Apple Vision Pro isn’t exactly brimming with XR games yet, although starting next month you’ll be able to jump into a classic city builder that has been updated to include full mixed reality support.

Magic Fuel Games is releasing Cityscapes: Sim Builder (2023) for Vision Pro soon, bringing with it a new immersive view so you can manage your city as the god-like mayor you always wanted to be. It’s slated to arrive on July 3rd via Apple Arcade.

“They’ll use their hands to lay down roads, build neighborhoods, and ultimately grow their city into a thriving, profitable, and sustainable place to live,” Apple says in a press statement.

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Cityscapes: Sim Builder has been available across all Apple devices since its initial iOS launch in mid-2023, taking the Apple Arcade Game of the Year as well as an Apple Design Award finalist.

While we still think the platform could benefit from more ports (and proper motion controllers) this follows the release of a few top mixed reality games that make use of the headset’s hand-tracking, including Game Room, WHAT THE GOLF?, Super Fruit Ninja, Where Cards Fall, Crossy Road Castle, and Solitaire Stories. 

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Christian Schildwaechter

    Apple's approach to AVP games resembles Sony's PSVR2 hybrid strategy. Both assume the XR/VR user base is too small for large studios to port popular franchises without the platform owner paying them. So instead of pushing XR/VR-only titles, they make it easier/cheaper to integrate XR/VR into regular games.

    Sony's ETFR enables PS5 AAA games to run in VR with a performance profile similar to 4K@60Hz, without the expensive optimizations previously needed. They introduced the hybrid strategy in 2021-08, and with typical AAA development taking more than the three years since then, we still might see more hybrid AAAs, if Sony's lack of support for PSVR2 hasn't killed them.

    It will be easier for Apple to get some level of visionOS support from iOS game devs. iPhones now get AAA ports, but run them at much lower resolutions/FPS. So while they can be played on a flat virtual screen in AVP, XR additions like on PSVR2 aren't feasible. Extra AVP features are more likely for the casual games dominating iOS, with even lower risk than on PSVR2. Devs can first ensure the iPad version runs on AVP, then just add visual gimmicks like some of the Apple Arcade AVP games, and only later add hand/eye tracking controls and AVP specific features. Most will still play these games on iPhone/iPad, limiting losses if the AVP version fails. Though even if adding XR was cheap, Cityscapes launched in 2024 for less than 500K AVP won't make much money until a much cheaper Apple Vision HMD sells in much larger numbers.