MARKLE FORUM on CHILDREN and MEDIA SIMCITY Maxis
Case Presenter: Lucy Bradshaw Maxis General Manager

January 31, 2002

Why SimCity?
SimCity is a game SimCity has been used in classrooms as an educational tool SimCity has a uniquely broad audience since its original version How has its educational appeal aided in the success of SimCity? How have the above factors affected both iterations of SimCity as well as other Maxis games?
SimCity Case Presentation

The SimCity Franchise

Creative and development approach The role of research
The PC Entertainment Market The SimCity Audience Market & Response

The SimCity Franchise

SimCity is a thirteen year phenomenon
SimCity Original, 1989 SimCity 2000, 1993 SimCity 3000 & Unlimited, 1999 & 2000
Lifetime sales of over 9M units Grown from $20M to $122M per title franchise since its first release
Note: this excludes license and compilation units/revenue

The Evolution of SimCity

Origins of the Idea
Will Wright was inspired about building cities, organically, when making another game, Raid on Bungling Bay A lifetime interest in emergent complex behavior from simple systems Topical Research specific inspiration came from Jay Forresters work in modeling cities on computers for social science study purposes

SimCity Description

SimCity gives you they power to build the ultimate urban empire; your city, your way.
The first of a new type of entertainment software now known as God games. A system simulation that provides the player with a set of rules and tools to create and control an urban environment A software toy, a sandbox
Development Creative Goals
Innovate Create engaging systems for familiar or not so familiar topics; cities, people, ants SIM brand values
Open Ended/Blank Canvas Creative/Thinking Challenging/Building
Ease of Entry Open Model customization

www.simcity.com

SimCity inspired titles
SimEarth 1990 SimAnt 1991 A Train 1992 SimHealth 1993 (with Markle Foundation) SimFarm 1994 SimTown 1994 Widget Workshop 1994 SimTower 1995 SimIsle 1995 SimPark 1996 SimTunes 1996 SimCopter 1996 SimGolf 1996 Street of SimCity 1997 SimSafari - 1998

Development: Research

The various phases of development have different research goals

Concept Phase

Test concept appeal Design research
Graduate study program collaborations

Development Phase

Playability/Usability Market Analysis Positioning

Post Release Phase

Customer Profile Analysis Game Data Mining

Research Techniques

Design
Books, personal contacts, internet Local and National data resources for tuning Game Data Mining
Usability/Positioning/Concept
Kleenex Testing Focus Groups Market Analysis
Informal community involvement Participation in conferences, open dialog with Universities

References

City Development
The Making of Urban America: A History of City Planning in the United States, John W. Reps Barclay Mapworks, Street Guide to Santa Clara County A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings and Construction, Christopher Alexander City Life, Witold Wichenski

Graphic Inspiration

Over the city, aerial photography books A Field Guide to American Houses, Virginia and Lee McAlester A History of Building Types, Nikolaus Pevsner
General Data and influence
GIS: Geographic Information Systems EBMUD PG&E Internet city sites

PC Entertainment Market

North America

PC Data 2001

$1.6B total revenue 73,109,487 total units Highly competitive increasing gap between top ten titles and all others in terms of units and revenue

Europe

UK and Germany dominate the market
Localization of text, audio and sometime graphics Simultaneous ship dates About 1/3 of lifetime total for SimCity

Asia/Japan

Growing PC markets
Online gaming rooms Wireless adoption rate texting Localization, Social and Piracy Issues
N.A. PC Data PC Titles 2001
Title Publisher Ship Date Yr-01 $$ Yr-01 Units The Sims Electronic Arts 2/1/2000 $60,499,079 1,482,182 6/1/2001 $29,275,598 859,743 Diablo 2 Expansion Set: Lord of Destruction Vivendi Universal P Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone Electronic Arts 11/1/200124,697,925 867,481 $ The Sims: House Party Expansion Pack Electronic Arts 2/1/2001 $23,579,970 843,752 The Sims: Livin Large Expansion Pack Electronic Arts 12/1/199922,999,144 818,600 $ MP Roller Coaster Tycoon Infogrames Entertainment 2/1/1999 $21,926,773 953,953 The Sims: Hot Date Expansion Pack Electronic Arts 11/1/200121,313,604 804,254 $ MS Age Of Empires 2: Age of Kings Microsoft 8/1/1999 $19,432,055 478,557 Diablo 2 Vivendi Universal P 3/1/1999 $19,394,075 517,037 Black & White Electronic Arts 9/1/2000 $19,304,905 464,325 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 Electronic Arts 10/1/200015,096,182 388,893 $ Max Payne Gathering of Developers 6/1/2001 $13,890,593 300,782 MP Civilization 3 Infogrames Entertainment 10/1/200113,521,884 294,789 $ MS Combat Flight Simulator 2.0 Microsoft 11/1/199913,123,798 285,728 $ Return To Castle Wolfenstein Activision 11/1/200113,121,355 253,852 $ Sierra Sports: NASCAR Racing 4 Vivendi Universal P 2/1/2001 $11,963,579 288,543 Myst 3 Exile Ubisoft 5/1/2001 $11,733,968 284,555 Sim City 3000 Unlimited Electronic Arts 1/1/2000 $11,098,325 338,617 MP Roller Coaster Tycoon Loopy LandscapeInfogrames Entertainment 8/1/2000 $10,795,379 450,856 Sim Theme Park Electronic Arts 11/1/1999$9,927,441 514,288 Tribes 2 Vivendi Universal P 3/1/2001$9,703,379 245,069 Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows Of Amn Vivendi Universal P 1/1/2000$9,639,579 225,763 MS Flight Simulator 2002 Pro Microsoft 8/1/2001$9,003,166 130,954 MS Train Simulator 1.0 Microsoft 5/1/2001$8,708,105 191,952

Business Goals

Top five PC entertainment product
1.5M units WW first year of release $60M net revenue first year
Expand the franchise in meaningful, high quality manner Grow first year franchise results by minimally 50% Sustain the franchise through internet, gameplay additions and community
Development Considerations
PC Entertainment Market Considerations
PC entertainment market highly competitive Production values increasing as well as marketing dollars

Technology Advancements

From DOS/286 with bi-annual advances Now, Windows/1.5GHz Pentium, wide ranging graphics capability with 6 month advances but 2-3 year home PC turnover

Product Quality and Cost

SimCity Original (1989) - $600K - $1M approx SimCity 2000 (1993) - $3.5M SimCity 3000 (1999) - $7M approx Current generation PC Games approx $8M - 12M

SimCity Target Audience

Market Target

Primary:

Previous SimCity players Males ages 18 to 35 Early adopters
Secondary: Computer owners 9 to 40
SimCity Current Demographics
Based on electronic registration

75% Male

Predominantly 14 to 25
25% Female Unique in PC entertainment
SimCitys Educational Audience

SimCity in the Classroom

Teachers Guides for SimCity Site Licenses for schools with Scholastic Series of Sim kids products

Special Events

Future Cities Competition with National Engineers Week www.futurecity.org
GIS Conferences Collaboration with North Western University on several fronts

SimCitys Success

A game about city planning?
Initial positioning as a software toy Open model garnered hard core appeal

Attributes of success

Launched on Mac
Press and word of mouth played a key role Open model garnered hard core appeal
Developed educational distribution and value added skus Innovative and Unique Socially Redeeming the feel good game
Great Execution = Brand Value

Market Strategy

Current Strategy
Leverage brand and studio recognition Primary target: SimCity fans, hard core gamers (early adopters) 1st week sales momentum is critical Print, Internet, Press and TV Embrace community build awareness, participation and excitement Sustained marketing and promotional efforts Word of mouth continues to be a key factor

Audience Response

Over 9 million units of SimCity 75% of Sims players owned a version of SimCity Inspiration for 1000s of fan websites

www.sc3000.com

Inspiration for category of derivative games known as God games or Real Time Strategy

Sid Meiers Civilization Tycoon games Age of Empires Cesar

Marketplace History

SimCity Original 1989 1.2M units

#1 selling PC game

SimCity 3.4M units (console incl.),
Top selling PC game of 1994

SimCity 4.6M units

Top grossing PC game of 1999
Maxis had 5 titles in top 20 PC Data N.A. in 2001 Maxis has had the #1 PC game three years running, PC Data

Whats next

Technical Advancements
Graphic Performance 3D cards, video memory Higher performance CPUs
Not more complex More engaging and better feedback Internet a key feature And now for the suspense.