『Cities: Skylines” sales were an unexpected success for developer Colossal Order. Sales of the game appear to have exceeded the developer’s sales expectations by 40 times.
“Cities: Skylines” is an urban development simulation game. Players build a city from scratch by developing residential areas and infrastructure, and revitalizing industry. The lives and economy of citizens are simulated in a complex way, and the city develops while responding to their needs and changing circumstances. As of this writing, over 180,000 Steam user reviews have been received, with 93% of them giving it a “very positive” status. It is a work that is highly popular and highly acclaimed.
The sequel “Cities: Skylines II” is scheduled to be released for PC (Steam/Microsoft Store) on October 25th, Japan time. It is also scheduled to be released for PS5/Xbox Series X|S in spring 2024. So far, the official website has revealed details of various elements of the new game, such as the evolution of transportation AI and improvements to the economic system (related articles 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5).
For Colossal Order, the developer of this series, sales of the previous game, “Cities: Skylines”, have been unexpectedly strong. Foreign media PC Gamer magazine “PC Gamer MagazineThis was revealed in an interview with studio CEO Mariina Hallikainen. She says she was completely surprised by the success of her previous work. The previous work did not initially have any long-term plans, and the development team reportedly changed direction in order to continue supporting the hit work. According to the developer’s estimates, the expected sales of this work before its release were 300,000 copies.
Meanwhile, as of June last year, “Cities: Skylines” reportedly sold 12 million copies. Sales are 40 times higher than the pre-release estimate. By the way, at the time of the release of Cities: Skylines, Colossal Order was a small studio with only 13 staff members (GamesIndustry.biz). Perhaps due to the success of this work, the number of staff increased to 30 as of July last year. It appears that the development team for the new game “Cities: Skylines II” has been increased, but the number is said to be less than 20 people. Continuing from the previous work, there seems to be a policy to develop it with a relatively small team.
The new console version was originally scheduled to be released on October 25, Japan time, the same as the PC version.However, last month it was announced that the release of the console version will be postponed to spring 2024.announcement. Additionally, the system requirements for the PC version have been increased. The change in plans just before the release date raised concerns about performance and received feedback. In response to these voices, Colossal Order was informed that the PC version would be released “without achieving the performance target level (benchmark) set by the developer” (related article).
As for such a new work, overseas media have been posting reviews through advance play from the other day, and at the time of writing this article, review aggregation siteMetacritichas a MetaScore of 76. In addition to the smoothness of the new road creation system, the project has been praised for its strategic approach to funding and resource procurement. On the other hand, performance has been pointed out as an issue as announced by the developer, and there are also opinions that the content is lacking compared to the previous game, which has been expanded with DLC. It is expected that the new game will not only improve performance after release, but also expand content through long-term development like the previous game. It will be interesting to see if they can overcome the challenges and surpass the sales record of “Cities: Skylines”, which has gained high popularity and acclaim.
“Cities: Skylines II” is available on PC (Steam/Microsoft Store) Scheduled to be released on October 25th. It is scheduled to be released next spring for PS5/Xbox Series X|S.
