I don't get the Post's headline. EA published 'SimCity Societies' in 2007 and an expansion pack in 2008, they even mention it in the article. With the inevitable impact of The Sims' mass appeal, and the industry-wide interest in broadening their market by making games, well, simpler, perhaps the article writer feels that nothing has been a "real" SimCity game since Sim City 4, I guess?

It's an important point, whether the series is returning to it's roots of complexity from ten years ago, or if it will be a continuation of the franchise's modern-day releases. But the article leaves a very confusing impression.

I suppose they might mean to highlight this is the first SimCity game developed by Maxis themselves since 2003, but with Will Wright gone and 10 years of staff turnover, is there really much difference between a SimCity game being developed by "Maxis" instead of by any other outside developer?