http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertco...imcity-failed/
'Cities: Skylines' Succeeds Where EA's 'SimCity' Failed ... It’s interesting, as Cities: Skylines continues a trend of smaller studios trying to make a game from a series that a bigger studio screwed up. The other most notable example of this phenomenon would probably be Path of Exile, the hardcore dungeon crawler that was meant to be everything Diablo 3 was not (at least at launch). D3 was criticized for everything from a too-bright color palate to a skill system that took a huge amount of complexity out of the game. Enter Path of Exile, with a much darker overall tone, a ridiculously huge skill tree, and a microtransaction system that players appreciated far more than D3’s Auction House. Without the initial failure of Diablo 3, Path of Exile may not have existed. The same could be true of Cities: Skylines, or at least if SimCity did what it was supposed to do, this game wouldn’t have made this much of an impact. I think the lesson is clear for big studios. If you screw up your own beloved game series, there are countless other smaller studios who can do what you do better, given that they’re free of huge sales expectations and the need to insert things like online requirements or nickel-and-dime DLC. So tread carefully, or you may find yourself getting schooled by a company a fraction of your size. |