It was an essential element of any nerdy childhood, and now it can be a part of your nerdy adulthood, because SimCity is coming to Facebook. Finally, a solution for those of us who’ve switched to Macs but miss spending Sunday afternoons planning digital cities. PC Mag reports that Electronic Arts and Facebook are collaborating on the creation of SimCity Social. It’s currently in closed beta, but according to a statement will launch “soon.” “Soon”? What does that mean? Electronic Arts, we need a date we can put on our calendar. Work with us here.
We just hope EA doesn’t completely gut the experience in the interest of optimizing for the sale of virtual goods. It’s hard to tell from the details provided how different the social incarnation will look:
In player-driven SimCity Social, cities evolve based on user choice, allowing creative freedom by the “mayor,” or player. The game mirrors true life, forcing unforeseen issues like fires, crime, and pollution, and allows social interaction by visiting friends’ cities and using them as resources to complete tasks in your world.
Also, is it our over-active imagination, or do the good folks behind SimCity sound a little offended by the success of Cityville, Zynga’s pale imitation of a classic?
“This isn’t your typical drag and drop city-building game,” Jami Laes, vice president of Global Studios for Playfish said in a statement. “Players don’t just build a city — they choose the kind of city they want and watch its soul come to life as it grows and reacts to their decisions.”
But what we really want to know is: When do we get an updated version of SimTower?
