SimCity is a city-building and urban planning simulation game that allows many players to join online. It was created by Maxis Emeryville and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released for Microsoft Windows in early March 2013 and is a new version of the SimCity series. It is the first major release since SimCity 4, which came out a decade earlier. A version for macOS was released on August 29, 2013.

Players can design a settlement that grows into a city by assigning land for homes, businesses, or factories. They also build and manage public services, transportation, and utilities. SimCity uses a new game engine called GlassBox, which allows for more detailed and realistic simulations than earlier versions. During its development, the game received praise for its new engine and gameplay. However, some publications warned that the game required a constant internet connection, which allows cloud saves and multiplayer features, such as trading and sharing resources between cities.

Before its release, SimCity received positive reviews. However, when the game launched, it faced many technical and gameplay problems caused by the mandatory internet connection. Issues included server outages, trouble saving progress, and difficulty connecting to the game’s servers. Because of these problems, reviewers could not test the game properly, calling the launch a "disaster" and the game "unplayably broken." They advised players to wait until the issues were fixed before buying the game. SimCity was the final game developed by Maxis Emeryville before the studio closed in 2015.

Gameplay

SimCity includes many new features, such as modern 3D graphics and a new GlassBox engine. System architect Andrew Willmott explained that the game aims to show players what they would expect in a city, such as traffic, economic issues, and pollution. Two other new features are multiplayer gameplay and limited resources.

Unlike earlier versions, this game allows for curved and non-straight roads and zoning areas that can match different road types. Zones include residential, commercial, and industrial areas. The density of buildings in these zones depends on the type of roads nearby.

Cities in a region are connected through networks like highways, railways, and waterways. Players can see traffic and pollution moving between cities. Cities can trade resources or share services like garbage collection or healthcare. They can also combine resources to build large projects, such as solar power plants or airports. Larger regions can have more cities and projects.

Modules in SimCity are attachable structures that add features to existing buildings. For example, a fire station can have an extra garage for more fire trucks, and a City Hall can have a Department of Safety to unlock advanced medical, police, or fire buildings.

The user interface, inspired by Google Maps and infographics, helps players see information more clearly. Animations and color-coded signs show how a city functions, but only appear when needed. For example, opening the water tower shows water density, and clicking on the sewage tab displays waste flow and system limits. Other data shown include air pollution, power distribution, police coverage, and zones.

Many resources in the game are limited. Some, like groundwater, can be renewed. Lead gameplay engineer Dan Moskowitz said that if a city depends on a resource that runs out, its economy will suffer. Before release, Creative Director Ocean Quigley stated that all terraforming in the game would result from building roads, zones, and structures.

Unlike earlier versions, zones are not divided into density categories. Instead, the density of nearby roads determines the type of buildings in residential, commercial, or industrial areas. This means each zone type exists once, and building density depends on road density.

Roads are a key part of SimCity’s mechanics. Unlike previous games, roads now carry water, power, and sewage. Players can use tools to draw straight lines, rectangles, arcs, circles, or free-form roads. Roads range from dirt paths to six-lane avenues with streetcar tracks. Road density affects nearby building density, so dirt roads only support low-density buildings. Roads are divided into streets (24 meters wide) and avenues (48 meters wide). Streets can be upgraded to avenues by replacing old streets entirely. When high- and low-capacity roads intersect, the higher-capacity roads have priority, with stop signs or lights added automatically. Road guides appear when hovering over existing roads to help plan space for buildings. Transportation options include boats, buses, trams, and planes.

Players can specialize cities in industries like manufacturing, tourism, or education. Each has unique designs, behaviors, and economic strategies. The game includes a simulated global economy, where prices for resources like oil or food change based on supply and demand. For example, if many players sell oil on the global market, its price drops. If a resource is rarely used, its price rises.

This version of SimCity is the first to allow full online play since 1996, letting players build regions with cities from different players. Regions can also be private. Players must log into EA’s Origin service to play, even in single-player mode. At release, an internet connection was required every time the game was launched, but an offline mode was later added. The connection is asynchronous, meaning short network issues won’t stop gameplay, but longer outages (over 19 minutes) may cause data loss during online play.

Cities in a region can share or sell resources and work together to build large projects, such as an Arcology.

Development

Before the official announcement, the German magazine GameStar shared concept art. Soon after, a pre-rendered trailer was also leaked. The game was officially announced on March 6, 2012, at the Game Developers Conference. At first, it was said the game would be available for Windows computers, and later, a macOS version was confirmed. EA showed two new trailers at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012, displaying the game’s graphics for the first time.

In August 2012, players could sign up to test closed beta versions of the game, which were released in January and February 2013. These tests helped evaluate the performance of the game’s servers.

SimCity’s creative director, Ocean Quigley, confirmed that a macOS version was being developed but would be released after the Windows version.

Maxis created the game using a new simulation engine called GlassBox, which works differently from earlier simulation games. The engine was designed by Ocean Quigley and Andrew Willmott of Maxis Studios. In previous games, developers first calculated statistics and then created animations to represent them. The GlassBox Engine replaces these statistics with agents, which are units that represent things like water, power, and workers. Each animation is directly connected to an agent’s actions. For example, instead of showing a traffic jam animation to represent a simulated problem, the game creates traffic jams dynamically through the movement of Sim agents, such as those traveling to and from work. A four-part video was released featuring Dan Moskowitz, the lead gameplay engineer, explaining the engine’s behavior.

Citizens in the game are also agents and do not live realistic lives. They accept the first job available and return to the first empty home they find.

After the game was released, players created modifications that allowed offline play and access to developer tools. On January 9, 2014, Maxis shared its modding policy, which permits re-skinning and building creation but prohibits changes to gameplay mechanics.

The game’s audio matches the rhythm of the simulation. For example, when a building generates power, its music and sound effects are synchronized with the simulation’s overall beat. Audio Director Kent Jolly explained that cars in the game are tracked individually. When a car leaves an intersection, the simulator plays a sound of a car pulling away. The sound changes based on the game’s speed. As cars move faster, the audio matches what the player sees while staying true to the actual traffic.

Chris Tilton composed the game’s orchestral score. The music subtly changes based on the player’s actions and the game’s state. For example, when the player zooms out, the full version of the score is heard. When zoomed in, some elements are removed to make space for the activity in the player’s city. The music also considers the population size, and the full playlist becomes available as the player’s city grows. Tilton aimed to create new music for SimCity rather than reusing previous styles. He set all gameplay music to 120 beats per minute but added variety by writing some tracks in triple meter or with syncopated rhythms while keeping the synchronization.

Release and launch issues

SimCity was released on March 5, 2013, in North America, March 6 in Europe, Australia, and Japan, and March 7 in the UK. The game was available in three versions: the standard edition; the Limited Edition, which includes the Heroes & Villains and Plumbob Park DLC sets; and the Origin-exclusive Digital Deluxe Edition, which also includes three European City DLC sets.

The first release of SimCity in North America had many serious problems, especially because the game required an always-on Internet connection. After the game was sold through EA's Origin service, a large number of players tried to download and connect to EA's servers at the same time. This caused network outages. Players reported problems during gameplay, such as long loading times, disconnections, crashes, and loss of saved game data.

The server problems and negative feedback led some publications to call the launch "disastrous" and others to compare it to the launch of Diablo III, which had similar issues. The problems also caused Amazon.com to temporarily remove the downloadable version of SimCity from its site because of customer complaints.

It was also found that the GlassBox engine had several issues, such as traffic taking the shortest route instead of the one with the most available space, and Sims not living in persistent homes but instead going to the nearest workplace and then the nearest home after work.

EA responded to the server issues by adding more servers and creating a patch that turned off "non-critical gameplay features," including leaderboards, achievements, and region filters. On the evening of March 7, Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw said more servers would be added over the weekend. She noted that more than 700,000 cities had been built in 24 hours but acknowledged that many players were still experiencing server instability. She confirmed that servers would be increased, saying, "We added servers today, and there will be several more added over the weekend."

Senior producer Kip Katsarelis said the servers were constantly at maximum capacity because many players stayed connected for long periods, making it hard for new users to join. He explained, "We added more servers to accommodate the launch in Australia, Japan, and Europe… our plan is to continue adding servers until we have enough to meet the demand."

Nathan Grayson from Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote that EA handled the situation as well as possible but said the company damaged the idea of "games as a service" and noted that publishers had not learned from past launch failures. He compared the situation to "a turtle against an 18-wheeler" and said, "A strong service doesn’t just react."

On March 8, 2013, EA paused some online marketing campaigns for SimCity because of ongoing technical problems. EA stated it would not offer refunds for users.

In a blog post on March 8, Bradshaw said the server issues had improved and server space had expanded, but some users still had stability problems. She explained the failure by saying, "A lot more people logged on than we expected," and called the error "dumb." She reported server capacity had increased by 120 percent and errors had dropped by 80 percent. She promised another update over the weekend and announced a free game from the EA catalog. She said, "We feel bad about what happened. We're hoping you won't stay mad and that we'll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent." Maxis said the game would not be made playable offline, as it would require significant work. However, later it was found that a line of code could be removed to allow offline play. An article by Rock, Paper, Shotgun noted that making entire regions playable offline would be easy.

The launch failures led fans of the series to file a petition through We the People on the White House website, calling for "an industry-wide return policy for video games that rely on remote servers and DRM to function properly." This was later covered by news organizations like NBC News.

To compensate for the release issues, EA offered early purchasers a free game in March 2013. All Origin users who bought and registered the game before March 23 could choose a free game from a list of EA titles, including SimCity 4, Battlefield 3, Dead Space 3, Mass Effect 3, and Need for Speed: Most Wanted.

EA maintains a Server Status page on the SimCity website, allowing players to check server status worldwide.

Since the initial release, Maxis has distributed patches through the in-game patching utility. These patches have addressed issues like traffic intelligence, game-save rollbacks, and emergency vehicle routing. Maxis has continued updating the game to improve gameplay and fix bugs.

A month after the launch, Maxis had released 8 official patches, bringing the game to version 1.8. A 2.0 patch, claimed to make major improvements, was released on April 22, 2013. On May 23, 2013, patch 4.0 was released, re-enabling leaderboards. Patch 6, released July 30, 2013, added a second new region. Patch 7.0, released August 22, 2013, included a bridge and tunnel tool and improved traffic. All patches included notes describing their contents, available on EA's forums.

An offline mode was added in Update 10. The game can now be saved to the local disk, and cities are static while the player works on another city.

On November 13, 2014, EA released SimCity: Complete Edition exclusively on Origin. This compilation includes the Digital Deluxe Edition of SimCity (with British, French, and German City sets), the Cities of Tomorrow expansion pack, and the Amusement Park and Airships DLC sets. It does not include the Launch Arcology DLC set from the Cities of Tomorrow Limited Edition.

Reception

In June 2012, at the E3 gaming event, SimCity received 8 awards out of 24 nominations. On August 23, 2012, SimCity was named "Best PC Game" at Gamescom. The Gamescom jury praised the game for its "fantastic graphics" and said it successfully combined elements from earlier versions with features that are easy for new players to learn. On December 14, 2012, the SimCity development team answered questions on the online forum Reddit. Players criticized the game’s DRM, which requires a constant internet connection to Electronic Arts’ servers to play. The gaming blog Kotaku also raised concerns, stating that if Electronic Arts shut down their servers, the game might become unplayable.

In response, a representative named Bradshaw defended the always-online requirement, explaining that real cities are connected and influence each other. She said that linking cities allows for better trade and synchronized effects like crime and pollution across regions. Bradshaw also noted that the game’s engine uses EA’s server hardware to improve performance.

After the game’s release, the website Rock, Paper, Shotgun reported that cloud resources were not used for gameplay calculations but only for features like inter-city interactions and social media. This was confirmed by Bradshaw, who changed her earlier statements.

Following the first beta test, Electronic Arts shared Q4 2012 results. Peter Moore, a manager at EA, said the beta was successful, with over 100,000 people playing it and receiving positive feedback.

When SimCity was released, it received mixed reviews. Many critics lowered their scores after experiencing server problems. GameRankings and Metacritic gave the game scores of 63.82% and 64/100, respectively.

The launch issues influenced critics’ opinions. Eurogamer, CNET, and IGN delayed their reviews because they could not connect to the game’s servers. Polygon initially gave the game a 9.5/10 score but later reduced it to 4/10 after server problems and EA’s decision to disable certain features. Destructoid’s Josh Derocher gave the game a 4/10, stating that online requirements and DRM made the game less enjoyable. Rock, Paper, Shotgun criticized the always-online design, calling it "hideously broken." GameTrailers’ Leif Johnson gave the game an 8.0/10, noting that despite online issues and bugs, the game was still enjoyable. CNET UK reported that Metacritic’s user score dropped to 2.0/10, and Amazon customers gave the game an average rating of 1/5 stars. Players reported problems with city planning, broken economic systems, multiplayer features not working as expected, and missing features from older versions.

Critics also noted that the area available for building cities was smaller than in previous games. Maxis, the game’s developer, said the smaller size was intentional to ensure smooth performance on most computers. They acknowledged the criticism but stated they were not planning to increase city size immediately, though they might consider it in future updates. In October 2013, Maxis said they tested larger cities but abandoned the idea due to technical challenges that would prevent most players from using them.

SimCity sold over 1.1 million copies in its first two weeks, with 54% being digital downloads. By July 2013, the game had sold over two million copies.

Expansion pack

An expansion pack called Cities of Tomorrow was announced on September 19, 2013. It was released on November 12, 2013, and takes place fifty years in the future. It includes new areas, technology, city specializations, and transportation methods.

The new features in Cities of Tomorrow are grouped into three categories: "MegaTowers," "Academy," and "OmegaCo." MegaTowers are very large buildings constructed floor by floor. Each floor has a specific purpose, such as housing, businesses, or services like schools, security, power, and entertainment. Each floor can provide jobs, services, or homes for hundreds of people at the same time. The Academy is a futuristic research center that sends out a signal named "ControlNet" to power structures and improvements developed there. OmegaCo includes factories that make a mysterious material called "Omega" from crude oil and ore. Omega increases profits from residential, commercial, and industrial buildings and helps produce drones to improve healthcare, police, fire services, or assist citizens with shopping, reducing traffic. Over time, Omega is shown to have problems, such as making people sick, creating too much waste, and causing buildings to catch fire without warning.

The expansion also includes a feature called "futurization," where futuristic buildings change nearby roads, buildings, and services to look more advanced. This includes changes like different traffic light designs, more futuristic service cars, and altered architecture. Buildings that cause futurization are marked with a hexagon pattern at the bottom when viewed in the Construction screen.

Cities of Tomorrow was released in three versions: the standard edition, the Limited Edition (which includes the Launch Arcology DLC set), and the Origin edition (which includes the Skyclops Coaster Crown DLC set).

Critics gave the expansion mixed reviews. Brett Todd from GameSpot said the game "feels the same but looks better," calling it "more of the same." Paul Dean from EuroGamer wrote the expansion "is heading in the right direction," but "still isn't a very good game."

Legacy

The server problems when the game launched led to major changes at Maxis and EA in the years that followed. EA changed its approach, moving away from its policy of focusing almost entirely on games that required an internet connection, which had been in place since 2012. This change affected The Sims 4, which was originally planned as a multiplayer game that required online access. However, the game was later redesigned as a single-player version.

In addition to a revised mobile version of SimCity: BuildIt released in 2014, no other games in the SimCity series were created after that. The company Maxis Emeryville closed in 2015. The poor reception of SimCity also influenced Paradox Interactive to support the development of their own city-building game, Cities: Skylines. This game was released in 2015 and received more positive feedback. It is often seen as a successor to the SimCity franchise.