We hope you enjoy the new look and feel of the SimGolf.EA.com website. The Story Exchange and the Course Exchange will open on very soon, so get your stories and courses ready to upload so you can share them with the world! You can also register your copy of Sid Meier's SimGolf in the Registration area, which will give you access to chat, the BBS, and all downloads. So please take a moment to register and when you're done, you can enjoy all of the features our new site has to offer.
News
29 Jan 2002 - 22:10
29 Jan 2002 - 22:00
We would like to find out what is your favorite part of SimCity? Do you like building your cities or tearing them down? Do you like creating your own buildings or would you rather make maps? Take a minute to post your thoughts on the BBS!
24 Jan 2002 - 22:20
Due to the reports we've decided to remove the Hot Date Patch and research the reported issues. You can expect an updated patch in the next couple of days.
24 Jan 2002 - 22:10
We would like to announce that we are getting many reports that the patch is causing problems for some of our users. We thoroughly tested the patch before we released this to the community and found it to solve many previously reported issues. We are looking into the problems posted and are listening to your concerns. We will let you know within a few days if we think this is something we can help you fix either with an update to the patch or directions on how to avoid the problems you are experiencing.
24 Jan 2002 - 22:00
The new PC title from legendary game designer Sid Meier and Maxis lets players build their very own golf resort empire.
EA ships Sid Meier's SimGolf
The new PC title from legendary game designer Sid Meier and Maxis lets players build their very own golf resort empire
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., January 23, 2002 - Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS) today announced the release of Sid Meier's SimGolf™. From legendary game designer Sid Meier, and his team at Firaxis Games, and Maxis™, the creators of the hit PC games The Sims™ and SimCity™, Sid Meier's SimGolf puts players in charge of their very own golf resorts. As course designer, CEO and resident pro, players are challenged to grow a business from a small, public pitch-and-putt to a global network of five-star resorts.
"I'm thrilled with SimGolf. In all my years of making games, SimGolf has been the most fun to create," said Sid Meier, Chairman and Director of Creative Development at Firaxis Games and creator of such PC hits as Railroad Tycoon, Sid Meier's Civilization and Sid Meier's Gettysburg! "In SimGolf we allow players to create their own paths and to choose their own style of play. You can build an endless variety of courses, customize your golfers, create a world class pro, play your course and hold tournaments at your resort. The fun goes on and on! We hope gamers around the world will have as much fun playing SimGolf as we did making it."
Create the world's most beautiful, challenging and outrageous golf courses in environments that include sunny desert, lush tropics, scenic woodlands, and historic Scottish links. Players can build the course of their dreams by constructing rolling fairways, challenging greens, strategically placed water hazards and annoying sand traps.
Everything from ball washers and pro shops to luxury hotels and casinos are available for resort development. Players can choose from over a dozen different landmarks to further personalize the grounds. As the resort facilities are upgraded and enhanced, guests are happier on the course and celebrities are enticed to buy homes at the resort.
Once the course is designed, players can create their own SimGolf pro and play a round. All SimGolfers are fully customizable, with an array of outfits and a variety of personality types to choose from. Players also have the ability to dabble in the personal lives of their members with fully customizable dialogue. Listen to their sagas unfold as they birdie, par and bogey over eighteen holes. The outcome of the guests' individual stories depends greatly on the success of the individual hole and course.
Play the course and fine-tune the skills of the golf professional to help him or her become the leader of the SimGolf Association (SGA). Players can then host and play in major tournaments for big cash prizes that can be used to upgrade their resort conglomerate.
The ability to share courses and stories with other SimGolf players from around the world is available at http://simgolf.ea.com. From ground breaking to par breaking, the ultimate golf fantasies are in your hands with Sid Meier's SimGolf.
Sid Meier's SimGolf requires Windows® 95 or greater and a 300 MHz Intel Pentium II or an AMD K6-2 processor or greater, a 8 MB video card with DirectX 8.0 compatible driver and a DirectX 8.0 compatible sound card. Sid Meier's SimGolf is available in stores now for a suggested retail price of US $39.99 or by direct order from the EA StoreSM at http://www.ea.com or by calling 877-EA GAMES (1- 877- 324-2637). It carries an ESRB rating of "E" for everyone.
Firaxis Games is headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland. As Firaxis' Chairman and Director of Creative Development, Sid Meier has been honored with virtually every major award in the gaming industry and in 1999 and was the second person ever to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science's Hall of Fame. For more information about Firaxis visit http://www.firaxis.com.
Maxis, based in Walnut Creek, California, is EA's game development studio best known for The Sims and SimCity line of games. The Sims has sold over 5 million copies worldwide and was North America's top selling PC game of 2000 and 2001.
Electronic Arts, headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, Electronic Arts posted revenues of more than $1.3 billion for fiscal 2001. The company develops, publishes and distributes software worldwide for personal computers and video game systems. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA SPORTS BIG™, EA GAMES™ and EA.COMSM. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://www.info.ea.com.
Electronic Arts, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS BIG, EA GAMES, The Sims, SimCity, SimGolf, and Maxis are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. EA.COM is a service mark of EA.com Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
22 Jan 2002 - 22:10
SimGolf will hit store shelves this week. To get a taste of what the game is like, download the demo and fansite kit at SimGolf.EA.com.
22 Jan 2002 - 22:00
This famous railway station from Korea can now be featured in your city. Download yours today!
17 Jan 2002 - 22:20
The topic for this SimDay is, where would you like to take your Sims for a vacation? Please post on the BBS in the Suggest a Topic Section. Our Producers are eager to hear what you have in store for the Sims!
17 Jan 2002 - 22:10
TVGuide.com has an article about TheSims and Hot Date. The article talks about how Sims interact and mentions some fansites.
17 Jan 2002 - 22:00
GameSpot has an article about TheSims phenomena and a poll that lets you vote on how many expansion packs will be made for TheSims. Cast your vote today!
The Sims: Moon Colony 7
While rumors had been flying since before the holidays, Maxis recently confirmed that it is working on a new expansion pack for The Sims, its unnervingly popular virtual-life game. The expansion is reportedly The Sims: Vacation, and if the reports are correct, it will let players take their little computer people on vacation to the mountains, the beach, or the wilderness. In fact, there may very well be more information available about the expansion by the time this article is posted.
The news about this new expansion leads me to wonder how long this eerie winning streak will continue. Maxis struck gold when it created The Sims, which has remained almost continuously among the best-selling PC games since its release in early 2000. Electronic Arts has skillfully kept the game alive by releasing a series--three so far, soon to be four--of expansion packs that give Sims players more of what they crave.
There is no real parallel to The Sims in terms of gameplay, but in terms of popularity, one can look to other successful games like Diablo II or Age of Empires II to see how other publishers have leveraged the popularity of their games. Both games sold extremely well, and both spawned successful expansion packs. But can you imagine either game getting three more expansions?
You can't blame EA--new Sims expansions are money in the bank. Each new expansion boosts sales of the original game, which in turn builds the potential market for new expansions. At this point, it seems like the game can't possibly keep selling so well, since everyone who plays PC games must already have it. And yet there it is, week after week, placing in the top five best-selling games. Could people who don't play games be buying it? If so, what do they use it for?
Since The Sims itself appeals to a broader, less hard-core audience than that of many other popular games, Sims fans don't demand huge performance improvements that would probably require a new game engine--and therefore, a full sequel. Instead, they're content with just getting more game content. Parties and dates are fun, but I hope that Maxis gets a little more adventurous with its expansions--The Sims: Medieval Dungeon? The Sims: Alien Invasion? The possibilities are endless.
When will Simsmania die down? Probably only when something better, and with a similarly broad appeal, comes along. One thing is for sure, though--EA will continue to produce expansion packs for the game as long as they continue to sell. I'm all for it. Every superhit like The Sims: Hot Date helps fund the development and distribution not only of future Sims expansions, but also of unrelated games that may appeal to players not even interested in The Sims. And unlike terrible games that sell well, or even mediocre games that sell well, The Sims is a superb game that deserves to sell as well as it has. Sims-related sales are healthy not only for EA, but also for the industry as a whole, since the game's widespread appeal shows once again that computer games aren't just for computer gamers anymore, but also for "normal" people. And with any luck, The Sims Online will show that online games are for normal people too.