SimCity delayed slightly
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
EA pushes release of city-building simulator from February to March 5 in North America, March 8 in Europe.
SimCity has been delayed. Gamers may, however, be happy to learn the delay is brief. A tweet from the official SimCity account today announced the upcoming city-building game will arrive on March 5 in North America. A release will follow in Europe on March 8.
The game was previously scheduled to launch sometime in February. No reason for the delay was provided.
SimCity is currently in development at EA Maxis. The game is being built on EA's new Glassbox game engine, which allows the studio to introduce curved roads to the franchise, among other features. The game will also be fully 3D, a first for the series.
For more on SimCity, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
71 comments
2 Like Delay could mean two things: making the game more CityVille than Cityville, or Fixing the raped game. Core fans will nonetheless continue the Save-Legacy-SimCity movement.
EA shareholders and game business investors are no bunch of idiots. The market have been INFORMED social gaming is overhyped and Facebook sim games are in a state of GLUT.
Facebook gamers new to SimCity, beware of EA and Maxis. Google 'spyware origin spy users computer' to understand the great difference of playing a Facebook city game versus playing a EA/Maxis online city game.
1 Like I like a delay from time to time. It often, although not always, means that they're not rushing it and are trying to perfect what they got.
2 Like To bad this game is under EA. I was going to get it, I guess I wont be getting it after all.
Down with EA!
2 Like thats not the point. EA brings the quality of there games down by giving them time frames to finish instead of taking the time to make sure that its the best it can be.
EA is focused on the mainstream that will buy anything so quality is not a huge concern for them(quality<profits). Point being is that the game WILL sell NO MATTER WHAT!...and they know it!
Games are often better made without a publisher telling them what to do as seen in devs not owned by publishers.
2 Like @Skyrim25 thats a terrible attitude to take...
If EA makes a good game, you shouldn't stop yourself from getting said game, just because an EA logo is stamped on there. it's illogical.
When the company has destroyed every good game franchise it has gotten its hands on, dismantles every good game studio its gobbled up, treats their customers like criminals and takes their stuff off mainstream online distribution platforms, i have every right to say fuck off. the only way to tell a big company that they suck monkey balls, is with my wallet. They will never get back into my good graces ever. They are taking down video gaming as a whole.
its purely principle now.
Are you not aware of what EA have done to this game, and the franchises it have?
Persistent online DRM, Origin only, dumb down gameplay---no god mode, no save and load, no subways, small map sizes, no region customization (fixed neighbourhood connections), no terraforming, no way to make connected metropolis (fixed empty space between cities), no farms, the list go on
@Annihilator-X- kind of an old comment, but i wasn't talking about the game quality, i was just saying his attitude of 'EA = no sale' is a rather crappy thing to do, especially if a game comes out that actually is good, but won't be bought due to the EA tag.
Judge games by their own merit, not that of their publishers.
P.S. i've played the simcity beta, and i';'m actually on the fence about buying it, probably leaning toward no, but that's not because of my blind hatred towards EA, but by judging the game itself.
1 Like Big business is usually bad for the industry because they end up buying out there competitions there by stopping innovation that is caused by competition.
EA is too big for its own good and for the industry.
3 Like Game looks nice....
I added EA to my black list....I don't buy their games anymore......
lol ive seen this happen before its a way to try and build up more hype for a game that is already done, and since they want to show good profits they will delay it to fit into the next fiscal year so they can brag to their shareholders that they made a profit.
There now you all know why games get delayed like this.
1 Like Why can't the graphics look like that little train model like picture... lol
Instead of the SNES version below it... lol
3 Like unless they impliment an offline mode i wont be purchasing this, and that bothers me because this game does look a bit like the ultimate simcity game.
I am curious if they gonna lose a lot more costomers than me over this online required BS. what do you all think?
@McTune just an fyi.
Yes, you have to play with an internet connection, but you can use your own personal cities and regions, meaning you can exclude yourself from all multiplayer activities completely, if that's what you want to do.
@shingui5 sheep with that attitude are a big reason we are in this mess in the first place. keep being herded for the slaughter.
This comment has been deleted
I'm curious why you dislike the online requirement. I could understand if you had no internet for a significant portion of the day or something. You aren't going to be required to interact with anyone else playing the game if you don't want to. I, for one, have already pre-ordered.
@karenwen that is a point i never did consider. i already have EA on by black list but now that you said it, i do remember hearing fairly often of the game servers being shut down. very bad way to treat customers.
@mwsmt Because EA likes to cut the majority of their games' online capability mere years after releasing them, and not to mention when their online system goes down or hiccups like any other online DRM, you can't play the game you spent your hard earned dollars on.
Most of us aren't willing to take that risk, especially with an atrocious company like EA.
1 Like @McTune I also think they will lose customers. I believe SimCity is a game with a fairly large number of non-gamer fans, people who are more likely to want to play offline sometimes, I mean we're not talking about the multiplayer FPS crowd here. The sad thing is, many of these long time fans are also less likely to pirate it, for various reasons, and so I think in this case they are really making a big mistake. Oh well, always online constant connection is the way all big company games are going I guess we can't really stop it. What bothers me even more is how games are being made just with multiplayer in mind now, like what they are doing with the next C&C. I wonder how much "social" garbage they are putting into SimCity and if that means the game has been neglected in other areas.
2 Like @McTune I think they'll lose quite a few, I know I'm going to avoid buying this game just like I avoided buying both Diablo 3 and CnC 4. Which is sad, because SimCity was always a fun game to play around in.
I used to love the Sim City games...back in the 90s. Just can't seem to get into the game style nowadays.
6 Like they're going to need more than a slight delay to fix everythign that's wrong with this disaster...starting with the main culprit: required constant internet connection to play.
looks interesting, might give it a whirl, though I would rather have it on steam not origin, thought it appears they are dumbing it down a bit for a more casual audience, which in this case I believe is the right call. As a novice player would want to quit after a few failed cities and such. Though admittedly I haven't really played sim city 4 to much yet as I just got it. but 3k and 2k where a bear.
I haven't played SimCity since like 3000...don't really have much interest in this game either.
5 Like SimCity fan since SimCity 1. No interest in this game due to A. Made by EA B. Always Online Requirements C. Looks like only minor improvements on SC4 D. Doesn't bring cool, new, or realistic disasters or challenges to the table. Come on guys, lets see some climate crisis or rising tides! lol E. Can't save your own city offline and transfer to another computer? IMHO, it's a small, sad step for a once great game.
3 Like @WCK619 Except Maxis is not Maxis anymore...I don't think any of the people working for Maxis under EA are the same folks that were Maxis back in the day. Maxis is now nothing but a brand name that is owned by EA, as far as I'm concerned.
5 Like @WCK619 Maxis is owned by EA, the game requires EA's origin, sold by EA/origin, and requires an EA-style always-on internet connection. I.e. thanks for wrecking the kind of game that was great to play on ferries, air planes or air ports. I'll give it another look when it comes out, but so far I'm less than impressed by some of the design decisions EA Maxis has made. After all these years (since SC4), this is all we get?
@HailHellfire then just download via torrent and I would suggest the skidrow version and there is a crack within a day or two of the release or maybe before the release date, and if you like the game buy it and support the companies games you like.
It's been pushed a whole month back from Feb to March. Whoopie doo.
If they need the time, let them have it.
8 Like @jhonMalcovich So you took the time to post that comment huh? How much is it to cross your bridge?
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