The end of planet offer

[zwr100 2]

I'm really dissapointed PO is coming to an end.

An offline game full of mods is a dissapointing version of SC5 that I won't play.

I wish there had neve been a single player version. 

[thooven 1]

I agree =(

Though I will play the game anyway...

[zwr100 2]

Copied and pasted from my email:

Dear Mayors,

First of all we want to thank you for your support since Cities XL was released in October of last year, and as far back as October 2007 for some of you.

In early 2007 we decided to be those who would make a new offer to City Builder games fans. Right from the start Cities XL has always been an innovative project regarding its online dimension. Of course, trying something new always comes with a risk.

Three months after the launch we have to admit that the subscription rate is lower than what we expected and therefore the Planet Offer is not sustainable. Not enough players decided to subscribe.

Therefore, it is with deep regret that we decided to put an end to the Planet Offer as of March 8^th 2010. It will no longer be possible to subscribe to the game starting Monday February 1^st 2010.

Nevertheless the Cities XL adventure goes on! Cities XL will evolve into a fully single player game. As soon as march the Bus will be added for free in the solo game. At the same time we also keep on working on new content and new features to keep on improving Cities XL.

We do realize that some of you were real fans of the Planet Offer, and loved to be able to visit other player’s cities and trade tokens between players. There are simply not enough of us.

Thank you again for your understanding and support.

For more detailed information, read the FAQ here.

---

- The Monte Cristo team

quote>

[ACEH 0]

I didn't understand one thing - Cities XL 2011 - does this mean the year the game will be released?!?!? If this is true.......

[John-SJ 13]

I thing CXL 2011 will be an expansion, or a whole new version of the game.

[Roger51 381]

Bit of sad news, but the good thing is that buses come to SP

[JudoJoe 0]

If they'd make a version for Mac they'd probably hit whatever quota they were looking for.

[CZAR ALEKSANDER 0]

they are working a total new version of cities xl

[AndisArt 2,068]

no surprise at all after turning off most of the community with trying to force players to online subscription in order to obtain basic game functions such as buses...

[jeje71 6]

that's really sad it has to come this way, but on the other end i'm really glad the end of the online aspect will ge substance back to solo mode. now i'm really considering buying the game when busses will be added to solo mode and all the descriptions of cities xl 2011 seems to me what should have been cities xl solo mode, that is a really worthy successor to simcity 4.

providing MC doesn't go bankrupt in the meantime with this marketing guys attempt to force online on what was essentially a solo concept, the future of this game looks now much more promising.

[jabezscratch 159]

I figured this would happen eventually but not this quickly. The Planet Offer simply isolated and scared off too many potential players.

[muttoneer 0]

It's sad it didn't work out for MC, but a blessed relief for many of us! I stopped playing the game after a month (though I had subscribed for three). Hopefully the SP game will go on to be a classic now the gimmicky online side is out of the equation.

[IntoxiNation 0]

This is not shocking at all. As I have stated in other threads, running all these servers is expensive. It's actually very good news. At least MC is willing to cut the P.O. loose and not let it bring them down totally (a very welcome sign from the powers to be at MC). I believe most/all of the P.O. players will be willing to go to solo mode, but trying to force solo people to go to P.O. and pay a monthly subscription fee would be suicide.

Focusing on the solo mode and make that as awesome as possible is the way to go. They can focus on content/expansion packs for solo mode and even charge for them, then they would most likely come out ahead financially.

Here's how they can really make solo mode shine:

- Enable the ability to trade between your own cities (shouldn't be that bad to do).

- Embrace the MOD community more. If people start seeing all these ways they can 'mod' CXL then the will probably end up selling more copies of the game.

- Develop some really cool expansion packs. If they came out with one that offered trains and subways I would be willing to pay an extra $20 for it, but I am a train freak.

- Create a CXL exchange. People would be able to download cities from other users on there, mods, scripts and anything else. Since these would be totally static files, MC could get buy doing all this on a VPS+CDN. Monthly server costs would be a lot less than they are now. They could probably even bypass that cost by working out a deal with the owners of this site.

Take some time and do things like that and build up a really good reputation as the best city builder out there. Once they bring in enough users that are hooked on the game then they can maybe look at a revamped P.O. sometime in the future.

[ACEH 0]

A quote from the support page:

What are your plans for CXL? Will you keep supporting the game and release patches? Will you release additional content for the solo game now? When? And at what price tag?

Cities XL will be refocused as a solo game. The current online game will be supported until it ends; but until Cities XL 2011 is released no new content or patches will be published either for the current online game or solo game.

If the new game will come out in 2011 and no new content will released until then it will be very sad..

[mightygoose 92]

About bleeding time, maybe now we can get our hands on a semi decent game XD

[moaku 74]

I wasn't expecting a "so radical" change, but for the modding community, this is a good news since it will make things much more easier than now... No more need to care about if it works in PO or not, and in the mean time, maybe even no more need of the current "secrecy and 'privateness'" of infos and tools about modding...

Anyway it's still sad for players who bought lifetime edition...

btw for everyone it's sad that we've come to that point... MC made so much critical and obvious errors regarding cxl and especially economic approach of PO since summer 2009... I still don't know how they could do them... They had a very good project that could have had bring them a lot of money if they played their cards wisely... and now, less than 1 year later, we're here... and everything is uncertain about what the game will be in 1 year.... we can expect MC to now focus on a "Content marketplace" or content packs, and GEM... because now it is the only way for MC to get money from players (additionnaly than the game base cost of course).

Sad, but at least, they are listening...

[morriswalters 16]

"One scenario would be to sell it to a developer to salvage.  Take whatever is there, make it work, at least to some degree and pump out an expansion pack of some type."

This is a quote from a post I did on another thread and seems to describe what's going to happen effectively if not exactly. None of the  content annouced is new, they are simply repackaging the previously announced content.  Cxl 2011 appears to be a reworking of the interface to replace the current SP mode interface with the PO mode interface, which will allow region play.  GEM's are not mentioned.

Some things to hope for if your so inclined.

Trains-  They worked at least in some fashion in the beta.

Some of the building content from the GEM's-  Some of the building content looked pretty good , particularly the Beach GEM.  Tiki Huts, ect.

Edit:

I would like to believe that MC will be able to continue as a developer and would not eliminate that possibility, however you may be setting yourself up for disappointment.  If the game is going to move forward I suspect that it would have to be the community that would do it.  The costs involved in creating models is high unless there can be a move away from the tools MC used, i have doubts about that.  We'll see.

[wafgking 22]

Oh this is amazing. Free buses for Solo. (I liked the buses alot for the short time I played with them on the PO). Also I do think a city simulator should always be a single player game, it just makes sense that way. Bravo to MC!

[Baracus250 0]

So I assume that the wording on their PO advert page on the main website "Free content each month" ... is now a no-go? What exactly have we paid for then? There are still 2 months of PO to go, so does that mean 2 lots of "free updates" or not now? Confused....

[GlobexCo 33]

Cities XL 2011 should be the new, offline only version of CXL.

From FAQ:

"until Cities XL 2011 is released no new content or patches will be published either for the current online game or solo game."

From the mail:

"As soon as march the Bus will be added for free in the solo game."

-- So, if they plan to release bus in March... Cities XL 2011 should start in March!

But:

From FAQ:

"The packs as well as Cities XL 2011 will be released simultaneously on our site as digital downloads. Their exact content and their prices will be announced in the next few weeks. We intend to keep the prices very reasonable."

-- Well, I can understand content pack (they're expansions!), but I can't understand why I should pay again for a game I already know...

Boh! Don't know... really can't understand what's this CitiesXL 2011... I'll submit a ticket!

[wafgking 22]

Originally posted by: Baracus250

So I assume that the wording on their PO advert page on the main website "Free content each month" ... is now a no-go? What exactly have we paid for then? There are still 2 months of PO to go, so does that mean 2 lots of "free updates" or not now? Confused.... quote>

Seeing as in 2 months you won't be able to access that content, I think the smarter thing for them is to transition the content over to solo mode.  We know buses will be free, but they may charge for a larger content pack and maybe give a good discount to PO subscribers (who have already paid for most of the content).

[Stef42 0]

This was going to happen some day, because forcing players to play online to be able to have a normal city will never work. I liked the PO function but I think that after playing the PO, it just didn't feel right.

The players of CXL are comparing the game too much with SC4, which I think caused this situation.

No players were willing to pay for the PO, while these players were needed to keep it alive.

I find it a bit sad, although on the other hand: MC will now focus on one thing, the SP which is good.

The only thing unclear now is CXL 2011!? What will that be?

I hope that CXL 2011 won't become a CitiesXL with a brand-new name  

Or else, I will both put these games at the trash...

P.S. - The only thing MC should do is to release some tools to get the community working on custom content.

A lot of SC4 might then also buy CXL...

[mightygoose 92]

as to at least they are listening, no thats incorrect, we warned them, the die hard stalwarts of the SC4 community said multiplayer and paid monthly subscription was a bad idea, and now look what happened, they ignored our primary request and have been stung by it. now they are going down the more profitable route, even if they are going to slip into SIMS PLUS A MILLION EXPANSION PACKS, mode, which again will annoy many. oh well stubborn boardrooms i guess.

[GlobexCo 33]

Answer from MC:

Dear GlobexCo,

thank you for your request.

Cities XL 2011 will be a new version of the game including the Bus System.

More information will be published soon.

Best regards,

The Cities XL Team

So... CXL 2011 seems to be a free patch.

[Gregory_C 0]

Hi everyone,

It is a sad day for the online game, but believe me we are just as sad as you are.

We really tried everything we could so that the online game succeeds.. Unfortunately it didn't work out.

I understand there are a number of questions going on right now, but there are a number of them we can't answer right now. All the questions we can answer are part of our FAQ. As soon as we can give you more information we will do it.

The online game will come to an end, but it will still be online for another month and a half. And there are some positive things also : the solo game will continue.And we are already working to improve it and add new content. And of course the Bus will be coming to the solo game too.

[City Planner 121]

I hate to say it, but this is exactly what I said was going to happen.  They turned off the longer subscriptions so that they could shut down the PO.

I have to admit that I am pleased by this announcement and it's one that they should have done from the get go, not had any MMO bull pucky, but rather concentrated on the solo play and made that the best it could be.  I hope they can gain enough cash from making the Soloplay as good as it should be, but they'd better not be thinking of making CXL 2011 something that I need to pay more for or the whole lot goes to the trash bin.  Im not objectionable to paying them for microexpansion packs, or full expansions but I'll not pay them twice for the same game.  They'll need to make that 2011 a free patch to the game and then I'll pay them for content that I wish to have in my game.

However due to MC being wishy washy during the whole construction of the game, during beta, and now during retail, they'llhave a hard time trying to regain trust from the core group they wanted to attract.  I believe this is their 2nd failure at an online game, and this time after only 6 months I hope they have learned that what they had provided was not near enough to an "mmo" to sell it as such.

I wish them luck with turning CXL back into (what it should have been from the beginning)  a single player game that is full of features, which is something that many more would have bought to begin with.

Originally posted by: zwr100

Copied and pasted from my email:

Dear Mayors,

First of all we want to thank you for your support since Cities XL was released in October of last year, and as far back as October 2007 for some of you.

In early 2007 we decided to be those who would make a new offer to City Builder games fans. Right from the start Cities XL has always been an innovative project regarding its online dimension. Of course, trying something new always comes with a risk.

Three months after the launch we have to admit that the subscription rate is lower than what we expected and therefore the Planet Offer is not sustainable. Not enough players decided to subscribe.

Therefore, it is with deep regret that we decided to put an end to the Planet Offer as of March 8^th 2010. It will no longer be possible to subscribe to the game starting Monday February 1^st 2010. Nevertheless the Cities XL adventure goes on! Cities XL will evolve into a fully single player game. As soon as march the Bus will be added for free in the solo game. At the same time we also keep on working on new content and new features to keep on improving Cities XL.

We do realize that some of you were real fans of the Planet Offer, and loved to be able to visit other player’s cities and trade tokens between players. There are simply not enough of us.

Thank you again for your understanding and support.

For more detailed information, read the FAQ here.

---

- The Monte Cristo team

quote>

quote>

[mr cars 1]

I will be slightly annoyed if we have to digitally upgrade, or by a new game if we want to play CXL2011. MC should release it as a free patch, and a new game. I would be happy to pay for new content packs, providing they aren't more than about £2.50(about $5.00), but the odd one over that would be fine!

EDIT: I'm assuming CXL2011 will be a free patch if you already have the full game!

[Skimbo 304]

That's it......

[FatalCheese 0]

First, it's unfortunate that the MMO didn't work out. I thought it was a good idea, had alot of potential, which is why I subscribed. But if you can't get subscribers, I'm glad MC decided to redo the model instead of bail altogether.

But I quit subscribing this month, when I got sick of exiting the game every hour (mem leak). I'll set aside my annoyance that I have to buy the game again to get the content I already paid for as a subscriber. But I'm calling foul on the part of the FAQ that states there will be no more fixes for the game. I still paid $50 for this game. It's 4 months old. There are some major bugs in it, unrelated to the PO. Reputable game companies don't drop support for a game when they decide they're making a new one. I'm sure alot of poeple are happy that the next version will not be subscription based - but don't let that euphoria absolve them of thier responsibilty to the investment we've already made.

[Simgiov 0]

It's sad for MC but it's really good for the players IMO.

Now they gotta do serious advertising and start selling A LOT!!