them (EA, not the robots, though we do talk to them as well, but the robot responses are cryptic at best) about getting involved and investing in The Stupid Fun Club (we asked the robots first but they're all broke). So as things worked out I decided to jump into my work at the club more or less full time. But at The Stupid Club we'll be working on new games (along with EA) as well as other kinds of projects with different partners. I can't talk about specific projects coming out of SFC just yet (alas, the robots won't let me), but as things develop I'll find a way to keep those of you who are interested informed about what we're doing (but not with a blog...I'll never have a blog). A major aspect of the projects I've worked on has always been the player community, that won't change. -Will Wright

I don't think, it's certainly a new SimSomethingElse because Maxis like to create new simulation games.

Maxis don't work anymore on The Sims franchise. The Sims studio directed by Rod Humble take care of them. Maxis (directed by Will Wright) work on a new secret project for the 3 next years. http://www.infinitesims.com/news/1382-new-sims-3-screenshot.html Now the SimCity franchise is developed outside EA (Tilted Mill for SC Societies, Hudson Soft for SC Creator, Syn Sophia for SC DS).

VideoETA show SimCity Creator (Wii/DS) released for the week of September 22, 2008 !

If you want to see screenshots and videos visit this page http://www.infinitesims.com/news/157-news/1126-simcity-bulletin.html

SimCity Societies Destinations is still missing in the other shops, just EA Store sell it !

Yep, another update is already available on the official site ! http://simcitysocieties.ea.com/updates/scs_updates.php Originally posted by: EA SimCity Societies Game Update #5 (released May 2008) EA and Tilted Mill are excited to announce the most significant update to SimCity Societies yet, with six scenarios, city-wide policies, budgetary controls, and more. In this update, we introduce powerful new ways of playing SimCity Societies, as well as further refinements to both Creative and Strategic modes of play. This update wouldn’t have been possible without feedback from our users on Tilted Mill’s, EA’s and other gaming forums, and we are grateful for everyone’s input. New Features : • Scenarios - Six scenarios have been added. In a scenario, you’re asked to meet the needs of a particular city. There, buildings might work slightly differently than you’re used to, certain events might be more or less rare, and it’s possible for you to lose your job as mayor. Scenarios range from relaxing, like A Land Apart (build a cosmopolitan, refined city where artists rub elbows with wealthy patrons) and Simplify, Simplify (with modest resources, create a refuge from hurry and waste) to very challenging, like Futurology (build a massive city to serve as the nerve center of a globe-spanning corporation). You can find them from the “Play SimCity Societies” screen by clicking the button with the red, orange, and blue arrows. The data files for these scenarios (in the Data/XMLDb/Scenarios folder) are highly commented to encourage modification, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with. • Policies (Creative & Strategic modes) – At any one time, you can enact up to three special rules for your city, such as World Market Investment (your treasury fluctuates with the stock market), Universal Healthcare (your healthcare buildings are open to more visitors), or Indoctrination (your educational facilities keep Sims’ moods in line). The full list of Policies, and the requirements to enact them, are on the City Management Screen (press ‘I’, or click the little city to the left of the mini-map). Policies often work best with certain buildings or in certain societies. • New Maintenance system (Strategic modes) – Buildings have a wider variety of maintenance costs. The new costs are more appropriate to the type of society you’re building, and present more strategic options. We’ve also grouped buildings into four maintenance categories (Government, Infrastructure, Social Services, and General), and you can control the budget for each category individually, weighing the risk of those buildings falling into disrepair against the cost of maintaining them. The sliders to control maintenance are on the City Management Screen. • New Budget Graph (Creative & Strategic modes) - To help track your Simoleons, a larger and more detailed budget screen is available. • New City Management Screen to help you organize all of the above in one location. • Terrain leveling tool - you can now flatten terrain when a slope prevents you from building. Hover over the Bulldozer tool to reveal it. • There’s a special reward for you if you can earn the Jack of all Trades trophy in Nightmare mode (check for ‘Monument of Mastery’ in your Decorations menu if you’ve already earned the trophy). Gameplay Changes : • Income has been rebalanced for both modes of play, further emphasizing the different ways in which different types of societies generate income. Buildings costs have been rebalanced as well. • The effects of strategic game modes have been re-balanced to provide a better overall progression from one mode to the next. • The Eyesore effect now exists on small buildings in a small radius for buildings like the Dive Bar, or Slum Apartments. • Improved feedback for the Eyesore system. • Increased diversity of UI changes based on city profile. • Power plants can function when damaged (at reduced efficiency). This should prevent your city from shutting down due to a single maintenance failure. Plus Improved Stability and Performance, and Other Fixes, Including : • A limit of 1500 buildings per city, added to help prevent out-of-memory errors. This is enough to earn all the trophies and win all the scenarios, and most players never build a city that large. We don’t recommend doing so, but if you’d like to experiment with larger cities than that, and you don’t mind living on the edge, you can adjust this limit in Data\XMLDb\Constants\Constants.xml; search for ‘MaxLimit’ under the Building Constants heading. • Fixed an infinite loop of social energy adjustments that could occur with certain uses of the Free Press ability. • Added workarounds for some stability issues with newer ATI drivers. • The follow cam now will track the correct Sim after a fight. • Performance improvements to texture streaming. • Additional help and tooltips added throughout the game. • Fix for buildings under the influence of multiple effects not always updating properly when a building causing one of the effects is demolished. • Fix for a crash if you have settings that are invalid for your current video card (because you had played the game with a different card and have swapped them without changing your settings). • In that long fraction of a second between the intro movies and the main menu where there was nothing to do before, you can now admire a pretty loading screen. • The building variant hotkey wasn't playing nice with the Housing Project. Now it does. • Fix for a circumstance in which deleting a save game would delete two instead. • Fix for some stability issues with repeated settings changes. • Fix for some situations where icons could hang out above deleted buildings indefinitely. Known Issues • Game Crash: if user changes Graphics Quality from high to low during a Killer Storm on a vista machine with a Radeon HD3870 video card. • Previously modded buildings lack the new maintenance functionality. These mods will need to be updated in order for the building maintenance to function properly. Two new files need to modified for proper maintenance: Maintenance Categories and Maintenance Groups. • Please be sure you have all the latest Windows Updates and Service Packs, particularly if you’re running Vista. Microsoft has issued several fixes for bugs in Vista that can lead to excessive memory use or instability when running SimCity Societies. • Some players with Radeon Crossfire video cards may experience flickering in the animations. Disabling “crossfire” when possible or running a single card corrects the issue. quote> Originally posted by: EA SimCity Societies Game Update #2 Strategic Mode Update Ready For Download With today’s update, we are adding Strategic Mode, along with other additions, improvements and fixes. Game Update #2 Notes Strategic Mode • Three Strategic Modes of play have been introduced, to complement the original three Creative Modes of play. • Each of these Strategic Modes (Basic, Hardcore and Nightmare), is progressively more challenging than the preceding one, and all three introduce a variety of challenging push-backs not present in the Creative Modes of play: o Buildings carry an ongoing maintenance cost. If maintenance requirements are not met, buildings have a chance of taking damage which will put them out of commission for several days or even result in destruction. o Recycle gains are reduced, making shrewd planning critical o Work and visit durations are long. As a result, Sims can go to fewer places in a single day. o It’s more difficult to keep Sims happy o Unhappy and Rogue Sims are more likely to act out, produce negative special Sims, or transform into negative special Sims o Rogue Sims are much less placated by the act of shutting down a workplace, and will remain unhappy or even on the verge of becoming rogue again. • Achievements and monuments must be earned separately for each of the modes of play • Hardcore and Nightmare Modes must be unlocked by winning a trophy in the preceding Strategic Mode (success in Basic Strategic unlocks Hardcore; success in Hardcore unlocks Nightmare). General Enhancements • UI textures can now change with your society. Look for altered UI appearances in Capitalist, Cyberpunk, Industrial, and Orwellian cities. Modders can use this added functionality to make more radical changes. Modding • Several XMLs that weren’t additive now are. Particularly, custom textures don’t all have to live in the same file, so multiple mods with custom textures should play together more nicely • All attributes of a building XML in the mod folder now take priority over the original, so mods can meddle with all aspects of existing buildings • The camera settings XML has been moved into its own folder so that it can be modded • New versions of packages with the same names as old packages now overwrite the old package when installed • Building textures can be modified directly from the building xml, no more need to use the custom profile textures General Fixes • The intended a cap on the number of subways and bus stops in a city was not previously operating properly, and has been fixed. There can now be only 50 of each in a given city. • New base models have been added to some buildings to address some cases where the terrain would appear over the base. • Fix for Sims temporarily disappearing if they arrived for work early • The error message you get when your graphics card or drivers don’t meet the minimum requirements is now more helpful Stability and Performance • Fix for a rare crash which could happen on removal of a cultural prop • Streaming textures provide improquote> Originally posted by: EA SimCity Societies Game Update #1 Welcome to the SimCity Societies Update Page Instructions: Save the file to disk and then run it to install the game update. ((Note: This update is compatible for all languages)) List of changes: 2 exclusive buildings & 2 terrain maps Improved install experience for custom content downloads Optimized shadows Fixed a random crash bug Improved localized text Improved pollution UI Improved effectiveness of Power Purchase special action quote>

It's a bad begin for SimCity Societies Destinations, it was delayed, the release date was changed from May 29th, 2008 to June 23th, 2008 !

It look like a mix of SimCity 4 and SimCity Societies but I think it's a SimCity "lite". Maybe because it's a Wii/DS version I'm not impressed by this one.

SimCity Creator for Wii & NintendoDS Official website So it's not the SimCity 5 that we're waiting for !