After a few years of dormancy, Maxis’ (via publisher EA) SimCity is coming back in a big way thanks to two new installments of the simulation so many know and love. The first, which will be available much sooner than the second, is oft-discussed SimCity Social, which will “port” the game to the social media universe, courtesy of Facebook. The SimCity Social page is already active and the game should be launching to the public–free to play–“soon,” maybe even as early as this month (June). Whatever the case, it will be sooner than the upcoming PC revamped edition, which will be available for purchase in February 2013.
SimCity Social is expected to be playable on Facebook this summer.
As for the PC revamp of SimCity, there are a couple of E3 videos up and running; the first of which is the standard, “let’s get everybody excited” trailer and thanks to the hard-to-miss update of the game’s graphics, the newest version of SimCity looks awesome:
The second video comes courtesy of GameTrailers.com’s E3 coverage and it features a gameplay walkthrough that gives potential players a great idea of what they can expect. The video features Kip Katsarelis, the lead producer of the next-gen SimCity, and his insight is quite valuable:
Considering SimCity’s long-established popularity, it should come as no surprise that the new footage didn’t escape the notice of Twitter:
Follow @phantomsoda 
Juan Pablo Castañeda
@phantomsoda RT @BoingBoing: SimCity E3 Gameplay Trailer http://t.co/Zj8FSNGC // :’D tears of joy from inner 10 year old…
Follow @D_Shariatmadari 
David Shariatmadari
@D_Shariatmadari Be still my beating heart http://t.co/aDuKO5Wm
Follow @ELahti 
Evan Lahti
@ELahti Love how readable SimCity seems. Color balance + sense of variance within an architectural family reminds me of TF2. http://t.co/wnjWWpPh
The news apparently caught some by surprise:
Follow @vuvypuvy 
Fuji Jefferson
@vuvypuvy oh apparently there was some trailer for simcity 5. well that is kind of cool i guess…? i had no idea maxis still existed
It’s only been three years since The Sims 3, folks. Does the 2013’s SimCity look like it can duplicate the incredible success of the previous titles or has the idea passed its time? Considering the PC gaming community still has a strong affection for strategy games, it stands to reason SimCity will continue to do well.