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As you may or may not be aware, Cities Skylines is currently the best city-builder on the market. This is hardly a new development, too, as the game's been mopping the floor with its competitors since 2015. Though, it's been 5 years: is there really no way that there's some Cities Skylines competition in 2020? How is that even possible?
If these are the questions you wish to get answers to, you've come to the right place. We intend to explain why Cities Skylines is as ubiquitous as it's become, but also where all of its competitors have gone off to! The issue really isn't quite as simple as 'genre is barren, no one's making these games', and we'll show you why.
What's up with Cities Skylines Competition in 2020? Where are other city-builder games?
It was clear as day even early on in Cities Skylines' lifetime that it represented a revolution of sorts. Up until then, the SimCity franchise ruled supreme for the most part, though challengers would pop up every once in a while. The genre underwent the same type of balance every other mainstream game genre was undergoing, really. You had a major franchise dictating genre tropes, and niche releases for those who didn't like where said franchise was going. Then came along Cities: Skylines! Huge, sprawling, and just detailed enough (at launch) to keep things interesting, this was the ultimate city-builder. Hardly an accident, too, as the game was developed almost exclusively by genre professionals. A testament to its value is that even high-end city planners used Cities Skylines to see what their end product might look (and run) like.
At first, it was all about quality of the content delivered. There was the lingering promise of more coming as part of the game's hypothetical expansions, but no one anticipated they'd be as successful as they turned out to be. Skylines' launch was so monumental, that its competition was stopped in its tracks. For example, both Cities in Motion and Cities XXL were fair games. It's just that Cities Skylines outpaced them both!
Five long years after Skylines' release, it's still got about 15,000 concurrent players on Steam. For a niche city-builder strategy, that's phenomenal! If we recall what the developers from Colossal Order were going through before Paradox greenlit their game, it's almost ironic how successful they are!
Surely the hurdles aren't that major, or that numerous?
A developer aiming to tackle the creation of a pure city-building sandbox isn't someone we'd envy right now. Not only does Cities Skylines have almost a dozen incredible expansion packs, but it's also got complete mod support as well! That's right, devs need to compete with a game's community, too. Thing is - Skylines has fostered something that's yet to hit its peak!
Quite simply, the game now has too many features for anyone to deploy at launch. It's just not going to happen. Mods ensure that the community covers virtually everything that devs don't have the chance to cover, on the other hand. What hope is there for someone who's trying to break into the genre in 2020? This situation will, in almost all cases, lead to severe genre stagnation. It's just not healthy that a single game has that much pull. Surprisingly enough, what happened with city-builders is precisely the opposite!
What choice do city-builder game developers have, then?
It's our firm belief that regular sandbox city-builder games simply can't coexist with Cities Skylines right now. As we explained above, the game is too big, too good, and too expansive to compete with. Thankfully, other devs specializing in this genre didn't just give up! Instead, over the past few years, we got a number of unique takes on the city-building niche.
Sure, Ubisoft's ANNO franchise hasn't gone anywhere, but they're covering sci-fi and historical building for the most part. Frostpunk, though, is new and awesome far as sub-genre concepts go. We do hope devs develop the idea further, even if they don't stick with the city-building genre. Similarly, the Tropico series has doubled-down on its quirky dictatorial premise. We can also tell with utmost certainty that devs haven't run out of original ideas, either. The upcoming Industries of Titan proves that.
Even Paradox themselves - publishers of Skylines - have managed to keep the city-builder genre progressing further into uncharted territory with Surviving Mars. So, you see, there's plenty of room for more innovation far as city-builders go. It's just that Skylines cannot be competed with far as the modern-day sandbox niche goes. An interesting development, we think.
Are you getting ready to jump head-first into Cities Skylines? Interested in a selection of useful newbie/early game tips for the game? Have a go at it with our fresh guide! We'll keep more content coming, too, so be sure to check in every once in a while at our Community Module. Have fun!
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