SimCity Arrives On the Mac on June 11th With Cross-Platform Servers

The new SimCity will ship for the Mac on June 11, EA reported today. Gamers will be able to purchase SimCity for Mac as a $60 digital download via Origin, EA's Steam-like digital store that launched earlier this year, as well as other digital retailers. Owners of the PC version of SimCity will receive the Mac version for free, and vice versa.

Simcity
EA is emphasizing that this is not simply a Mac "port" of the Windows version, but instead is a native version of the game designed specifically for the Mac. The software renderer has been rewritten for OpenGL, but the Mac version will use the same servers as the PC edition so gamers can play together regardless of what platform they are using.

"SimCity is coming to Mac on June 11 and one purchase will give you both the Mac and PC versions. You only need to buy SimCity once to play together across the same servers, regardless of which version you’re playing," said Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA’s Maxis Label. "We didn’t want to make any compromises when it came to the Mac so we created a native version that is optimized for the hardware and OSX."

SimCity's launch was more than a little rocky, largely because the game can only be played online. EA requires that the game be connected to its servers at all times to facilitate region play where multiple cities are connected to share utilities and citizenry.

At launch, SimCity's servers were overwhelmed with traffic and the gameplay experience was extremely poor. Today, EA seems to have ironed out the bugs and users are playing the game as intended. The company recently turned the 'Cheetah' speed mode back on after disabling it to reduce load on the servers after SimCity's initial release.

EA originally said SimCity would come to the Mac in February of this year, but pushed that ship date back.

Popular Stories

Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...

Top Rated Comments

William Gates Avatar
160 months ago
I was excited about this 2 months ago. Now I couldn't care less if I never play it.
Score: 57 Votes (Like | Disagree)
attila Avatar
160 months ago
They shouldn't waste their time.

We don't want their DRM-crippled always-online Sim TOWN.
Score: 55 Votes (Like | Disagree)
drewyboy Avatar
160 months ago
Sim"Town" sucks. Just stay away. Always on, DRM, horrible servers, game glitches, bad AI, very small town... overall just bad.

Edit: Lets not forget the virus/trojan that is Origin
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
IlluminatedSage Avatar
160 months ago
Am i the only one who thinks it is BS to have to have your games online?

What about us who are traveling, on go or such and just want to play on their laptop, where no internet is available???

Seems like EA's zeal for copyprotection and DRM has overridden the basic needs of their customers
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kissaragi Avatar
160 months ago
They shouldn't waste their time.

We don't want their DRM-crippled always-online Sim TOWN.
You dont, I do. Dont speak for other people.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Vidd Avatar
160 months ago
Great. EA's going to look at this and think "well, games don't sell on OS X" after the fallout from Sim City 5.

Wasted potential.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)