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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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The new SimCity will ship for the Mac on June 11, EA reported today. Gamers will be able to purchase SimCity for Mac as a $60 digital download via Origin, EA's Steam-like digital store that launched earlier this year, as well as other digital retailers. Owners of the PC version of SimCity will receive the Mac version for free, and vice versa.

simcity.jpg
EA is emphasizing that this is not simply a Mac "port" of the Windows version, but instead is a native version of the game designed specifically for the Mac. The software renderer has been rewritten for OpenGL, but the Mac version will use the same servers as the PC edition so gamers can play together regardless of what platform they are using.
"SimCity is coming to Mac on June 11 and one purchase will give you both the Mac and PC versions. You only need to buy SimCity once to play together across the same servers, regardless of which version you're playing," said Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA's Maxis Label. "We didn't want to make any compromises when it came to the Mac so we created a native version that is optimized for the hardware and OSX."
SimCity's launch was more than a little rocky, largely because the game can only be played online. EA requires that the game be connected to its servers at all times to facilitate region play where multiple cities are connected to share utilities and citizenry.

At launch, SimCity's servers were overwhelmed with traffic and the gameplay experience was extremely poor. Today, EA seems to have ironed out the bugs and users are playing the game as intended. The company recently turned the 'Cheetah' speed mode back on after disabling it to reduce load on the servers after SimCity's initial release.

EA originally said SimCity would come to the Mac in February of this year, but pushed that ship date back.

Article Link: SimCity Arrives On the Mac on June 11th With Cross-Platform Servers
 

Vidd

macrumors 65816
Mar 7, 2006
1,001
108
Great. EA's going to look at this and think "well, games don't sell on OS X" after the fallout from Sim City 5.

Wasted potential.
 

dlewis23

macrumors 65816
Oct 23, 2007
1,149
1,827
Hopefully no server issues. I've wanted to play this but can't put bootcamp on my MBP not enough HD space and now I gotta wait till June.
 

drewyboy

macrumors 65816
Jan 27, 2005
1,385
1,467
Sim"Town" sucks. Just stay away. Always on, DRM, horrible servers, game glitches, bad AI, very small town... overall just bad.

Edit: Lets not forget the virus/trojan that is Origin
 
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longofest

Editor emeritus
Jul 10, 2003
2,924
1,682
Falls Church, VA
Still frustrated that it isn't on Steam. Then I could just download the Mac edition to my new 27" iMac and play it there or play it on my HP laptop - whichever I choose, and not have to pay twice.
 

smithrh

macrumors 68030
Feb 28, 2009
2,722
1,730
The "bugs" that make this unpurchasable for me are by design.

e.g., they won't be fixed.

I won't repeat them, but youdangbetcha "always on drm" is at the top.
 

commander.data

macrumors 65816
Nov 10, 2006
1,056
183
Still frustrated that it isn't on Steam. Then I could just download the Mac edition to my new 27" iMac and play it there or play it on my HP laptop - whichever I choose, and not have to pay twice.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/simcity-comes-mac-june-11-141000660.html

EA said they are offering the Mac version for free for PC owners as well along with cross-platform multiplayer and unified saves and achievements. Along with it being a native Mac game instead of Cider, it's clear EA/Maxis put a lot of effort into the Mac version. Hopefully the potential damper of the controversial always-on internet requirement on Mac sales doesn't discourage EA from this high level of Mac support for future games. DICE is porting the Frostbite engine to Mac so BF3 or BF4 for Mac could be in the pipeline.
 

spazzcat

macrumors 68040
Jun 29, 2007
3,619
4,586
Hopefully no server issues. I've wanted to play this but can't put bootcamp on my MBP not enough HD space and now I gotta wait till June.

Maybe the beta will be over by then and we can play the game, your not missing anything at this point...
 

Simplicated

macrumors 65816
Sep 20, 2008
1,422
254
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Meh. Bought it and I think it is the biggest scam of the year. I will never ever purchase anything from EA again.

(In other news, EA was elected the worst company in America history for the second time in a row. They deserved it.)
 

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,544
6,042
Wait, EA is actually taking steps to stop being the crappiest game company in the world?

I'm still not interested in SimCity (I just don't care for that type of game), but maybe if they'd put this much effort into C&C 3 I might have considered buying other games in the series.
 

iF34R

Contributor
Jul 13, 2011
1,274
514
South Carolina
Still frustrated that it isn't on Steam. Then I could just download the Mac edition to my new 27" iMac and play it there or play it on my HP laptop - whichever I choose, and not have to pay twice.
I was hoping for it on Steam as well.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/simcity-comes-mac-june-11-141000660.html

EA said they are offering the Mac version for free for PC owners as well along with cross-platform multiplayer and unified saves and achievements. Along with it being a native Mac game instead of Cider, it's clear EA/Maxis put a lot of effort into the Mac version. Hopefully the potential damper of the controversial always-on internet requirement on Mac sales doesn't discourage EA from this high level of Mac support for future games. DICE is porting the Frostbite engine to Mac so BF3 or BF4 for Mac could be in the pipeline.
Good info!

So, SimC. I've played it some. I've not put an enormous amount of time into it. I haven't had any issues with the time I've played, so hopefully it'll be all well by June too. I have enjoyed it mostly.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,415
43,304
I've been waiting for this to come but since seeing all the issues with the always on network connection and performance issues, I'm not so sure.
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
As a fan of the SimCity games of past, I still may buy this despite the DRM and always on connection requirements and other issues pointed out by other users. I still want to play it and make a judgment of my own on it.
 

IlluminatedSage

macrumors 68000
Aug 1, 2000
1,562
337
Am i the only one who thinks it is BS to have to have your games online?

What about us who are traveling, on go or such and just want to play on their laptop, where no internet is available???

Seems like EA's zeal for copyprotection and DRM has overridden the basic needs of their customers
 

\-V-/

Suspended
May 3, 2012
3,153
2,688
As a fan of the SimCity games of past, I still may buy this despite the DRM and always on connection requirements and other issues pointed out by other users. I still want to play it and make a judgment of my own on it.
Same... maybe... the DRM crap is a big issue, though... but I've been waiting a long time for this game.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,415
43,304
I may also take the plunge and I'm hoping to recapture the fun that the older versions once had.
 
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