Medieval City Builder Kingdoms And Castles Getting a PS5 Release
Kingdoms and Castles, the well-received medieval city builder from Lion Shield Studios, is coming to PlayStation 5 later this year as a physical release by publisher BlitWorks Games and Limited Run, a company specializing in physical game releases.
Kingdoms And Castles was first released in 2017 and has seen regular updates since then. Although it’s already available on all major platforms and consoles, this is the first major physical release the game has seen in a while.
“When we launched in 2017 we never expected one day we’d be on PS5 and in a box – pretty cool if you ask us,” the developers said on X (Twitter).
Make Sure You Build Near a Well
Kingdoms And Castles lets players build up from a tiny hamlet to a thriving medieval kingdom, but one that’s occasionally beset by Viking and dragon attacks. The Vikings have a nasty habit of smashing through walls and the dragons set fire to anything in their path, but as hectic as this might sound, the game is first and foremost a relatively chilled-out affair.
Gamers familiar with city builders and resource management games will know the drill: send villagers out to harvest trees and rocks, plant crops and scout the surrounding area. Materials are used to build and upgrade homes and places of business, with each having a knock-on effect.
For example, a pub will keep people happy but drain villagers’ wealth, whereas a tax collector will make people unhappy but boost your settlement’s coffers.
Kingdoms And Castles was also one of the first games to receive funding through the now-defunct Fig, a Kickstarter-like company focused on game development. Its crowd funding campaign succeeded with 725% of its goal.
Insert Disc
The PS5 disc version is available for preorders through to April 6, 2025, and is set for release in August 2025. Although it’s a standard edition release, the game itself is still being actively updated; the most recent was in December 2024 and implemented an ability to tame dragons.
Lion Shield Studios is currently working on Nova Roma, another city builder with the same low poly aesthetic as Kingdoms And Castles, but set during the Roman Empire. It’s due for release later in 2025.
BlitWorks is a publisher specializing in indie titles. Previous games it’s released include Peglin, Spelunky 2 and They Are Billions.
Limited Run was founded in 2015 and has released over 1,000 games, with an emphasis on physical copies. It’s also collaborated with Konami and LucasArts and released games for various platforms.