The next installment of the venerable “SimCity” franchise, simply titled SimCity, will be available on Mac OS X in February 2013 according to a press release Tuesday from EA, the game’s publisher. The open city building and management simulation will launch on Windows in the same month.
“Whether you owned a Macintosh or a DOS PC, we all have memories of laying down zones and reticulating splines from our youth,” Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA’s Maxis Label was quoted as saying in the press release. “To the millions of SimCity fans out there, we’ve been listening and can proudly say that your calls have been answered. SimCity has a long legacy on the Mac and the team at Maxis is ensuring that it will be the deepest, richest and most accessible SimCity game yet.”
SimCity, announced in March, will be the fifth major release of the city building franchise (that does not include 2007’s poorly reviewed SimCity Societies, which is considered by many fans of the series to be “The Phantom Menace” of the SimCity world). Apart from Societies, all versions of SimCity have been available on the Mac and, with today’s announcement from EA, it appears that trend will continue.
A History of SimCity
In addition to 10 years of graphical improvements since the last major release, SimCity will feature a strong online component in which players’ cities will interact dynamically with each other and certain tasks will only be possible if they are performed in collaboration with other users. Single player fans should note, however, that Maxis has promised that the full “SimCity experience” will be available to those who choose not to interact with other city builders.
The game, thus far unpriced, will be available for download on OS X via EA’s Origin digital distribution store, which the company also announced is coming to the Mac later this year.