Months after its release, Cities: Skylines 2 developers Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive have apologized for the poor state of the game and its recent DLC, Beach propertiesalong with the lack of updates to address player concerns about performance and lack of content.
“We see and understand the disappointment many of you have expressed following the release of Cities: Skylines II and the recent release of Beach Properties. We asked for your patience and support, and you have shown it. In return, we disappointed you. We thought we could make up for the game’s shortcomings in a time frame that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that shouldn’t have been published in its current form. We are truly sorry for all of this,” Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen and Paradox Deputy CEO Mattias Lilja said in a joint statement. published it on the Paradox forum on Thursday.
In response, the developers will issue refunds to people who purchased it Beach properties, and will turn the pack into free DLC. Ultimate Edition players will not receive a refund, but will receive three additional creator packs and three radio stations.
Cities: Skylines 2 launched in October 2023, and at the time of writing it has over 2,300 “mostly negative” recent reviews on Steam, with most criticisms pointing to poor PC performance. IGN reports that shortly after release, players noticed that the game struggled to play on PCs, even with powerful specs, such as those with recent Nvidia graphics cards. When recommended specs were revealed before launch, it also raised a lot of questions among players. While Cities: skylines has always been a power-hungry game, and it was a big ask to encourage players to play it only on PCs with newer components.
Despite player feedback, Colossal Order and Paradox continued with release. “We are still thinking about the long term of the project; releasing it now is the best way forward. We are proud of the unique gameplay and features in Cities: Skylines IIand we truly believe it provides a great experience that you will enjoy,” a forum post read shortly before the game’s release.
Image: Colossal Order/Paradox Interactive
While Colossal Order released weekly patches until November, it was announced then that the studio would still work on performance improvements and bug fixes, but would shift focus to DLC. The Beach properties paid DLC released in March that brought waterfront zoning to the game, and received harsh feedback from the playerbase. It currently has an “overwhelmingly negative” rating on Steam, with players noting the lack of meaningful additions and noting that the developers should have focused on fixing the main game before embarking on paid expansions. The new statement appears to address these concerns.
“Looking ahead, we also want to make immediate and meaningful changes to the way we approach game development and our communications with you,” the statement reads. “We will focus on additional free patches and game updates in the coming months before Colossal Order devotes time to new paid content,” adding that the Bridge and harbors The expansion has been postponed until 2025.
Development issues also led to the console editions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series