Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines launched in March 2015 from Colossal Order (a 13-person Finnish team) and Paradox Interactive, arriving two years after SimCity 2013's catastrophic always-online launch poisoned EA's city-builder revival. Critics immediately recognized Skylines as the "antidote to Maxis' most recent effort," with The Escapist giving it a perfect score and declaring it "the finest city builder in over a decade." The comparisons were brutal for EA: SimCity capped cities at 4km², Skylines offered 36km² (moddable to 100km²). SimCity's agent simulation was shallow and broken, Skylines simulated named citizens with families, jobs, education paths, and lifespans. SimCity cost $60 and shipped broken, Skylines launched at $30 and worked. The game's Steam Workshop modding support exploded, with players creating thousands of assets and gameplay mods. Critics noted missing features like disasters and a weak tutorial, but the core city-building was superior in every measurable way. StreamerHouse ran Skylines in 2015 during its victory lap, when it became clear that 13 passionate developers had demolished EA's $60 mess in two years. The game's success was both triumph and tragedy: triumph for Colossal Order, tragedy for the genre's former king. Cities: Skylines didn't just compete with SimCity—it executed it and wore its skin as a trophy.