14 DAY TRIAL // Lucy Bradshaw, who is the senior vice president at Maxis, stated, “The rumours are true; Sim City is back. We’re taking Sim City back to Maxis, and we’re bringing it to you on the PC in 2013.”
The developer stated that one of the new features of the Sim City franchise will include “tactility,” which basically means that roads will now get curves and that players will be able to see a clear impact from their actions upon the city they are building.
The new connection between city and player will not affect the simulation element that has long defined Sim City and the fifth game in the series will be able to give gamers information about the economic simulation of each individual simulated citizen.
Bradshaw did say that resources for each citizen will be limited and that each of them will have individual needs and requirements that players will have to meet through their city level decisions.
The Maxis executive added, “We’d like to thank the millions of fans who have helped make SimCity synonymous with the city-building genre. This is a franchise that means the world to us at Maxis and we’re happy to be bringing it back home where we are reimagining it for an entirely new generation of players.”
The developers also talked about the new GlassBox engine, saying that it is physics based and will allow for the city to develop more organically while also delivering more options for natural and man-made disaster, which have always been a favorite for series players.
Sim City 5 will also include complex social interactions, allowing for connected towns to share some resources and for pollution to affect entire regions.
The game will also include leaderboards and will allow friends to compare their city creation performance.
At the moment the platforms for Sim City 5 have not been confirmed and the game lacks a clear launch window.