City management simulator Cities: Skylines, from developers Paradox Interactive, will be releasing this spring on Xbox One and Windows 10. The game where you build a town from humble beginnings into a sprawling metropolis is already a big hit on Steam, and now console users can have their first taste of being in charge of thousands of virtual citizens.
Announced on the developers website, Cities: Skylines has been optimized for controller use by Tantalus Media, and features all of the same management, design and building features from the Steam version. There will also be the inclusion of the popular expansion named After Dark, which includes a day-night cycle, and gives your citizens new needs to cater for in the hours after work.
The main rival in the city building genre is of course Maxis and their iconic Sim City series. Cities: Skylines offers stiff competition. Paradox Interactive has been influenced by that franchise, and have expanded upon it, bringing in local traffic simulation and a deeper level of management to your role of Mayor. Paradox CEO, Fred Wester states, “We can’t wait to welcome Xbox One players into that group [the Cities: Skylines community], and I’m eager to see the towns and cities they can build.
Simulation games may be popular for PC users, but they don’t always catch on for consoles. The recent announcement of keyboard and mouse support for Xbox One may help to change that, and with the spring release of Cities: Skylines, that may give you just the reason to buy yourself the new input method for your console.