A new release candidate will receive a “thorough review” this August, and based on the results, it will either start the process towards a release date or address further issues. It’s understandably holding back on further release pronouncements until then. The team is making “slow but steady” process, yet “unresolved issues” remain that currently “harm the player experience.”

“We understand this is disappointing, and it’s not what we had hoped for either. However, we are committed to keeping you informed throughout this development process, even if the updates aren’t always what we’d like.”

Cities: Skylines 2 launched in October 2023 for PC and currently has a “Mixed” rating on Steam, with 52 percent of user reviews being positive. The city-builder has faced criticism for its performance issues and lackluster updates. Releasing the paid Beach Properties DLC this past March didn’t help either (currently “Overwhelmingly Negative” on Steam). Stay tuned for further updates on the console versions in the meantime.

While the original plan for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of Cities: Skylines 2 was set for a Spring 2024 release window, Colossal Order has now said that it can’t promise a release date for the ports. This is due to it not being able to hit the necessary levels of optimisation for a console release of the game.

That said, it expects to know more about the progress it has made with an upcoming build being finalized this month, following which a release build is tentatively being targeted for October. Before these builds have been evaluated, however, the studio has no plans on promising a release date for Cities: Skylines 2 on consoles.

“We also want to address the pending Console release. As you know, our plan was to release in Spring of this year,” the post reads. “We have been hesitant to communicate an actual release window because of the uncertainty we are facing, and to not make further promises we might not be able to keep. We have been struggling to get Cities: Skylines 2 to the necessary level of optimization for a console release, but are now hopeful that an upcoming build delivery in April will demonstrate sufficient progress for us to progress with a release candidate, and then a release build targeted for October. Before we have seen and evaluated the progress made in these builds however, we will not be able to confirm the release date, and even then, some uncertainty always remains. Our ambition is to deliver the experience that you all deserved at launch, but it will take time. It’s important to note that the team working on the console release operates separately from our PC development team, so it will be progressing without splitting our focus or time.”

Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive have also responded to backlash against the city builder’s DLC by making the expansion free for all future purchasers, and refunding those who have already bought it, while also delaying all future DLC into 2025. Read more on that through here.

“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.

The new asset pack brings a host of new beachfront properties that players can now build in their cities. The asset pack also brings with it a new Waterfront zoning option, as well as new signature buildings in European and North American styles, and cosmetic items like new trees. Check out the trailer for the asset pack below.

Along with the Beach Properties asset pack, Cities: Skylines 2 has also gotten its first in-game modding options. The new tools allow players to create, share and play with Map and Code mods. These mods can be distributed through the Paradox Mods platform.

Considering the fact that this is the first iteration of mod tools for Cities: Skylines 2, however, it is quite likely that the scope of mods it allows players to build will likely be smaller than what we’ve seen in the original Cities: Skylines. The tools will be getting updates, however, and will likely get more features down the line.

Nonetheless, it looks like it has seen solid sales nonetheless. During its recent year-end fiscal report, Paradox Interactive announced that as of the end of 2023, Cities: Skylines 2 has sold over a million units.

The company did, however, acknowledge the game’s rough launch, stating that it was “upset that we didn’t meet player expectations on performance, platform releases, and functionalities at the start”. Paradox says developer Colossal Order is “working hard on improvements” and remains “fully committed to continuing to improve and develop the game”, describing the project as a “long-term engagement”.

In November last year, Colossal Order that it was slowing down its planned frequency for Cities: Skylines 2’s post-launch updates as it looked to focus on bigger patches that would target the game’s biggest issues. Before the end of March, the city builder is also set to receive its first DLC in the form of the Beach Properties Asset Pack.

Cities: Skylines 2 is available on PC. It releases for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S this Spring.

https://youtu.be/f7keZMDhZ6E?list=PL4hR-M4rl7ueJ0iUcCOM6QxHUktR8_sTw&t=378

CEO Mariina Hallikainen has expanded on the studio’s decision to push back DLC for the game, instead focusing on releasing updates that improve the game’s performance, as well as prioritise development on the game’s mods editor. Hallikainen states on the studio’s official forums that the current development priorities are, in order, performance improvements, bug fixing, and modding support.

Hallikainen also states that, once the PC version is where the studio wants it to be, development will then be focused on the console release and DLC for Cities: Skylines 2.

Earlier this month, Hallikainen revealed that, while Colossal Order is still working on improving the performance and fixing bugs in Cities: Skylines 2, the cadence of updates will be slower moving forward, with the studio opting to release bigger update with more fixes rather than smaller, quicker updates.

According to the post, the editor for Cities: Skylines 2 is still under development, and currently only features support for maps and code modding. The studio hopes to have these features ready for the initial release of the editor. A major planned feature for the editor, the ability to import custom assets, is not yet available in internal builds.

“We expect it will take a couple of months to get the Editor in a shape where we can release it, but we don’t have a concrete timeline yet as we don’t want to make promises we can’t keep,” the developer wrote. “Once the Editor is out we will continue to work on it with your feedback and suggestions to help us prioritize the most wanted features and improvements. We’re very much looking forward to seeing your creations and mods too.”

The blog post goes on to explain that, while the game has seen quite a few updates over the last three weeks, the studio will start focusing on bigger patches after the release of an upcoming update. These bigger patches will hopefully bring more fixes to the game, but will also take longer to develop.

“In the last three weeks, we’ve had a very quick pace with the patches,” the developer wrote. “There is one more of those landing soon, but after that, we’ll be focusing on bigger fixes that take longer to work on. The team is now focusing on LODs and improving GPU performances, and while geometric LODs are largely automated, there are a ton of tweaks and adjustments required. We are expecting a relevant performance boost with these asset fixes. The workload is significant and unfortunately, there is no silver bullet to improve the performance at once, instead, it requires several tasks completed before we are happy with it. This results in less frequent updates so we won’t have weekly patches going forward.”

The studio is also stated to be working on improving performance issues in Cities: Skylines 2.

The post offers a number of options to help improve performance of the game, which include playing the game at 1080p, disabling options like Depth of Field and Volumetrics, and reducing Global Illumination. The studio has provided a full guide for tinkering around with the game’s graphics settings to squeeze better performance out of the title.

Moving forward, Colossal Order plans to release a number of small patches targeting different parts of Cities: Skylines 2‘s host of performance problems. Currently, the studio is working on improvements to a number of things, and with patches, hopes to remove stutters from the game, optimise and balance GPU performance, and push out CPU optimisations.

The studio is also looking it more upscaling options. Out of the box, Cities: Skylines 2 comes with AMD FSR1. According to the post, the game does not include FSR2 or Nvidia’s DLSS because the newer technologies need the use of Temporal Anti-aliasing, which apparently isn’t possible in the game’s engine right now because of some of its objects being incompatible with the technique.

The post reiterates the studio’s target of achieving a framerate of 30FPS, stating that the genre doesn’t really benefit from aiming for a higher framerate. It does, however, state that the studio might go for higher framerates down the line, especially since it would help the game’s visuals as well.

Capping off the post, the studio talks about why it released Cities: Skylines 2 when it did, despite the game clearly being not ready for release owing to its large amounts of performance issues. The studio apparently concluded that performance issues weren’t a dealbreaker for all players.

“For us, the number one priority is for the players to have fun with the game, and we had seen enough feedback from players enjoying the game that it would be more unfair to postpone,” says the post.

Along with revealing its performance target, the studio also provided its reasoning for why it isn’t aiming for higher frame rates, claiming that there are no real benefits for a city builder to aim for high frame rates.

“The target is 30fps because of the nature of the game, (arguably) there are no real benefit in a city builder to aim for higher FPS (unlike a multiplayer shooter) as a growing city will inevitably become CPU bound,” said the studio. “What matters more with this type of game is to avoid stutters, and have responsive UI.”

The statement goes on to say that, while there is no real down side in aiming for 60FPS, the simulation in Cities: Skylines 2 was designed around an update rate of 30FPS. The studio also said that it faces quite a few challenges in rendering the game’s visuals, both at an up-close level as well as far distances.

While Cities: Skylines 2 was released on PC earlier this week, the game’s console launch has been pushed back to Spring 2024, likely due to the studio having trouble optimising the game in time for its PC launch.

Colossal Order has, however, issued a warning ahead of the imminent launch of its highly anticipated city builder Cities: Skylines 2 that the game may very well have performance issues on PC upon its release. In a message published on the official Paradox forums, the developer said that though it will continue to work on further optimizing the game after its release, upon launch, it is likely to have some performance issues, with the studio having been unable to hit the performance benchmark it was targeting internally.

“We’ve noticed the concerns raised about Cities: Skylines II performance, especially after our previous statement with raised minimum and recommended specs. As we’ve always believed in transparency, we’d like to further shed some light on the current state of the build,” the developer wrote. “Cities: Skylines II is a next-gen title, and naturally, it demands certain hardware requirements. With that said, while our team has worked tirelessly to deliver the best experience possible, we have not achieved the benchmark we targeted.

“In light of this, we still think for the long-term of the project, releasing now is the best way forward. We are proud of the unique gameplay and features in Cities: Skylines II, and we genuinely believe that it offers a great experience that you will enjoy.

“We will continually improve the game over the coming months, but we also want to manage expectations on performance for the coming release. Our ambition is for Cities: Skylines II to be enjoyed by as many players as possible, and we’re committed to ensuring it reaches its full potential.”

In a separate FAQ, the developer has also explained that not all players will see performance issues, and that the developer will also provide settings to help minimize any potential problems.

Cities: Skylines 2 is set to launch for PC on October 24. Its PS5 and Xbox Series X/S release was recently delayed to Spring 2024.