Manor Lords released into early access on PC just a few short days ago, and you best believe it is the latest mid-scale title to completely dominate the gaming scene.
Described by many reviewers as “Total War-style battles meets historical city builder”, Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles, complex economic and social simulations – and people are flocking to it. Publisher Hooded Horse took to social media to showcase the initial reception, which is nothing short of spectacular:
Since yesterday's launch Manor Lords has already sold over 1 million copies & hit a peak Steam concurrent player count of 170k - highest ever for a city builder (or for other different genres like GSG/4x/colony sim). Congrats @LordsManor, we're honored to serve as your publisher! pic.twitter.com/559uGRp1NO
— Hooded Horse (@HoodedHorseInc) April 27, 2024
Where 2023 was an endless parade of big budget blockbusters, it seems that 2024 is seeing some more bespoke projects crush the landscape. Games like Helldivers 2 and Palworld have demonstrated that players are more than happy to flock to a non-AAA property if the promise of a good time is on the table.
While it’s hard to properly slap the term ‘Indie’ on some of these games, it’s easy to perceive that they are not sharing the usual space occupied by other AAA-scale multi-million dollar games. It’s refreshing to see unique experiences take risks and get rewarded in a big way, considering that some serialised IP’s can be just a tad stale. As for Manor Lords? Well, it’s development was handled by a solo developer known as Greg Styczeń of development studio Slavic Magic.
And with such immense success, the community is now buzzing over the variety of things to do in the game – whether it is sharing tips on efficiently building your medieval towns or sharing tales of slaughtering bandits in RTS battles. People are having a banger of a time, and I am betting that Greg is enjoying the reception.
Have you had a chance to check out Manor Lords yet? How goes your feudal society? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games
