SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow launch trailer arrives as EA hit with "Shonky" award

Cities of Tomorrow , the upcoming expansion for EA's SimCity , will take players far into the future, where they have the opportunity to create a thriving utopian paradise or a grim, smog-filled hell-hole like that time Biff took over the world in Back to the Future II. Now EA has released the launch trailer for the expansion, right as the company's Australian division gets admonished for poor business practices.

The trailer features attack ads created by two warring technology trees: the egalitarian, environmentally friendly Academy and the money-hungry, capitalist Omegaco. Build up your mega-towers to rake in the profits or design your stately architecture to work around friendly green spaces for the betterment of all.

On a much unhappier note, EA Australia was recently awarded a Shonky Award for Unfair Play by Choice, an Australian consumer rights organization. Shonkys are awarded to businesses who practices are “sneaky,” and EA Australia earned the prestigious award for charging AU$2.48 per minute for their support line—a number that many gamers were forced to call thanks to EA's disastrous SimCity launch earlier this year. Talk about poor timing.

EA will launch the Cities of Tomorrow expansion on November 12.