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Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: Live the life of an aspiring influential publisher in New York City during the 1930s. Define your editorial line and search the globe for the newsworthy stories of the decade. The Prohibition, the Great Depression, or a lost cat Not all articles are deserving of a Pulitzer

    But watch out!
    Live the life of an aspiring influential publisher in New York City during the 1930s. Define your editorial line and search the globe for the newsworthy stories of the decade. The Prohibition, the Great Depression, or a lost cat Not all articles are deserving of a Pulitzer

    But watch out! The mafia, mayor, and other factions will be more than happy to use your influence in New York City to print their own "truth". To get unique rewards, you might have to cover the topics they want!

    Bend to their will and compromise the freedom of the press or print the truth, whatever the cost!
    Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Nov 21, 2025
    95
    News Tower, from developer Sparrow Night and publisher Twin Sails Interactive, is a marvelous newspaper sim that goes above and beyond the typical simulator formula.
  2. Nov 18, 2025
    91
    News Tower is not such a throwback, then, that it doesn’t still feel surprisingly meaningful and—in my case, at least—stressful and even upsetting in how accurate its reflection of news tycoonery can be. I can only hope that the modern newsperson finds some way to get the truth into people’s hands without having to make all of these compromises. But just like my protagonist in News Tower, I don’t know of any way that such a thing could be done.
  3. Nov 23, 2025
    90
    News Tower is a rare kind of tycoon game, one that puts a lot of care and effort into simulating a very interesting and niche business. While the early game can feel slow and the loop might be repetitive for some, it’s otherwise a fun, detail-oriented simulation game with a decent amount of diversity in its progression systems and overall content, enough to keep you printing papers for hours.
  4. Dec 11, 2025
    80
    News Tower is an original addition to the management genre, full of atmosphere and surprisingly addictive. Dutch developer Sparrow Night has made a clever debut with this game. Be prepared for some red numbers in the beginning, because the entry threshold is quite high. Apparently, it's not as easy as we thought to create a high-quality, profitable newspaper. Respect for our bosses.
  5. Jan 6, 2026
    80
    A lot of management titles can have a sort of Excellian abstractness to them — a whiff of spreadsheet seeping out around their ostensible settings. Not so with News Tower. No, it evokes the golden age of paper news across its entire mechanical suite, bolstered further by an absolutely wonderful, period-appropriate live jazz soundtrack from Dutch ensemble New Cool Collective. To quote legendary schlock-peddler, Xanadu denizen, and all around freak William Randolph Hearst — it’s immersive as hell. And from me? It’s an enthusiastic recommend.
  6. Dec 20, 2025
    80
    News Tower is a satisfying business management simulation that involves optimizing offices and reporting procedures to ensure success. It feels like there’s are opportunities to keep investing and growing. It can even be so satisfying that it stays compelling for hours. There are some minor issues and sometimes it might feel a bit too easy or routine when you get used to things, but I still very much recommend it.
  7. Nov 17, 2025
    75
    News Tower is a tycoon game that puts you in the shoes of a communications magnate running a newspaper in New York’s roaring Thirties. The player is offered countless possibilities: you can choose an editorial line that highlights certain topics, or even try to go where the wind blows by aligning yourself with the interests of the city’s political forces, such as the mayor and organized crime. As in any job, routine eventually starts to weigh on you, and the sense of instability becomes palpable. It’s hard to stay afloat without turning to the banks, which sooner or later will come after you to collect their interest. Worth noting is the excellent historical reconstruction based on real news stories from the months, weeks, and years in which the game is set as a result of Sparrow Night’s careful and elegant research.

See all 16 Critic Reviews