Earlier today we had this HN story about how EA’s greed essentially killed the SimCity franchise for good:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35041202
In that context it’s notable that the company behind Cities: Skylines, the most prominent SimCity replacement, was originally funded by the Finnish government as explained on their Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Order_(company)
VCs wouldn’t invest any money to build such a niche game, but Finnish national funding instruments for startups and arts were more willing to take risks.
A small story to keep in mind next time someone claims everything successful can be created through capitalism alone. It also happens that successful things are destroyed by capitalism and salvaged by public means.