Digital Chocolate Launches Millionaire City on Facebook

Millionaire CityJust when we thought the appearance of city-building titles on Facebook were beginning to slow down, Digital Chocolate released a new application by the name of Millionaire City. However, while this, in and of itself, is nothing unusual, the release actually marks the second city-building game for the company in less than three months. The first had been the isometric NanoTowns, back in March.

At first glance, one might think Digital Chocolate is remaking the same game, but actually the two titles are very different. Yes, both involve the creation of your own bustling and aesthetically appealing metropolis, but the method to that madness is completely different.

Millionaire City is actually centered around the concept of buying, selling, and renting land, businesses, houses, hotels, and so on. It’s actually more business and real estate oriented as opposed to its predecessor where primary income stemmed from producing goods from various businesses to complete quests for citizens that were seemingly too lazy to walk down the street and buy their own darn stapler and coffee.

InfluenceEssentially, players must purchase plots of land before they can purchase any buildings to construct. Expectantly, the larger the building, the larger the cost, and the more empty land required. Once requirements are met, players must then construct free roads to connect the new structure to the rest of the city and over X amount of time (which is longer for larger buildings, but can be constructed instantly for a price), the new investment will build.

This is where business elements begin to come into play. For each home, you will sign contracts for its tenants that vary in length based on your level and range from three minutes to a day or more. Each contract costs $X to make, but pays out a good chunk of profit so long as you remember to log back on and collect. Of course, all of this is relatively basic.

What makes things more interesting is the concept of what Millionaire City dubs “influence.” This is a blue box that expands beyond both commerce buildings and decorations. Any home that is even partially within these influenced sections will cost a percentage more rent. Furthermore, all commerce buildings will periodically produce money from whatever it sells, with extra income stemming from whatever homes are within range. Though it is not entirely clear, it also appears that homes that have overlapping influences (i.e. from having multiple decorations nearby as well) will also pay out extra cash that is 2% more for each piece of décor nearby.

WondersIn addition to decorum and commerce buildings, users may also construct buildings called “Wonders.” Unfortunately, there are only three to build at the moment, but having one grants bonuses to every single home in your city, regardless of its distance from the Wonder. However, these take days, if not weeks, to fully build, and the only way to finish faster is to post to your Facebook feed, and ask your friends to help out.

As one might surmise, other social features include visiting your friends’ cities and helping them out by “upgrading” a few of their structures. Sadly, this is nothing more than clicking on a few of them and making them sparkle for a bit, but it does earn a little extra experience and cash. Moreover, the social elements are further enhanced, slightly, by a standard leaderboard system of all Facebook friends that are playing, with its ranking determined by the overall fiscal value of your town.

As far as other miscellaneous features go, Millionaire City also incorporates a fairly basic quest system to help guide the user on what they should do next. It’s a nice extra, and completing them earns some nice chunks of in-game money as well as the virtual currency Gold, but most are along the lines of “build two decorations,” which unlocks “build X more decorations,” and so on. These don’t really act as guides so much as “hey, I accidentally did something; let’s cash in.”

QuestsVisually, this game looks pretty good too, but it’s perspective is almost completely top down, and is a style that hasn’t been seen regularly in quite a long time. Even for old school gamers, it feels a bit dated and even nostalgic. It’s not really a bad thing, just a surprising choice, and with a more realistic style, it is a stark change from the more cartoonish and stylized NanoTowns.

Regardless, Millionaire City does bring a little more depth to the prospect of city planning in the fact that to make your virtual space the most efficient, you actually do have to plan. Granted, it’s no SimCity, but it is nice to build things for more than the sake of building them. It’s an excellent point in case towards the slowly evolving complexity and sophistication of social games. If there was any one disappointment, it’s that the virtual currency is used for nothing as of this time (or at least nothing we’ve observed yet – we assume it is either coming soon or will be used for the instant build feature in higher level structures). It’s equally surprising that Digital Chocolate’s NanoVerse has yet to be involved, but that may be something planned for a future update as well.

AppData - Facebook application stats and data from Inside Network

40 Responses to Digital Chocolate Launches Millionaire City on Facebook

  1. Thanks for the review! We are very excited about this game and have big plans for it. Gifting and a whole bunch of innovative social features are in the near-term roadmap. It’s about the benjamins! :)

  2. Samdro Vella says:

    Hi
    I have been working on a parallel concept to this game. This game reminds me of Sim City which I used to play back in the 90s.

    There is another face to this game but so far it has not emerged and I have the Key.

    I wish I could be given the chance to promote my unique idea but so far it has been a futile attempt.

  3. Jacques Durand says:

    I’m surprised the reviewer made no mention of Big Fish’s PC games; BE RICH and BE RICHER. The similarities betweens these titles and Millionaire City are striking! To the point where the word “rip-off” comes to mind…

  4. gasser says:

    add me plz

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  6. koko james says:

    it is 90% the same as be richer by big fish.

  7. eleanore says:

    ive been playing this game now i cant get in it says noi server

  8. Jaja says:

    The game its self is awesome. The only thing I can complain about is the disconnections I get or not being able to connect to it due to server error stuff… I got addicted to it but I might just stop playing if I cannot even access the game.

  9. thom says:

    tros bien le jeu

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  11. Joe Duncan says:

    Is it possible for me to start over in Millionaire City ?

  12. Sure, I would guess just take it off as an application, then put it back on.

  13. matthew says:

    how do you change your citys name on here ??

  14. denko says:

    znal ko srpski

  15. Jules says:

    Can I sync my iPhone app to Facebook? I don’t want to have to redo all my work.

  16. lhajad says:

    add friends ; facebook

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  18. mattscradle says:

    Do you know where I can find some cheats, or maybe walkthrough for this game.http://mattscradle.com/2010/07/08/download-plants-vs-zombies-full-version-game-free/

  19. Grace Giam says:

    I’ve tried loading the website millionaire city keep showing me loading but nothing happen. Anyone can help me?

  20. linda says:

    EVERY TIME YOU SEND ME A LINK TO GET 50,000 REWARDS IT WILL NOT LET ME ACCEPT THEM THIS HAS HAPPENED TO ME ON THREE OCCASSIONS NOW WHAT CAN I DO TO RETREIVE MY REWARDS THANK YOU LINDA

  21. Ankit says:

    I love this game when ever I play this game I always do rents for 3 days and I get a lot of money it is the best game I have ever played !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  22. Jose says:

    Anyone knows how to start over? I try to take it of the application and then add it again, but it didnt reset and my old city was there..

  23. viazzi bernard says:

    je suis arrivé a 1053 million et je ne peut plus rentrer dans mon jeu.le chargement se bloque a la moitié. alors que ma femme qui joue aussi et qui est moin avancée n’a pas ce probleme voudriez bien faire le necessaire pour trouver la solution ou me contacter par email car si je ne peut plus rentrer dans le jeu je signalerai a tout mes a mis que arrivé a un certain niveau nous ne pouvons plus jouer et qu’il est inutile de passer des heures sur un jeu que l’on ne peut finir et qui donc n’en vaut pas la peine!!!!!!!!

  24. iwunze says:

    i love this game i wish we could changee my city name

  25. P A REYNEKE says:

    i was playing and on 13 dec i got message gameis out of syncro. a flag comes up and message show you (m city) is busy on repairing i must come back in 2 hours time .That was nearly 24 hours ago and i couldnot play sincs.My friends play and theirs is right.I face and city dont even show up on their city.I am off eveything. Can you help please

  26. Big daddy says:

    I spent several months and a small fortune building my city, then yesterday I went on as rent was due on my skyscrapers (I had about 30 of them) and my whole city was gone!! Just the land and a few houses that were for sale??? WTF to day the least I was extremely pissed off!!! Have now lost interest in all games in case it happens again! :(

  27. madi ramadan says:

    hahaha milioneryy cotok

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  29. High Roller says:

    Like the person that posted on 12/20/10, my city is also gone with some houses for sale? Does any one know how to get back the city you had?

  30. dhirendra mungikar says:

    this is a nice game for timepass & fun .im on 41 level .my company value is 300

  31. aroja says:

    █▀█░█▀▄░█▀▄░░█▀▄▀█░█▀▀░░█░ █▀█░█░█░█░█░░█░░░█░█▀░░░▀░ █░█░█▄▀░█▄▀░░█░░░█░█▄▄░░▄░

  32. kumarlar says:

    ı want change to name in millioner city

  33. nayara says:

    as change the name of my city in the millionaire city?

  34. tino says:

    si quelqu’un a 1 conseil pour moi qui ma le dise ;)

  35. Anymous Person says:

    how do you change the name of youre city?
    I tried deleting the game from my game rack
    and remove it once and for all I thought I was gonna do it all again I didnt mind if I had to do that but it went straight to my old city can sombody help me please?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! :’( :(

  36. nesma says:

    كيف ممكن اعمل استثمار بلييييييييز

  37. justin says:

    i hate this games you have to go on Facebook ?????

  38. justin says:

    fuck you

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