SimCity is a city-building video game series created by Will Wright. The first game, SimCity, was released by Maxis in 1989 and was followed by many later versions and other games in the Sim series, such as The Sims from 2000, which became a popular and widely sold game. Maxis developed the series on its own until 1997 and continued to do so under Electronic Arts (EA) until 2003. During the 2000s, EA asked other companies to create additional games in the Sim series for consoles and mobile devices. A 2013 remake of SimCity by EA and Maxis was described as one of the most unsuccessful releases in history. This event may have led to the closing of Maxis Emeryville in 2015 and the end of the SimCity franchise.
Gameplay
SimCity games are real-time games where players manage and build cities. In most versions, the player (acting as a mayor) starts with an empty map and must grow the city using the budget given. As the city grows, the player can add government buildings and special structures, like a mayor’s house or courthouse, depending on the city’s size. Managing the city well means providing citizens with basic needs like electricity, water, and waste management, as well as public services such as healthcare, schools, safety, parks, and recreation. These are built by constructing specific buildings or infrastructure, each covering a circular area around them. Not having enough money for these services can cause problems like worker strikes or the city’s decline.
The main way to earn money is through taxes. Some income can also come from legalizing gambling or building special structures like military bases or prisons. Players can trade services with nearby cities, but only if there is a connection, such as electricity lines. Players might also face disasters like fires or tornadoes, or fictional events like monster attacks. Most SimCity games are single-player, though a few allow multiplayer, such as the "Network Edition" of SimCity 2000, the Unix version of the original SimCity, and SimCity (2013). SimCity 4 allowed players to share maps and cities with others for collaboration, but not real-time interaction.
Some versions of SimCity include scenarios with goals related to city performance and time limits to complete tasks.
Development history
The original SimCity was created by game designer Will Wright in 1985 and released in 1989. Wright was inspired by a map-making feature in the game Raid on Bungeling Bay, which made him enjoy creating maps more than playing games. While working on SimCity, Wright became interested in urban planning and was influenced by the book Urban Dynamics by Jay Wright Forrester. He was also inspired by a short story called The Seventh Sally from The Cyberiad by Stanisław Lem, which describes an engineer building a miniature city for a tyrant.
The first version of SimCity was developed for the Commodore 64 and had the working name Micropolis. Unlike most games, SimCity had no clear goal of winning or losing, which made publishers unsure if it could be sold successfully. Broderbund refused to publish the game when Wright first proposed it, and other publishers also declined. Founder Jeff Braun of Maxis agreed to publish SimCity as one of two initial games for the company. In 1988, Wright and Braun returned to Broderbund to confirm the rights to the game. Broderbund executives saw the game’s potential and signed Maxis to a distribution deal. SimCity was released in 1989 for the Amiga and Macintosh, followed by the IBM PC and Commodore 64 later that year.
SimCity was released in 1990 for the ZX Spectrum 48K and 128K by Infogrames. A version for the SNES in 1991 was similar to the original but included new features like Reward buildings, a Mario statue, and attacks by a giant Bowser.
The success of SimCity, combined with the lack of success for other "Sim" games at the time, led to the creation of a sequel. SimCity 2000 was released in 1993 and used an isometric view instead of an overhead perspective. It introduced underground layers for water pipes and subways, new buildings, and more detailed financial controls.
Maxis was bought by Electronic Arts (EA) in 1997, giving EA control of the SimCity brand. Will Wright continued working at EA but later focused on The Sims, while other Maxis staff led future SimCity projects. SimCity 3000 was released in 1999 and added features like waste management, agriculture, and expanded city interactions. It kept the dimetric perspective of SimCity 2000 but improved the visual complexity of the game.
A Japanese-only version called SimCity 64 was released in 2000. It allowed players to view cities at night, control individual pedestrians and vehicles, and used 3D hybrid graphics for the first time in the franchise.
SimCity 4 was released on January 14, 2003. Cities were now divided into regions and districts, and the zoning system was updated to classify buildings by wealth level, type, and size. The game simulated urban decay and gentrification, and players could transfer residents and neighborhoods between SimCity 4 and The Sims 2.
After SimCity 4, EA asked Tilted Mill Entertainment to develop the next major title instead of Maxis. SimCity Societies (2007) focused on social engineering and had fewer simulation details than earlier games. Players built structures individually and managed "social energies" that influenced city behavior. Reviews of the game were mixed, and Will Wright, who was working on Spore at the time, said he had no role in the decision to move development away from Maxis.
A modified version of SimCity 3000, called SimCity DS, was released in 2008 for the Nintendo DS. It used the handheld’s dual screens and included features like a microphone for blowing out fires and a touch screen for controls. A 2008 sequel added a challenge mode where players could build cities in historical periods, such as medieval or prehistoric settings.
On January 10, 2008, the original SimCity’s source code was released under the GPL 3 license as part of a donation to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. The open-source version was named Micropolis because EA kept the SimCity trademark.
SimCity Creator for the Wii was announced in 2008 and allowed players to draw roads and train tracks directly on the screen using the Wii Remote. It was released in September 2008.
During the late 2000s and early 2010s, several SimCity games were re-released for mobile devices, including SimCity 3000 (2008), SimCity Deluxe (2010), and SimCity 4 for the BlackBerry PlayBook (2011).
The fifth major version of SimCity was announced on March 5, 2012, by Maxis. Titled SimCity, it used full 3D graphics, the Glassbox engine, and online multiplayer features. However, the game faced development challenges due to conflicting goals between EA and Maxis. EA wanted to focus on multiplayer and server-based simulations to reduce piracy, while Maxis prioritized graphical improvements. The final product was criticized for shallow multiplayer features and a smaller city size.
The game was released on March 5, 2013, for Windows and August 2013 for Mac. It required a constant internet connection, even for single-player mode, and suffered from server outages, bugs, and limited multiplayer functionality. Players often lost progress when disconnected, and the game was widely criticized as one of the most poorly launched titles in history.
Spin-offs
In the 1990s, many games were created under the "Sim" name, which Maxis started in 1989. This list includes only games that are directly connected to SimCity.
Sim City: The Card Game is a collectible card game based on SimCity. It was released in 1995 by Mayfair Games. Additional city expansions added cards featuring locations and politicians from cities like Chicago, Washington, New York City, and Atlanta. A Toronto expansion was planned but never released. A reviewer noted the game provided good solo play and eventually included standalone city sets.
SimTown is a 1995 video game published by Maxis. Similar to SimCity, it allows players to build a small town with streets, homes, businesses, and parks, and manage the people living there. The game was designed for younger players.
SimCopter places players in the role of a helicopter pilot. The game has two modes: free mode and career mode. In free mode, players can fly through cities from SimCity 2000 or use the 30 cities included with the game. Some user-created cities may need adjustments, such as adding more police stations, fire stations, and hospitals for faster response times. Career mode is the main part of the game, where players complete jobs as a pilot. This game introduced the Simlish language.
The game faced controversy when a designer added images of shirtless male characters in Speedo trunks who hugged and kissed each other. These images were removed from later versions of the game.
Streets of SimCity is a 1997 racing and combat game published by Maxis. It allowed players to explore cities created in SimCity 2000 by driving in a cinematic style. The game uses 3D graphics and can be played with a keyboard, joystick, or gamepad. It includes a network mode for up to eight players to compete in deathmatches. This game was developed without Will Wright’s involvement and was the last Maxis game released before Electronic Arts took over Maxis in 1997.
The Sims began as a spinoff of the Sim series but became one of the most successful video game franchises. Early versions allowed players to transfer neighborhoods from SimCity 4 to The Sims 2. A planned crossover game called SimsVille, which would have let players build cities and manage characters, was canceled so Maxis could focus on The Sims Online and SimCity 4.
SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge! is an educational version of SimCity created by GlassLab.
Reception
The first two games in the series were popular and sold well during the 1990s, reaching a total of 5 million sales by 1999. SimCity 2000 was especially successful, becoming one of the best-selling games of the 1990s. In 2018, it was listed as number 86 on IGN's list of the top 100 video games of all time. SimCity 4, released in 2003, had the highest score for the series on GameRankings, with a rating of 85. The 2013 version of the game was not well received, and Green Man Gaming compared its negative impact on the series to the destruction of the ancient city of Pompeii.
Criticism
The SimCity game series has been criticized for the math models used in the game, which were based on ideas from Jay Forrester’s Urban Dynamics. These models are often kept hidden to create the impression that the game is realistic. The models are based on certain ideas, such as low taxes leading to growth and adding police stations reducing nearby crime, but these ideas may not always be true. Sociologist Paul Starr expressed concern that the game’s code was difficult for players to understand, which might lead players to accept the game’s assumptions without question. Some players have tested the game’s systems and found that it does not consider factors like public health or citizen happiness when measuring success, such as crime rates or economic growth.
Will Wright, the creator of SimCity, said in an interview that the game was meant to be a simplified version of how cities work, not a realistic one. However, the game was still promoted as realistic. The tagline for SimCity 2000 said, “If this game was any more realistic, it’d be illegal to turn it off!” Some real-world politicians have used SimCity to test their city planning ideas, assuming the game’s models were accurate. These politicians include former mayor of Warsaw and president of Poland Lech Kaczyński, former mayor of Providence, Rhode Island Buddy Cianci, and German Bundestag members Lars Klingbeil, Dorothee Bär, and Jimmy Schulz.
Legacy
The franchise helped inspire people who plan cities, manage transportation, and work in local governments. Many of these individuals played the game when they were younger and later chose careers in those fields. Different versions of the game have been used in schools to teach students about city planning, from elementary school to college.
Before 1989, only a few city-building games existed, but SimCity made this type of game more popular and created the foundation for many similar games. One example is Cities: Skylines (2015), which was approved for development after a previous version of the game did not receive good reviews. More broadly, the game’s design, which focused on open-ended play without a clear goal to win, was new at the time. This idea became known as Maxis’ "software toys" concept and influenced many other games the company created.