RollerCoaster Tycoon 3

Expansion packs

Two expansion packs for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 were released – Soaked! and Wild!. A bundle, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Gold, was also released, including the original game and the Soaked! expansion pack; this was followed by RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum (Deluxe for the EU version of the game), including both expansion packs and the original game. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum is available for Windows and macOS. The game was also published by Aspyr Inc. on the Mac App Store in 2012.[17]

Soaked!, the first expansion, allows the player to build water parks, which include swimming pools, water slides and underwater aquariums, while adding more rides and scenery to the original game such as the ability to create waterfalls. Using the MixMaster feature, the expansion pack also allows players to make their own water-jet displays and co-ordinate them to music.[18][19] Soaked! received an average rating of 79 on Metacritic.[20]

Wild!, the second expansion, allows the player to build zoos and safari rides, similar to Zoo Tycoon in an amusement park setting, in which animals can be placed, and adds more ride types and scenery to the original game. Additionally, it addressed several criticisms of the first game, such as the inability to build underground, which is available without the expansion pack in the form of an update patch. Wild! received an average rating of 71 on Metacritic.[21]

Frontier released an iOS port of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 on August 12, 2015.[22]

Subsequent lawsuits and Complete Edition

The original series' creator Chris Sawyer sued Atari in 2005 for allegedly breaching the terms of a licensing agreement by not allowing auditors access to accounts from 1999 to 2001, during which he claimed he was owed US$4.8 million. Atari counter-claimed in 2007 by claiming that Sawyer broke an agreement by signing a license-agreement with developer Frontier Developments, allowing them to create a demo for console platforms based on assets and mechanics from RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. It was claimed by Atari that this induced Frontier to breach its contractual obligations to Atari by allowing Frontier to market and/or elicit funding for Thrillville through this demo. According to Atari, without this demo, Frontier would not have been able to create Thrillville independently from Atari.[23][24] The lawsuit ended with an out of court settlement.

Frontier later sued Atari in January 2017 for underpaid royalties for RollerCoaster Tycoon. When Atari filed for bankruptcy in 2013, Frontier modified its contract for how future royalties would be paid. Atari has paid Frontier $1.17 million to date for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, but Frontier observed from Steam Spy that sales of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 were much larger than Atari claimed, and under the new contract, Frontier would be owed an additional $2.2 million. Frontier sought to have rights to audit Atari's records and claim the additional royalties it is owed. Frontier's Chief Operating Officer David Walsh confirmed the report in statements to Eurogamer and GameSpot, stating that they had previously attempted to resolve the issue without legal action since April 2016.[25][26] Later in May 2018, the game was pulled from both Steam and GOG due to "expiring rights".[27]

While no resolution of the case has been publicly stated, Frontier announced the release of a self-published version of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, named RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition. Like Platinum / Deluxe, this release includes both Soaked! and Wild! expansions. Additions included in the Complete Edition were to update the game to run on more modern computers, an adjustment in aspect ratios, and the removal of all references to the game's previous publisher - Atari. Alongside this updated computer version, a console port for the Nintendo Switch was also created. The Complete Edition was released on September 24, 2020, to Steam, Epic Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.[28] In March 2024, Limited Run Games announced a physical version of the Switch release of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition.[29] On the Mac App Store, the version published by Aspyr Inc. was updated to the Complete Edition.[30]

On March 15, 2024, Frontier sold the publishing rights to the game back to Atari, Inc. for $7 million. In a trading update published by the London Stock Exchange on April 2, it was reported that Frontier made $1.5 million a year from their sales of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition on all platforms.[31] This was confirmed by their parent Atari SA on April 2. Anticipating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, Atari SA CEO Wade Rosen said, "I am really pleased that we can unite this important and successful title in the series with the rest of the franchise."[32]

On February 18, 2025, Atari and Frontier Developments announced that the Complete Edition would be released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles on March 20.[33]

Release

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 received mostly positive reviews. The game has an average rating of 81/100 at Metacritic and 84% at GameRankings.[34][35] Publications such as GameSpot and Computer Gaming World were overall positive about the game citing its many new features. However, fans of the first two games in the series tended to be more critical. Several other criticisms stemmed from bugs and technical issues,[43][45] such as the game crashing, the camera freezing, staff getting stuck on railings, low framerates and graphical glitches mainly caused when adjusting the landscape.[45]

The editors of Computer Gaming World nominated RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 as their 2004 "Strategy Game of the Year (General)", although it lost to The Sims 2. They wrote that it "overcame the series' sophomore slump with a great state-of-the-art design."[52] During the 8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 for "Simulation Game of the Year", which was ultimately awarded to The Sims 2.[53]

Sales

On the week of November 7, 2004, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 was the second best-selling PC game on Amazon.com.[54] Within the next week, the game became the best-selling PC game on Amazon.com.[55] According to The NPD Group, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 was the ninth-best-selling computer game of 2004.[56] It claimed fifth place on NPD's annual chart for the following year.[57] The game also received a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[58] indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[59]

In June 2015, Frontier CEO David Braben reported that the game had sold "more than 10 million copies".[60]