City-building game

[2] The city-building game genre was established in 1989 with SimCity, which emphasized continuous building rather than a set victory condition.

The first sim game, Utopia (1982) developed for the Mattel Intellivision console system, covered many of these same elements, but was limited by the primitive screen resolutions of its era.

The Anno series started in 1998 and established a high level of detail in graphics as well as an intense economy simulation and a distinct gameplay.

SimCity 4, released in 2003, was praised as a standard-setter among city-builders and is still regarded by Matt Smith of Makeuseof.com as one of the best games in the genre,[5] despite its complexity and steep learning curve.

The reboot, SimCity, released in 2013, attempted to bring the franchise back to its roots but was panned by critics and traditional fans for its forced online requirements, consistent server issues at launch, bugs in the simulation, failure to add promised features and restrictions on city sizes, all of which ultimately led to the discontinuation of SimCity as a franchise.

The waning dominance of the SimCity franchise in the genre caused several other companies to release similarly themed games, like Cities XL (2009).