loading . . . After Its Disastrous Launch, Cities: Skylines 2 Changes Developers Colossal Order has announced that it will no longer be working on Cities: Skylines 2. Instead, Iceflake Studios will be handling its post-launch support (and development). Not only that, but Colossal Order has parted ways with Paradox Interactive.
As Mariina Hallikainen, CEO of Colossal Order, said:
> “For over fifteen years, the Cities Series and our partnership with Paradox have been a defining part of our journey at Colossal Order. When we set out to create Cities in Motion, we never imagined it would grow to become a cherished franchise with a passionate, loyal community of millions of players around the world. We want to thank everyone at Paradox for their trust and collaboration, and of course the community for the incredible support that has made Cities what it is today. We’re confident that the franchise will continue to thrive under Paradox’s leadership. As we move forward, we’re excited to channel our experience, creativity, and passion into new projects that align with our long-term vision.”
Mattias Lilja, Deputy CEO of Paradox Interactive, added:
> “Our partnership with Colossal Order is one of the longest-running relationships we’ve enjoyed here at Paradox. Four games, dozens of expansions, and a community of millions of Cities players; it’s remarkable how much we’ve achieved together. We have deep respect for the Colossal Order team and we look forward to seeing where they go from here. On our end, we’re eager to continue working for the passionate Cities: Skylines community and make sure to provide them with more content and new experiences.”
Cities: Skylines 2 came out in October 2023, and it was a disaster. It was so bad that it was in our Worst Optimized PC Games of 2023 list.
Since then, Colossal Order tried to fix things. The devs released patches that slightly improved performance, added support for DLSS, and overhauled the game’s Economy.
Still, that wasn’t enough as the game sits at Mixed Reviews. The game currently has 16K concurrent players. For comparison purposes, the first Cities: Skylines has 13K concurrent players. So, I don’t really consider it a flop. Despite that, I’m certain Paradox expected way higher sales and player engagement.
Colossal Order will implement a few additional updates before leaving, including the Bike Patch, which includes the long-awaited addition of bikes, Old Town buildings, bug fixes, and general improvements to the game. A Beta implementation of the asset support for the Editor, meaning access to Asset Mods, will also be available before year-end. Iceflake Studios will take the helm for all development from the start of 2026.
And that’s that. I’m now curious to see what will be Colossal Order’s next game. Will it be a spiritual successor to Cities: Skylines? Or will they work on a completely different genre? As for Cities: Skylines 2, I don’t expect any miracles. Iceflake Studios is a studio that has worked on small games like Surviving the Aftermath, Ice Lakes, and Race Arcade. So, future patches may address some bug fixes. However, I don’t expect a “No Man’s Sky” revival!
John Papadopoulos
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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