At a media briefing last night during GDC, EA officially revealed that the SimCity franchise is returning in 2013.

“We’d like to thank the millions of fans who have helped make SimCity synonymous with the city-building genre. This is a franchise that means the world to us at Maxis and we’re happy to be bringing it back home where we are reimagining it for an entirely new generation of players,” said Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President of EA’s Maxis Label. “Using our proprietary GlassBox Engine, SimCity for PC will equip players with the tools to play the most sophisticated simulation of its kind. We are dedicated to making sure the experience – no matter the platform – has the fun, flavor and playability that has been intrinsic to the franchise since its birth.”

SimCity, will for the first time, let players create an entire world with their friends. As players create their own cities, they can co-exist with cities of their friends to form a whole region that will be impacted by everyone’s decisions, such as climate changes, renewable resources and natural disasters.

SimCity will be powered by GlassBox Engine, Maxis’ own engine that aims to give SimCity a more realistic look than ever before.

From what we saw at the briefing last night, SimCity is shaping up to be a good one!