Manor Lords has beaten all expectations and become the highest concurrently played city-builder on Steam of all time, and it did so pretty much within its first 24 hours of release. Manor Lords received 3 million wishlists on Steam and must have sold in the hundreds of thousands, all despite being mostly developed by one person, and being this person's first game. In other words, Manor Lords has surpassed the initial sales and player numbers of most if not largely all major AAA strategy game studios out there, which is an insanely impressive accomplishment.
But what lead to this triumph, and how was it made possible? How did Manor Lords come out of seemingly nowhere and rival or even surpass the AAA games with established and loyal audiences and fanbases?
I think it's because of Manor Lords' dedication to authenticity, freedom, player choice and last but not least, to history itself, aspects which many studios seem to forget about or prioritize less. Manor Lords follows in many ways in the footsteps of other accomplished and celebrated indie history or history-like titles, like Kingdom Come Deliverance or Mount and Blade Bannerlord, all games developed by indie studios, and all games doing incredibly well, especially relatively speaking. I think AAA studios need to be more open with their audiences, open their lines of communication, and understand what the players want, because so many of them seem to have no idea, despite players everywhere screaming at the top of their lungs for change, and being very specific about it.
But what do you think? Why did Manor Lords succeed, and can its success continue? And what of the AAA studios? Let me know in the comments, and don't forget to leave a like and subscribe to the channel!
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