'Cities: Skylines II' Found a Solution for High Rents: Get Rid of Landlords

The rent is excessively damn high, adjacent successful video games. For months, players of Colossal Order’s 2023 city-building sim, Cities: Skylines II, person been battling with exorbitant lodging costs. Subreddits filled with users frustrated that the cost of living was too high successful their burgeoning metropolises and complained determination was nary mode to hole it. This week, the developer yet announced a solution: tossing the game’s landlords to the curb.

“First of all, we removed the virtual landlord truthful a building’s upkeep is present paid arsenic by each renters,” the developer posted in a blog connected the game’s Steam page. “Second, we changed the mode rent is calculated.” Now, Colossal Order says, it volition beryllium based connected a household’s income: “Even if they presently don’t person capable wealth successful their equilibrium to wage rent, they won’t kick and volition alternatively walk little wealth connected assets consumption.”

The rent occupation successful the metropolis sim is astir a small too on-the-nose. Over the lpast fewer years, real-world rents person skyrocketed—in immoderate cases, rising faster than wages. In cities similar New York, advocates and tenants alike are warring against the fees making lodging little and little affordable; successful the UK, rent is almost 10 percent higher than it was a twelvemonth ago. From Hawaii to Berlin the outgo of surviving is exorbitant. Landlords aren’t ever to blame, but for renters they’re often the easiest targets.

From this perspective, possibly Cities’ simulator is too good. Prior to this week’s fix, players recovered themselves getting tripped up connected immoderate of the aforesaid problems authorities officials and metropolis planners are facing. “For the emotion of deity I tin not hole precocious rent,” wrote 1 subordinate in April. “Anything I bash re-zone, de-zone, much jobs, little jobs, taxes precocious oregon low, hold clip successful game. Increased education, decreased education. City services does nothing. It seems thing I effort does nothing.”

On the game’s subreddit, players person besides criticized “how the game's logic astir ‘high rent’ contrasts reality,” with 1 subordinate conceding that centralized locations with amenities volition inevitably person higher onshore values. “But this crippled makes the presumption of a hyper-capitalist hellscape wherever each onshore is owned by speculative rent-seeking landlord classes who automatically marque each effort to marque radical stateless implicit provisioning lodging arsenic it is needed,” the subordinate continued. “In the existent world, socialised lodging tin beryllium centrally.”

This is true. It exists successful Vienna, which The New York Times past twelvemonth dubbed “a renters’ utopia.” Except, successful Vienna the landlord is the metropolis itself (it owns astir 220,000 apartments). In Cities: Skylines II, the devs conscionable got escaped of landlords completely.

The alteration in-game volition person “a modulation play arsenic the simulation adapts to the changes,” Colossal Order says successful its blog, and the developer says it “can’t marque immoderate guarantees” with however it volition interaction games with mods. Although the update aims to hole astir of the problems astatine hand, that doesn’t mean players should ne'er expect to spot rent complaints again. When household incomes are excessively debased to pay, tenants volition beryllium large astir it. “Only erstwhile their income is excessively debased to beryllium capable to wage rent volition they kick astir ‘High Rent’ and look for cheaper lodging oregon determination retired of the city.” Maybe it’s clip players had a fewer in-game tenant groups of their own.