Publisher Feral Interactive announced today that city simulator Tropico is coming to iPad on December 18. A version for iPhone will follow sometime in 2019.
This is the first time the series is coming to mobile. Tropico has been a PC and console affair across its six installments. The first game came out in 2001. Tropico 5 came out in 2014, while Tropico 6 releases for PC on January 25. The Tropico series stands out from other city-building and sim games with its distinctive theme, which has players running a Caribbean island. They can make it a thriving tropical paradise … or a banana republic (or more).
Developer Kalypso Media Group is tailoring the iPad version, which is simply called Tropico, for touchscreen devices. It will be a premium game and cost $12. An Android version has not been announced.
Tropico’s expansion to the mobile could open the franchise up a larger audience. Market researcher Newzoo expects the mobile gaming market to be worth $180.1 billion by 2021. Many city-building games on iPad and iPhone are free-to-play titles with in-app purchases, and they force players to either wait hours for buildings to complete or pay money to speed up the process. Tropico could attract fans looking for a more pure simulation experience if it forgoes those
Tropico will work on the following iPad models:
- iPad (5th generation)
- iPad (6th generation)
- iPad Pro (1st generation: 9.7″, 12.9″)
- iPad Pro (2nd generation: 10.5″, 12.9″)
- iPad Pro (3rd generation: 11″, 12.9″)