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Paradox has announced that Cities: Skylines [Steam], which was a day-1 release for Linux, has sold over five million copies.

Not only that, but it's actually going to be three years since release on Saturday! Honestly, it doesn't feel that long at all. I still remember doing a preview livestream before release on our Twitch channel. I'm still amazed Linux has games like this and with Surviving Mars due soon, I couldn't be happier.

It still has a rather active player-base too, with over seven thousand people currently in-game on Steam. Not only that, but the Steam Workshop is flourishing with many thousands of items like maps, buildings, mods and more.

To celebrate, Cities: Skylines is going to get a free minor update that will include a new unique Rocket City building called Xchirp Launcher, an astronaut Chirper, and a new free radio station - Official Mars Radio which will have a bunch of space-themed electro songs. The update will be out tomorrow, for those interested in that.

Side-note: I would be doing a preview livestream of Surviving Mars too, but the Linux review build has issues that will apparently be fixed in the release build that I reported. Hopefully I will have a livestream on the day of release!

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Steam, Strategy
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Kimyrielle Mar 8, 2018
That you -need- DLC is a classic misconception about Paradox games. But no. You neither -need- any DLC to have fun with the base game, nor don't they offer discounts every now and then. No, they don't do 90% discounts you sometimes see on really old games (it's not THAT old yet), but I have seen at least 50% on all but the newest DLC, which I think counts as "big"?
STiAT Mar 8, 2018
But some DLCs are pretty fun :-).

It's a game well deserved, played that one for hours, built wonderful cities. Though, I really suck at properly controlling traffic.
Kimyrielle Mar 8, 2018
Quoting: STiATBut some DLCs are pretty fun :-).

It's a game well deserved, played that one for hours, built wonderful cities. Though, I really suck at properly controlling traffic.

I found it not too hard to do when using a proper mix of public transportation and a decent road network. I guess the most common mistake is building a 1970s-style "built for cars" city, and forgetting to build mass transit options. Like in real life, that will result in 24/7 congestions. :D
HerrLange Mar 8, 2018
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It would be interesting to know the perdentages of linux within 5000000 copies and if Linux itself has a positiv ROI.

This game was the main argument for me no longer dualbooting into Windows. Since them for me Linux games have the critical mass reached.

The critical mass for me was Civilization, Dwarf Fortress, Prison Architect, Tropico and the Valve Games besides Cities Skylines.
stretch611 Mar 8, 2018
I see the game as low as 75% off from time to time... But I am also put off by the massive amount of DLC for it. 12 DLC packs is pretty hefty. And if you want 5 extra monuments, you need to get the Deluxe Edition. 5 of the 12 DLC packs are half the price of the base game.

People are welcome to their differing opinions with regards to DLCs, but personally I would rather buy a half-dozen different full games for the same price as skylines with all its DLC.
Kimyrielle Mar 8, 2018
Quoting: madchaotikanIt would be interesting to know the perdentages of linux within 5000000 copies and if Linux itself has a positiv ROI.

This game was the main argument for me no longer dualbooting into Windows. Since them for me Linux games have the critical mass reached.

A few weeks ago, someone representing Paradox apparently complained about Linux sales being too low for making Linux sustainable. Liam had it covered here.
It's actually really hard to believe that our usual market share of 1-2% of 5,000,000 sold copies (we're still talking 50-100k Linux copies) wouldn't be enough to cover Linux-specific costs, but that's what they said.

Btw. Same here. For me, Cities Skylines marked the turning point in operating system usage for gaming purposes. After getting it and the games following it, I booted into Windows less and less. One of Microsoft's awesome updates seemed to have corrupted the BCD, a few months ago. I never bothered to repair it. With WINE having made dramatic progress last year and able to run most of my older Windows games now, there is not a serious reason left for me to use Windows for gaming. No, I don't play PUBG. :D
HerrLange Mar 8, 2018
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Quoting: KimyrielleA few weeks ago, someone representing Paradox apparently complained about Linux sales being too low for making Linux sustainable. Liam had it covered here.
It's actually really hard to believe that our usual market share of 1-2% of 5,000,000 sold copies (we're still talking 50-100k Linux copies) wouldn't be enough to cover Linux-specific costs, but that's what they said.

D'accord.

75,000 Copies x 30€ = 2,225,000€

So from this number I would really raise that question again to them. Can't believe that supporting Linux costs more than that.

But I can follow Paradoxs argumantation if you have nieche games like HOI or EU IV with ~1,000,000 sold copies where the calculation might looks different. However even these games have a very similar core - so many costs to port the engine have to be calculated once. And in total with all these 4x strategy cames the calculation can look way better.

In my opinion the big DLCs from Paradox are more like classical expansion packs and really worth their money. The smal DLCs are usually more cosmetic and can be skipped without missing much. Finally, even if i hate most DLC approaches, i really find it okay how Paradox usually does it.
GustyGhost Mar 8, 2018
Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: madchaotikanIt would be interesting to know the perdentages of linux within 5000000 copies and if Linux itself has a positiv ROI.

This game was the main argument for me no longer dualbooting into Windows. Since them for me Linux games have the critical mass reached.

A few weeks ago, someone representing Paradox apparently complained about Linux sales being too low for making Linux sustainable. Liam had it covered here.
It's actually really hard to believe that our usual market share of 1-2% of 5,000,000 sold copies (we're still talking 50-100k Linux copies) wouldn't be enough to cover Linux-specific costs, but that's what they said.

Btw. Same here. For me, Cities Skylines marked the turning point in operating system usage for gaming purposes. After getting it and the games following it, I booted into Windows less and less. One of Microsoft's awesome updates seemed to have corrupted the BCD, a few months ago. I never bothered to repair it. With WINE having made dramatic progress last year and able to run most of my older Windows games now, there is not a serious reason left for me to use Windows for gaming. No, I don't play PUBG. :D

I adopted Linux on my main systems around that time, late 2014 - early 2015. The three games I first played after doing so were Deadcore, The Talos Principle and Cities Skylines. Everything worked flawlessly and I will always recall those titles fondly because of the newness of the experience.
Colombo Mar 8, 2018
Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: STiATBut some DLCs are pretty fun :-).

It's a game well deserved, played that one for hours, built wonderful cities. Though, I really suck at properly controlling traffic.

I found it not too hard to do when using a proper mix of public transportation and a decent road network. I guess the most common mistake is building a 1970s-style "built for cars" city, and forgetting to build mass transit options. Like in real life, that will result in 24/7 congestions. :D

The problem is that mass transit options are locked behind population limit like in some retarded murician cities. The whole town progression seems to be retardly murician, locking you out of facilities and disabling to do any specific town specialization.

There is very little game in C:S, its more like one big painter box when you can pain stuff that looks nicely.
Kimyrielle Mar 8, 2018
Quoting: Colombo
Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: STiATBut some DLCs are pretty fun :-).

It's a game well deserved, played that one for hours, built wonderful cities. Though, I really suck at properly controlling traffic.

I found it not too hard to do when using a proper mix of public transportation and a decent road network. I guess the most common mistake is building a 1970s-style "built for cars" city, and forgetting to build mass transit options. Like in real life, that will result in 24/7 congestions. :D

The problem is that mass transit options are locked behind population limit like in some retarded murician cities. The whole town progression seems to be retardly murician, locking you out of facilities and disabling to do any specific town specialization.

There is very little game in C:S, its more like one big painter box when you can pain stuff that looks nicely.

There is a mod that unlocks everything at game start. Just get that! That being said...I don't know how it's done in good ol' Europe, but in 'murica people really don't put subways into rural towns. :D

About the gaming thing...I guess the slower pace and the lack of have-to-prove-how-awesome-you-are boss fights that "gamers" seem to love so much is what makes C:S appealing to some of us in the first place. It is really just about taking a bit of real estate and build something nice on it. You know...like..Lego? Some consider that fun, too! ;)
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