The development team behind the city simulation-MMO title Cities XL has announced that it will close its doors this week. In a message board post on the Simtropolis fan site, a representative from France-based Monte Cristo Games announced the shut down of the developer. However the message stated that Cities XL will continue to be sold by another unnamed publisher and that the online login required to play the game will still be in place.

Established in 1995 Monte Cristo Games developed and released quite a few PC titles in its existence. In October 2009 it released Cities XL, an ambitious mix of an urban city simulation and an MMO game. However the game failed to reach a large enough audience. In January 2010 the MMO portion of the game was closed. The developer also announced plans for an updated single player game, Cities Xl 2011, but with Monte Cristo's shut down it looks like those plans are on indefinite hold.