Less than a month after having released the Beach Properties DLC for Cities: Skylines 2, Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen and Paradox Interactive deputy CEO Mattias Lilja have taken to the game’s forums to offer an apology for the state of the game, as well as for the poor state of the DLC. The DLC, which at the time of writing currently sits with aggregated Steam user reviews of Overwhelmingly Negative, with only 4 percent of reviews being positive, is being turned into a free DLC and those who purchased it are being refunded.
“We see and understand the disappointment many of you have expressed after the release of Cities: Skylines 2 and the recent release of Beach Properties,” reads the forum post. “We asked for your patience and support, and you’ve shown those. In return, we let you down. We thought we could make up for the shortcomings of the game in a timeframe that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that should not have been published in its current form. For all this, we are truly sorry. When we’ve made statements like this one before, it’s included a pledge to keep making improvements, and while we are working on these updates, they haven’t happened at a speed or magnitude that is acceptable, and it pains us that we’ve now lost the trust of many of you. We want to do better.
“The very first thing we’re doing is to compensate those who purchased Beach Properties. We will change the pack to be a free addition to the game, refund it to the extent possible, and provide additional content within the Ultimate Edition.”
While those who purchased the Ultimate Edition of Cities: Skylines 2 won’t be getting refunded because of the way digital distribution across different storefronts works, Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive will be providing these players with 3 new Creator Packs and 3 Radio Stations, which the studio says sum up to a value of $39.99.
Hallikainien and Lilja go on to reaffirm the studio’s focus on fixing different issues with the game by improving the base game as well as its modding tools. Cities: Skylines 2 will be getting additional free patches and updates in the coming months, and as a result is pushing work on DLC back. This means that the next planned DLC, the Bridges and Ports expansion, is being pushed back to a 2025 release window.
“Looking ahead, we also want to make immediate and meaningful changes in the way we approach the game’s development and our communication with you. Firstly, this means a complete focus on improving the base game and modding tools, and secondly, we want to better involve you, the community, as we choose our priorities going forward. We will focus on additional free patches and game updates in the coming months before Colossal Order spends time on new paid content, resulting in a move of the Bridges and Ports Expansion to 2025. In addition, the aforementioned Creator Packs are being produced independently, and will not take any focus away from the work on improving the game.”
Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive have also announced a new initiative where they will invite Cities: Skylines 2 community members to help decide the future of the game along with developer Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive. This team will discuss the development plan for the game for this year, and the studio promises complete transparency with these teams.
“To make sure we focus on the right things, we’re putting together an advisory meeting, where a small group of player representatives, together with Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive, will discuss the development plan for this year,” the post reads. “The people in this group are chosen for the size of their following within the community to represent as many people as possible. The teams from Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive will provide them with full transparency and answer any questions and critiques voiced. Our hope is that together with you, our community, we can make sure that we do not repeat the same mistakes we have made in the past and bring this game into a bright future.”
Cities: Skylines 2 was originally released last year, and has since been slowly getting updates and new content. In the past, the studio has insisted that its performance problems are “not deeply rooted in the game’s foundation”. For context, the PC release of Cities: Skylines 2 was targeting a frame rate of 30 FPS before launch, with the studio stating that it “sees no benefit” in a higher frame rate.
Meanwhile, Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive have also revealed that Cities: Skylines 2’s console versions have been delayed out of this Spring.
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