In an effort to promote climate change awareness through new SimCity Societies, Electronic Arts, the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company, collaborated with BP to bring together world-class game-building skills and industry expertise on energy, electricity production and greenhouse gas emissions. This partnership enables SimCity Societies to educate game players about the impact of electricity generation on the emissions of carbon dioxide, which are linked to climate change.

The EA/BP collaboration is a result of the organizations’ complementary interests. During the development of SimCity’s next iteration, EA looked for a way to raise awareness about low-carbon power choices. As one of the first major energy companies to publicly acknowledge the need to reduce carbon emissions, BP has constantly sought ways to further acceptance of alternative energies.

How do BP’s various green power alternatives appear in the game? SimCity™ players can choose to build cities using cheaper, high-carbon producing energies or they can build cities that thrive on BP alternative energies such as hydrogen, solar power or wind farms. The players’ low-carbon electricity choices and monitoring of SimCity’s carbon emissions provide an entertaining, fully integrated and accurate look at some of the causes of and solutions to global warming.

Watch this site for exclusive sneak peeks of the game. SimCity Societies is available for purchase, so order now! Want to try before you buy? Check back in early 2008 for a downloadable demo of SimCity Societies.