Electronic Arts’ SimCity is one of the best-selling PC games of all time. Its obsessively detailed model of how urban centers evolve is so realistic that, along the way, it has become a teaching tool for urban planners. The latest version, SimCity Societies, due out on Nov. 15 for $49.95, includes global warming among the variables it uses to guide how players plan and manage cities.For power, a player can opt for clean windmills or solar, which cost more and have limited output. Or they can go for coal plants, which are cheaper to build but pollute heavily and lower residents’ happiness. Having more cars and fewer buses boosts emissions, too.
Over time, rising CO2 levels can trigger big catastrophes, such as droughts or heat waves, as well as subtler shifts like increasing rates of illness.
None of that is too terribly different from older versions of the game, but this is a new twist:
Real-world oil giant BP sponsored the game’s energy systems. So when players build a renewable energy facility, these sport BP’s yellow-green sunflower logo. Coal plants do not.