This is split into two parts, as the subject suggests. The first half looks at the history of the city builder/tycoon genre, and then goes into why the re-emergence of that genre depends on the success of Cities XL, which will be released early next month (21 days).
The city builder/tycoon (hereafter CB/T) genre is one of the older genres out there and pretty much has its roots in Sim City, which was released in 1989. In many ways the genre never developed until at least a basic "3D" view could be added (as in Sim City 2000, which was released for PC and mac in 1993). The genre enjoyed heady growth through the late 1990's and first 5 years of the 2000's with titles such as Roller Coaster Tycoon, two more Sim City games, and a few others. But since 2005, very few titles have been released. And among the few that have, few got the time and attention they needed, and were poor, had significant gameplay problems and/or were buggy as a result. This can, to some extent, be linked with a number of games that tried to take the CB/T formula for increasingly odd applications, even going so far as games such as "Lemonade Tycoon" or "Prison Tycoon", or even "School Tycoon". Most of these were unpopular because they took uninteresting subject matter. Game developers, however, seemed to interpret this as people turning away from the often complex gameplay involved in (good) CB/T games. This led to games like Sim City Societies, which are frequently criticized as being too simple. Thus the genre collapsed, and most of the games released in 2006, 7, and 8 besides Sim City Societies were either sequels (Prison Tycoon 4, for example) or failures (SC Societies).
But then in 2008, along came Monte Cristo, a game developer whose past experience with City Life, a series of city-builders where class conflict was a central theme, effectively announced they wanted to make a true replacement for Sim City 4, which is still the best pure city-builder available to date, despite being released 6 years ago (imagine if Call of Duty was the most recent FPS, that's the analogy). I was initially skeptical; Monte Cristo is a French developer whose experience was with class conflict games. But then three things changed that: Full 3D, Planet Offer, and GEMs. For those of you who don't know, Cities XL is planned to be in full 3D, with a free-rotating camera. Second, it will have, along with single player, a subscription-based MMO element based on a system of resource trading that, at least based on my beta experiences, will be completely revolutionary and amazing. Finally, GEMs are Gameplay Extension Modules, which are essentially "games within the game", which, from the sound of it, is like having the option to micro-manage individual industries within a city.
Now, understandably I have my doubts; after all, Sim City 4 is still a good game, even though it's 6 years old, and Cities XL might end up actually being too complex for many casual gamers. When I pre-ordered yesterday, my order number was somewhere around 1400. Not kidding, 1400. The game's development has been supported by a very small but extremely engaged community who want to see a good city-builder that actually allows players to really simulate true metropolis'. This has led to it having a number of elements that WILL NOT appeal to most casual gamers, especially in the complexity department. This is balanced by (and this is based on my experiences with the beta) some of the best immersion of any game I've played. There is literally ALWAYS something that you can be doing, and while you can sit back and watch the city without suddenly having everything fall into anarchy, most of the time developing the city is already engaging as it is.
That said, Cities XL may bring about a renaissance in the CB/T genre; if it succeeds, bigger developers such as EA might bring in new entrants that get more thought than almost all of the genre's entrants over the past three years. If Cities XL bombs, it could very well be the last nail in the coffin for the genre, whose most recent "pure" (without RTS/RPG/FPS elements) title was Prison Tycoon 4: Supermax, which was released over a year ago (to reviews ranging from below average to awful). In short, Cities XL will be released into an empty playing field in which it only has to compete against itself; it will do well or do poorly based almost entirely on its own quality.
As a big fan of GOOD CB/T games, who still plays SC4, and who pre-ordered this game a month in advance and as soon as I found out I could pre-order it, I'm hoping it's good.
The city builder/tycoon (hereafter CB/T) genre is one of the older genres out there and pretty much has its roots in Sim City, which was released in 1989. In many ways the genre never developed until at least a basic "3D" view could be added (as in Sim City 2000, which was released for PC and mac in 1993). The genre enjoyed heady growth through the late 1990's and first 5 years of the 2000's with titles such as Roller Coaster Tycoon, two more Sim City games, and a few others. But since 2005, very few titles have been released. And among the few that have, few got the time and attention they needed, and were poor, had significant gameplay problems and/or were buggy as a result. This can, to some extent, be linked with a number of games that tried to take the CB/T formula for increasingly odd applications, even going so far as games such as "Lemonade Tycoon" or "Prison Tycoon", or even "School Tycoon". Most of these were unpopular because they took uninteresting subject matter. Game developers, however, seemed to interpret this as people turning away from the often complex gameplay involved in (good) CB/T games. This led to games like Sim City Societies, which are frequently criticized as being too simple. Thus the genre collapsed, and most of the games released in 2006, 7, and 8 besides Sim City Societies were either sequels (Prison Tycoon 4, for example) or failures (SC Societies).
But then in 2008, along came Monte Cristo, a game developer whose past experience with City Life, a series of city-builders where class conflict was a central theme, effectively announced they wanted to make a true replacement for Sim City 4, which is still the best pure city-builder available to date, despite being released 6 years ago (imagine if Call of Duty was the most recent FPS, that's the analogy). I was initially skeptical; Monte Cristo is a French developer whose experience was with class conflict games. But then three things changed that: Full 3D, Planet Offer, and GEMs. For those of you who don't know, Cities XL is planned to be in full 3D, with a free-rotating camera. Second, it will have, along with single player, a subscription-based MMO element based on a system of resource trading that, at least based on my beta experiences, will be completely revolutionary and amazing. Finally, GEMs are Gameplay Extension Modules, which are essentially "games within the game", which, from the sound of it, is like having the option to micro-manage individual industries within a city.
Now, understandably I have my doubts; after all, Sim City 4 is still a good game, even though it's 6 years old, and Cities XL might end up actually being too complex for many casual gamers. When I pre-ordered yesterday, my order number was somewhere around 1400. Not kidding, 1400. The game's development has been supported by a very small but extremely engaged community who want to see a good city-builder that actually allows players to really simulate true metropolis'. This has led to it having a number of elements that WILL NOT appeal to most casual gamers, especially in the complexity department. This is balanced by (and this is based on my experiences with the beta) some of the best immersion of any game I've played. There is literally ALWAYS something that you can be doing, and while you can sit back and watch the city without suddenly having everything fall into anarchy, most of the time developing the city is already engaging as it is.
That said, Cities XL may bring about a renaissance in the CB/T genre; if it succeeds, bigger developers such as EA might bring in new entrants that get more thought than almost all of the genre's entrants over the past three years. If Cities XL bombs, it could very well be the last nail in the coffin for the genre, whose most recent "pure" (without RTS/RPG/FPS elements) title was Prison Tycoon 4: Supermax, which was released over a year ago (to reviews ranging from below average to awful). In short, Cities XL will be released into an empty playing field in which it only has to compete against itself; it will do well or do poorly based almost entirely on its own quality.
As a big fan of GOOD CB/T games, who still plays SC4, and who pre-ordered this game a month in advance and as soon as I found out I could pre-order it, I'm hoping it's good.