EA Donates SimCity to OLPC Laptops

[Sunite]

EA Donates SimCity to OLPC Laptops
By Richard Koman
November 9, 2007 12:44PM

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The donation of SimCity to for OLPC laptops comes on the heels of several partnerships with OLPC, including T-Mobile's donation of a year of hotspot use for XO owners and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login's donation of an XO for every server it sells. OLPCNews editor Wayan Vota called the SimCity donation another great achievement of Negroponte's dream.

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   With the launch of a limited-time "Give 1, Get 1" sales effort for the groundbreaking XO computer slated for Monday, Electronic Arts added to the momentum behind the green machine by announcing it is donating the original SimCity game to the One Laptop Per Child project.

"By gifting SimCity onto each OLPC laptop, EA is providing users with an entertaining way to engage with computers as well as help develop decision-making skills while honing creativity," the company said in a statement.

It's the first donation of a game to the effort.

Unintentionally Educational

"SimCity is entertainment that's unintentionally educational. Players learn to use limited resources to build and customize their cities. There are choices and consequences, but in the end, it's a creativity tool that's only limited by the player's imagination," said Steve Seabolt, vice president of global brand development, The Sims Label.

"The game should prove to be an incredibly effective way of making the laptop relevant, engaging, and fun, particularly for first time players. We are thrilled to be making this contribution to OLPC to help meet their goal of educating the children of the world."

The donation comes on the heels of several partnerships with OLPC, including T-Mobile's donation of a year of free hotspot use for XO owners and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login's donation of an XO machine for every server it sells in November and December.

Original Model Has Failed

OLPCNews editor Wayan Vota called the donation of SimCity "another great achievement of Nicholas Negroponte's dream."

Negroponte started the OLPC project in 2005 with the idea that developing countries would buy millions of the machines to distribute to children. That vision has not panned out as OLPC has only received one solid commitment to buy, from Uruguay. That has led Negroponte to switch largely to a philanthropic model.

Give 1, Get 1 (G1G1) is the first initiative under that model and it has a certain sector of technophiles fired up to get their hands on one. The program runs from November 12 to 26 and allows consumers in the U.S. and Canada to buy two machines, one to keep, one to donate to a child in the developing world.

Expanding Give 1, Get 1

Vota faults OLPC for limiting the G1G1 program to North America. "This has more to do with logistics, support, and other bureaucratic reasons that apply to international commerce of electronic equipment and not an arbitrary decision that forgot or ignored the rest of the world," an OLPC representative said on the project's Wiki.

But Vota said he wonders why OLPC can't just use a transatlantic courier to deliver the machines. Whatever the cost could be tacked on for purposes of the G1G1 program.

Vota has proposed a way for consumers outside of North America to route around OLPC's policy. They can simply set up a mail forwarding account so they can order the machines sent to a U.S. address and then have them shipped anywhere in the world. Vota has set up such an arrangement himself at a UPS store in Washington D.C.