In SimCity, Cities can be specialized to serve specific purposes.

Big Businesses

Main article: Big Businesses

Each city can specialize in one or more big businesses.

The player becomes not only a mayor but also a business mogul.

There are five big businesses in the game: metals, petroleum, electronics, trade, and gambling.

The player's rank is determined by the amount of profit from that business in the past 12 months.

Metals

Metals City

Main article: Metals

Metals require to be extracted from the ground and processed into more valuable resources.

Make sure to inspect the region to find where the coal, ore, and oil deposits are before you claim your city.

As the player advance his or her Metals business, the player can dig up larger quantities of coal and ore.

More money can be made if the player builds a smelting plant to convert the minerals into metals and alloy.

Petroleum requires to be extracted from the ground and processed into more valuable resources.

A refinery can be built to convert petroleum into fuel and plastic.

Electronics can be manufactured from metal, alloys and plastic.

The player create microprocessors, TVs, and computers from basic resources.

Electronics manufacturing has high profit margin but requires substantial investment in education and transportation infrastructure.

Trade is about buying and selling resources on the Global Market.

The key to trade is to import resources when their prices are low and export resources when their prices are high.

A city specialized in trade will have many trucks, freight trains, and cargo ships moving goods into and out of the city.

Gambling City

Gambling specialization focuses on the tourists instead of the market.

Gambling city aims to attract as many tourists as possible.

It requires the construction of airports, docks for cruise ships, train stations, and buses to bring the tourists in.

It also requires the construction of casinos, hotels and other entertainment options to keep the tourists.