More details have emerged on Electronic Arts' upcoming SimCity sequel, and it looks like original developer Maxis has little or nothing to do with the project.
SimCity Societies, as it's being called, has been handed over to Caesar IV developer Tilted Mill Entertainment, who will be taking over development duties from Will Wright's Maxis.
EA officially confirmed the game in a chat with Joystiq. According to an unamed EA exec, the reason behind the Societies name is that it's "completely different from SimCity 4, so they're trying to come up with something different than just calling it SimCity 5."
Fans are unexpectedly not very happy about the developer shift, posting a barrage of heated messages on Tilted Mill's official forums.
Responding to the debate, President & Director of Development Chris Beatrice posted an official statement:
"...I do not want to mislead anyone: This SC is not a realistic urban simulation, which I understand, to many, represents the heart of what SC is," he said. "No one is blind to that. And if you're just completely turned off, even angered by the mere notion of any game called 'SimCity' that is not a detailed, realistic urban simulator, I absolutely understand that viewpoint, and absolutely respect it."
"I do want to say, though (with no insult intended to die hard SC fans)," he adds, "that we are absolutely thrilled to be a part of this venerable series, are extremely proud of what we have put together, and make no apologies about what we have managed to create. And while our past experiences (including contributions from many of you) certainly inform all our ongoing efforts, this SC is its own unique creation."
First looks at the game in US Games for Windows mag show a fully 3D world, with a colourful environment and a Theme Park-style fairground bustling in the foreground.
Caesar IV was admittedly a bit average as far as city builders go, so let's cross our fingers and hope it jumps in to gear to live up to SimCity fans' massive expectations.
We've currently hammering EA's PR department with the CVG bat phone, so expect more SimCity 5 gubbins very soon.
yea, zoo tycoon was god awful on it, i know it's a different game/developer/publisher, but that really appeared suffered from cartridge size and screen size.
I never liked Zoo Tycoon anyway. All I can say to that is Sim Tower worked fine on GBA, much better then the PC version. Sim City on SNES is one of my most favourite games ever and while the detail in Sim City DS will obviously be greater, the resolution the DS displays is not that far off what the SNES displayed for this game so I don't see it causing that much of a problem. And with two screen, the main screen displaying the city in detail will not be cluttered.
yea, zoo tycoon was god awful on it, i know it's a different game/developer/publisher, but that really appeared suffered from cartridge size and screen size.
Theme Park managed to pull it off, so I see no reason why Sim City cant.
As one of the (to put it lightly) p**sed off SC veterans, I figured I might as well make a post here.
It's not so much the handing over, it's the utter contempt EA has shown for this series and its fans, which still comprise of a fairly large community of dedicated players contributing new content to it, 4 years after the game's EP was released (I myself have released several region maps based on USGS data).
The biggest problem has been the "dumbing down" of the game - are people now so numbskulled that they can't understand the concept of a city needing water, power and landfill (all three elements of which are not going to be in the new game)???
I'd like to think not.
Perhaps some of it could have been simplified (such as having roads automatically lay water pipes underneath them, which isn't uncommon in real life). But to eliminate it completely is foolish.
Wow I too just saw some screenshots. This new game looks so fake and so lame. Its really too bad, they could've done some real brilliant things with this new edition...
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