"The PC market is not dead, it's very much alive," says EA Maxis

SimCity's lead producer Kip Katsarelis has said PC gaming is alive and well, and while the Glassbox Engine used to develop Maxis' sim title is "definitely portable," on many platforms, PC is where the firm's "market is."

Speaking with GI International, Katsarelis said: "We're still seeing the PC market is not dead, it's very much alive.

"Blizzard's shown quite a bit of success with their recent Diablo launch, The Sims is highly successful, so there's a market there, we've got an audience there that wants games on that platform, and we are still a PC house and will continue to be so.

"I can see us on many platforms, there's definitely an appetite for Sim City, it's one of those games that everybody can relate to, they all live somewhere," he continued. "Not only has gaming changed, there is that whole generation who may be aware of SimCity, and maybe they've played the iPhone version of it, but they haven't really experience that true experience on the PC.

"So we came out with SimCity Social, there's CityVille too, there's a whole new generation of city planners that would probably love to play our game."

Katsarelis was cagey about life beyond SimCity for Maxis, but explained that the , the foundation to all the advances made in the new game, was an investment for the future.

SimCity 5 will release on PC and Mac next year.