I don't know what to think. I'm a pessimist and it's pretty hard after seeing Baldur's Gate, one of my fav games of all time, appear in the news again to come back either as a sequel/remake/port with fears that they are just using the name of a legendary game to make a fast buck.
Now it's Simcity's turn, again, to appear in the news and that's also another one of my fav games of all time. So yeah, I don't know what to think, neither am I ecstatic, since EA horribly, horribly butchered the Simcity name with Societies. And it's still EA, Maxis is there in name only, Will Wright has long gone from EA and I assume so are some of the former Maxis staff. I'm expecting spamming of DLCs, Origin, dumbed-down gameplay (since they claimed that SC4 is too hard for casuals back then) and general shitiness. They made "Theme Park" for the iOS, I downloaded it thinking its like the original Bullfrog Theme Park but it's nothing close to it and it's filled with disgusting microtransactions.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=464903

I think it's true, there's a few reports going around including.....

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/simcity-5-due-in-2013-report-6360586

I thought this would have been big news?

I think people are still trying to erase the memory of Sim City Society, and not be reminded that the series did not stop at #4...

I would love a new Sim City, long as it lives up to the classics :)

Funny that I just learned to properly play SC2K. :)

I also just had the opportunity to play SC3K and while it was great in some aspects, it lost much of 2K's charm and gameplay in a boat load of badly implemented micromanagement.

I actually gave up on SC3K because of it.

I never played SC4 extensivelly to comment on it, though I look foward for an opportunity.

All that said, I hope they manage to balance the interesting aspects of SC3 and 4 with the more direct approach of SC2K.

Also... please do away with the exploding Power Plants!!! There must be a better way to simulate degradation and upkeep on those things.

Simcity 3000, you just have to watch Aura ratings in your city, keep pollution levels down, high tech industry up and you'll be on a roll. Build your commerical offices near water with astromonical aura and land values and watch the towers pop.

Simcity 4 works slightly differently from the rest of the Simcities because of the regional gameplay. Your neighbouring city demands plays a huge part in your city RCI demands. Also it's more challenging compared to SC2K and SC3K. SC2K and SC4 are my favourites but if you add in SC4 with the nearly infnite user made custom buildings and content, SC4 easily becomes my favourite.

Haha, no, I love the exploding power plants, especially the Nuclear ones. Sometimes for the heck of it I place a nuke plant in the middle of a big city. Then start a disaster on it.

It's an exciting prospect... I played 2000SE (the superior windows edition) tonnes when I was little & eventually actually got fairly good at it. There's always been some iteration of Sim City installed on my pc's at some point.... right now this pc has Sim City 4 & my netbook has 3000SE.

I never played Societies based on the bad reviews but this one (from the screenshots) looks more classic. I think simplifying things too much has been Maxis's error lately, though if I remember rightly, they didn't make Societies.

You're correct serpantino, Tilted Mill did Societies, although they do another city builder called Children Of The Nile which is actually quite good, if you like the Egyptian era :)

Is confirmed:
http://www.simcity.com/en_US?intcmp=EACom_simcityannounce_latest_0312
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kztNWdhRdnw

"Please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck , please don't suck, please don't suck".

More info from GDC 2012

http://www.edge-online.com/news/maxis-announces-simcity

- It is going to be called SimCity (not going to be confused with the original...)

emphasis on social gaming:
- "Their cities will sit in regions shared by those of friends"
- "Stats will be ranked throughout the world, whether you want to get the best or the worst. "

- "Compared to previous games’ system of painting buildings into the city, the new game focuses on building." (What about focus on economy and balancing? Hope this only refer to graphics)
- "“We’re not trying to make the most complex - we’re making the most playful and responsive SimCity yet" (which to me do not bode well)

Lets see how it turns out, at least it looks nice so far.