Recent reviews by The Guy In the $6300 Suit

A week into Early Access and the game's abandoned by its devs. I'd be mad if I didn't receive it for free for owning the original (which maybe wasn't the best financial decision from the devs). It wasn't in a great state before being abandoned, so nobody should bother wasting their money on this when there's other, better, options available for much less.

I’m a huge fan of both business sims and music, and you’ll be hard pressed to find many games that crossover into the music industry. There’s some out there, and while many of them are good, they sacrifice the large scale industry side of things to show a more personal, smaller scale side of the music industry, usually focusing solely on one band or only allowing a couple dozen artists to be simulated at a time. I say all of this because the Music Wars series goes against this trend, choosing to simulating the entire music industry, and Music Wars Empire is the newest, largest, and most polished game in the series to date.

Several big new features have been added to this latest iteration, including expanded regions (now supporting 129 subregions worldwide), digital streaming for releases, new charts, release types, buying out competing record labels and managing multiple labels, the ability for your artists to go Solo, as well as the ability for your artists to form their own Side Projects in new genres, remix songs, and online compete online via online leaderboards. In addition to these features, the game has been optimized to load faster than previous entries in the series, even when using large mods that would bring previous iterations down to a crawl.

In addition to these new features are returning features from earlier entries, several of which have been entirely re-tooled specifically for Music Wars Empire. Collaborations have been made easier than ever, while relationships and artist social networks affect who they will and won’t work with based on their opinions and experiences with those individuals (including record CEO’s, cough cough).

The combination of old and new allow the player to leave their own unique mark on the game's world. Whether you start off with a small indie label, or begin big with an already established international label, you truly feel like you’re running an empire as you start to expand and control several labels and recording studios.

Though if rapid expansion and heading a large WMG type company isn’t your preferred playstyle, don’t worry. Because Music Wars Empire is a sandbox sim, you get to play at your own style and pace. So indie purists, stay small and independant if you choose, or just expand as you feel comfortable.

Music Wars Empire is an ambitious and successful attempt to simulate the music industry. If you’re not a fan of text based games - like Football Manager, Hollywood Mogul, or Showtime - then this game clearly isn’t for you. But if you are a fan of the genre, or are interested in a record label/music industry sim, you can do no better than Music Wars Empire.

Such a great idea botched by a developer who promises more than he can deliver.

-10/10, would not buy again

If Hollywood Mogul and Lionhead's the Movies had a baby, it would be Showtime!.