Gregory_C

Hello everyone, This is with deep regrets that we officially announce today the closure of our studio. As such Monte Cristo will close its door this week. We leave behind us a couple regrets but also, more important, a lot of good memories… But then what of Cities XL’s future ? A publisher has shown up who will pick up Cities XL’s license, and who will continue to sell the game. This company will surely make itself known soon. We are confident that we leave Cities XL in good hands. Current players shouldn’t be worried though! The solo game will keep on working and the online login system, mandatory to launch the game, remains in place. There is no change there. The Cities XL website also remains online, although obviously the online support is now longer available and we apologize for this. One last time all the Monte Cristo team members would like to wholeheartedly thank the Cities XL players and community members who so dedicatedly took part in the life and evolution of this wonderful project. We do hope that Cities XL has many more great years ahead of itself! Signing off, - The Monte Cristo team.

Originally posted by: ACEH Originally posted by: Skimbo I'm impressed, MC replys PS: Posted and translated it in the similar thread on the german forums. quote> They broke the silence and said "Wait. There will be nothing more than more silence"quote> At this point that's all we can say unfortunately. Legal bindings prevent us from saying any more for now.. Originally posted by: Skimbo The CMs shurely know what the community wants, what's with your directors, doo they know too what MC should develop in future times? quote> Again: I can't give more details right now; we'll have to wait and see how things evolve in may.

I just replied to a similar topic on the french forum Generation City; I thought I might as well translate it here: Now is the time where I put on my diplomatic spokesperson hat. I certainly don't want to discourage good wills, far from it, but let's be direct: we (MC) are in a unusual situation, and although such an open letter stems from good intentions it may not be the best way to help us; and for two good reasons: 1) We already know most of what will be in this letter. Eventhough we keep a bit of a low profile lately we still follow closely all online activities, we browse the forums everyday and we are well aware of the most common requests. (and many of them make sense). 2) As some people have rightfully underlined: MC's current priorities have changed a bit (look, the diplomatic spokesperson hat at work) we are looking for new partners to take over Cities XL and our company, and such a letter would be better directed at them. Obviously, as soon as someone ask me who these potential partners are I'll reply that, as we already mentionned, we cannot comment further at this point.. However, you should understand that such potential partners are well informed of our players request as well as our own positions regarding those.. Then what should we do? Do not give up. Keep on playing, build great cities, have fun on the forum, release great mods. And go outside a bit as well; it's springtime. As far as MC is concerned we do not give up, but currently MC is 'locked' communication-wise. This is a necessity for now, and this will stay that way for at least another few weeks time for some things to evolve backstage. We hoped that the situation would unlock itself a couple weeks ago, unfortunately it didn't happen, some things just take time to happen. To be continued in the next few weeks...

Originally posted by: ACEH Originally posted by: cm39 For those of you who think that everybody at MC is dead, here's an answer of Gregory MC on the same subject taken on "Generation City", posted on 9 april 2010. The link : http://www.forum-gc.com/general-f30/les-comptes-de-montecristo-dans-le-rouge-t1042-10.htm (...) Translate (by me, not by a translator) ---> Hi everybody, Like the article said , i cannot add anything more on the future of the studio for now (that's why i'm silent for awhile). The only thing i can insist is that MC is working hard to assure the future of CXL. In spite of difficulties, the development continue and the 2010 version with the packs are still in production and in progress. quote> Well those are some good news among the last about MC's debt. But I am wondering is this 2010 a typing error or maybe not.....quote> Yes, the '2010' bit was definitely a typo. The official name is "Cities XL 2011" -- although obviously at this point we do not have a release date. As posted on the french forum I cannot really give more informations about MC's current situation. However I do want to instist on the fact that despite our financial woes the company is still running; all the developpers and other employees are here, and development work is still going on as usual for the next version of Cities XL. What the future is made of I cannot tell (or don't have the ability to), and part of it is not in our hands anymore. "What will be will be". We are focusing our efforts on completing the new version, that is the most important thing. What happens after that; we'll see..

Mentarman has a pretty objective view of the situation. We would love to be able to give you more interesting news or a precise roadmap of things to come, but it is just too early. The Planet Offer just ended yesterday; and it was a pretty big part of Cities XL (not to mention of MC as a whole). Many things are still being decided and shuffled around, we are looking for new partners with which to work. Many things are just in the air at this point. And again, yes, as soon as we have more news you will be the first to know...

Yes, we are developping 3 packs (called Euope, America & Asia). They will include all of the PO content and plenty of new content as well. (the Europe pack will include the PO medieval buildings). They will also include the Blueprints and maps. At this point we do not have a precise release date for those packs.

All old versions of the game (297 or such) are bound to have login issues. To fix that you need to upgrapde to the latest version with the manual patch provided on our site. However it appears there is a very obscure issue with some Steam versions of the game which will make the patch refuse to install.. Please contact our support team here to describe the problem; that will really help us to pin point the origin of that issue and fix it as soon as possible.

Hello Yakaspat, I'm not sure who gave you this info, but I can assert that at this time no specific release date; not even a mere estimation, has been decided for CXL 2011 (and the companion packs). You can be certain that as soon as a date is decided it will be written with a large font on our site.

Originally posted by: Bountytaker Originally posted by: Mikie I skimmed most of these comments.. and I must say im glad my waiting out has payed off.. I jumped the gun and bought a 1 month subscription offer when the game came out.. was not impressed with the lack of terraforming options - im really glad that more content will be released now to SOLO PLAYERS.. I dont mind paying 30-40$ every 6 months to get refreshed content --- I havent even played cities xl for 2 months now -- I dont want to play the same maps..quote> That's not exactly how its going to work out...at least, that's not what they've said. There's a decent chance that after the patch on March 8th, if you want new content, you'll have to buy a whole new game, at full price. And it may not be available for purchase until 2011, or later.quote> As we have mentionned before : plans regarding Cities XL 2011 are not final. At this point in time all scenarios are equally possible. But our intention is to make the new version (as well as the packs) as accessible as possible to former Planet subscribers. As much as possible we will try to make the new 2011 version free for PO peeps, as well as the European pack (which will include the Medieval buildings, for which PO players have already paid). Again, these plans are not final, as MC don't have the final say in this (we have business partners and other people who have a certain weight in those decisions).

As mentionned it before: at this point there is no set date for Cities XL 2011. It might be next year or it might be this year. And there is no set price yet. We would like it to be free for current PO subscribers, but can't guarantee that right now. What is sure is that on march 8th the current version of the game becomes solo only and will include Buses. What happens beyond march 8th hasn't been set in stone yet, we will tell you more as soon as we can.

Originally posted by: mentarman Well, they just said, it would be possible to change the way game starts. Sounds like their contingency plan. I suppose they could spend their time setting all that up now, but I'd rather them spend their energies on making it work, not on preparing for it to fail.quote> Correct on both points.

This is something we actually have some form of control on.

Yes you can absolutely play disconnected when in solo mode, and that will includes all of your additionnal content. And, who is hosting the authentication servers... MC or a third party company (I do NOT want a specific name, as that could be a security risk to their games authentication, just MC or a 3rd party company) that provides this type of service as their main business. What happens if MC does (unfortunately) go belly up, will they put out a patch to remove the authentication, or have they made provisions for the authentication servers to live on indefinitely?quote> Auth servers (as well as all other servers) are hosted by an external company. As for the future well, I can't tell the future, but we have no intention of closing the auth servers any soon. Should this happen for some reason, I guess it would be technically possible for us to change the way the game starts.

At this point we cannot give much guarantees about the price or release date of Cities XL 2011. What I can tell you for sure is that we want to have it be free for current Planet subscribers. We will see in the upcoming weeks if that is something we can actually do or not. The release date is also a source of confusion because of the 2011 title. But again, we cannot be certain of anything at this point. MC is currently in a bit of a transition phase and many things are being decided right as we speak. I really wish I could give you more solid answers..

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.