I’ve been playing Citadel: Forged with Fire this week. It’s like DayZ or Ark: Survival Evolved, but in Citadel, you’re a wizard. You still build a home base, gather resources, and fight beasts, monsters, and even players (if you’re on a server in which that’s OK). But you also craft magical items and sling spells.
It teleported onto Steam last week … and it shows. And Citadel isn’t the only game about surviving and crafting that’s making news this week. Ark: Survival Evolved will enter a full release state on August 29, bringing an end to one of the most successful and controversial Early Access periods we’ve seen.
Survival games used to be one of the hottest sectors in PC gaming, and while they’re still popular, you won’t find any in the top 10 of Steam Spy’s list of games by playtime. Ark is at No. 15, and Rust checks in at 17. On the trending side, Citadel is in the top 10 at No. 7, as befits a game that just hit Early Access.
The market’s changing, and we’re seeing two games that evolved from the likes of DayZ and Ark thrive in the top 10: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and H1Z1’s King of the Kill. These “last player standing” titles build on the base of survival games by turning them into competitions, and they’ve become a sensation. And lucrative.
So, when am I going to get my “last wizard standing” game, the “king of the spell”?
For PC gaming coverage, send news tips to Jeff Grubb (who’s on vacation this week) and guest post submissions to Rowan Kaiser. Please be sure to visit our PC Gaming Channel.
—Jason Wilson, GamesBeat managing editor
P.S. Wolfenstein: The New Colossus is a painful experience for Dean.
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