by Playfuls Staff |
1st March 2007
The fastest selling gaming system in the world, the Nintendo DS, is getting the best selling game in the world, the Sims series.[more]
After confirming at the beginning of February that the company is developing a version of Spore for the DS and that it will bring My Sims to Wii, Electronic Arts announced that its famous best-selling franchise The Sims will be ported on DS too.
The Sims version for DS is actually the popular SimCity, but with the required modifications made for the DS platform.” In addition to creating and growing their very own pocket sized city while being on-the-go, players will be able to leverage the unique action features of the Nintendo DS system, discovering an entirely new way to play this internationally acclaimed franchise. The product will make its debut to consumers worldwide in summer of this year.”
EA plans to maximize the use of the unusual DS interface, giving players for example the opportunity to put out fires in their “handheld-city” by blowing into the microphone or to sign mayoral decisions inside the game with DS’ stylus, thus bringing the game-experience to a new level of involvement.
“By enabling the players to communicate with each other, the “wireless data exchange” feature brings additional interactivity into the game. As an added bonus to SimCity fans around the world, the game also offers a wide array of recognizable international landmarks to spice up your city.”
“We are very excited to bring the SimCity experience to the Nintendo DS platform,” said Takahiro Murakami, Producer of SimCity DS. “The unique Nintendo DS functionalities inspired us to incorporate many new features to delight the most dedicated SimCity fans. The game is filled with fun surprises that will appeal to new and existing fans of the franchise.”
Nintendo is enjoying a dominant position in the handheld-gaming market, with more than 20 million units of Developers’ System (or Dual Screen) sold in Europe and the Americas by the end of 2006. In Europe, Nintendo sold more than 10 million units by the end of last year, with more than 1.7 million units sold only in December. According to Nintendo, the DS is now the fastest console to reach the 10 million landmark in the European territory, becoming the best-selling handheld in history, for the same area. In December 2006, DS was sold to more than 1.6 million customers in US, an indication that the 10 million landmark was reached there too. The DS made its American debut back in November 2004.
SimCity is a simulation and city-building personal computer game, first released in 1989 and designed by Will Wright. SimCity was Maxis' first product, which has since been ported into various personal computers and game consoles, and enhanced into several different versions including SimCity 2000 in 1993, SimCity 3000 in 1999 and SimCity 4 in 2003, while the original SimCity was later rebranded as SimCity Classic. Until the release of The Sims in 2000, the SimCity series was the best-selling line of computer games made by Maxis.
