Cities XL To Shut Down This March

thumbsdown — Historical inaccuracies aside.

With all the commotion(?) over Phantasy Star Universe biting the dust this March, one might think three MMOs shutting down would be enough for the first half of 2010. Odds are none of those people play Cities XL. In an open letter to the community, Monte Crisco emailed all current subscribers to let them know that Cities’ MMO part, “Planet Offer,” will be shutting down early this year. March, more precisely the 8th.

As for why, well allow me to sum it up in just a few words:

“Not enough players decided to subscribe.”
Monte Crisco

Low subscriber numbers is generally the deciding factor in shutting down an MMO, when the game no longer becomes profitable. Luckily, players will have full access to the single player game even after the online part shuts down.

Monte Crisco’s letter to the community after the break.

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^th2010. 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.