EA had previously indicated that a Mac version of its rebooted SimCity game would come out this month, but that’s not going to happen. Senior producer Kip Katsarelis posted to the official SimCity blog to let players know that the date has moved to August.
“We have made this tough decision because we do not believe it is ready for primetime yet. We want to ensure the Mac is a great experience for our players and that is why we are taking more time,” wrote Katsarelis. No further details were provided.
SimCity is a city building simulation game developed by Maxis, a brand new version of the game that first debuted in the late 1980s. Players build cities by mixing residential, industrial and commercial zones, maintaining utilities, roads, airports and other transportation, as well as public services.
The new version of SimCity debuted for Windows in March. It’s been a hot seller for EA, but it’s also been criticized for its requirement that players stay connected to online servers in order to play. The game initially hit some roadbumps as players overwhelmed EA’s download servers and the SimCity servers themselves struggled to keep up with demand from players, causing some game save problems and other issues. Those problems have been ironed out over time, and Maxis continues to improve it through periodic updates.
Katsarelis said that because of the delay, Mac users will have access to the “SimCity Launch Park,” a region exclusive to early adopters which debuted in the most recent major patch to the game.