SimCity 5 to Launch in 2013 as PC game from core Maxis team

It has been almost 10 years since the last core SimCity title. SimCity 4 launched in 2003, and after early pre-visualization videos depicted it as a 3D title, the final game ended up being a classic 2D-style affair. City building fans will finally get a taste of modern SimCity. SimCity will return to the PC in 2013. At a Game Developers Conference event tonight, Electronic Arts confirmed that its Maxis studio is at work on a new installment in the city-building franchise for release next year.

There will also be online features, like neighbouring cities affecting each other, and players fighting to be crowned the fittest, the cleanest, the greenest or the dirtiest cities in the Sim-world. You’ll also have new dynamics based around industry and its consequence to deal with. For example, if you decide to send your precious town-folk to down the mines, you’ll have to pack the place out with decent hospitals to keep your workforce from kicking the bucket.

Thankfully, the odd monster or two like Godzilla will still be around to pay you a visit from time to time, so it won’t be all real-world boring stuff you’ll have to deal with. I can’t wait to get my mitts on this, but it won’t be available until 2013.