We’re long overdue for a new SimCity.  SimCity 4 was released…what in January of 2003?  That’s 7 years ago.  SimCity Societies was suppose to be it’s follow up…but we all know how that turned out…Then we had CitiesXL and to be honest, that completely dropped off my radar after it required a monthly payment.  Now IBM wants to take a stab at city creation with their new ‘CityOne’ game.  However, they want to focus on the real life aspects instead of sending UFO’s and Godzilla to attack your citizens.  Sure, it’ll never be SimCity in my eyes, but what are we to do when Maxis won’t pick up on one of their greatest and oldest franchise?  It’s practically their version of Nintendo’s Mario….

CityOne is much like Sim City, only the problems are scarily real, ranging among energy, water, banking, and retail. So, for example, one day you might get hit by a rapid increase in water usage due to population growth–while you’re still losing 40% of your water supply to leaky pipes. (This is actually reality, in decrepit megalopolises such as Mumbai and Mexico City.) To fix that problem, you’ll have to carefully install a real-time water management system. Or, to encourage growth in small-businesses, you’ll have to set up an infrastructure of mobile payments, dynamic invoicing, and micro-lending.

read more at FastCompany