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I'm a big fan of management sims, and I think Frontier's Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster series are some of the best modern examples you can play. Not the best—that award goes to last year's brilliant Two Point Museum, though there's a good chance the recently announced Planet Zoo 2 could steal the crown back from Two Point Studios.
One of the reasons Two Point Museum is so great is that it gives players a new institution to manage, something less familiar than a theme park or hospital that gives Two Point Studios room to explore new ideas. It seems Frontier is looking toward pastures new too, as it has just spilled the beans on a new management sim unrelated to zoos or rollercoasters.
"We've started work on a brand-new Planet Game franchise, which has all the familiarity you love, but a completely new setting for us than Planet Coaster or Planet Zoo, one which still combines our love for creativity, management and meaningful simulation," wrote Frontier's head of player engagement Richard Stephenson in a Discord post shared on Reddit (via Rock, Paper, Shotgun). "We'll have more to share as we continue to work on things, so watch this space."
Naturally, Planet fans are going wild with speculation about what this new game might be. In the responses to the Reddit post, the most popular suggestions include Planet Resort, in which you manage a chain of hotels, Planet Festival, in which you manage concerts, and Planet City—a city-building sim in the vein of SimCity and Cities: Skylines.
As for which is most plausible, clues might be found in nine new trademarks filed by Frontier on Monday. Planet City isn't mentioned, but both Planet Resort and Planet Festival are. Also listed are Planet Farm, Planet Vacation, Planet Dinosaur, Planet Prehistoric, Planet Fantasy, Planet Mythical Creatures, and Planet Dragon.
Some of these have likely been filed to ward off competition. I don't see Frontier making a Planet Dinosaur game when it is already making the Jurassic World Evolution series. Others, like Planet Farm, seem too similar to Planet Zoo, given Stephenson refers to this new game as a "completely new setting for us". That "for us" bit is intriguing too, suggesting that the setting may have been seen in management sims elsewhere.
Of these options, I think Planet Resort is the most likely, as it’s the closest to Coaster and Zoo in theme. I think Planet Fantasy is a cooler idea to be honest, but a game with dragons and knights and such seems like it'd have too much friction for a Frontier-style management game. Whatever Planet we end up managing, I doubt we'll see it much before 2028, given Planet Zoo 2 releases later this year, and there were two years separating that and Planet Coaster 2.
