Cities Skylines 2 continued disasters with the launch of a DLC which completely annoyed players, to the point that the studio had to apologize. A nice waste?
Recently, the launch of Cities: Skylines 2's first post-launch DLC, titled Beach Properties, was marked by largely negative reception from the community. This additional content, mainly consisting of an asset pack without new features, was deemed insufficient by players. Considering its price of 10 euros. Faced with a flood of negative reviews and a frosty reception on Steam, Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order had to take corrective action.
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Cities Skylines 2 and the new mea culpa
Three weeks after this eventful release, Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen and Paradox Vice-CEO Mattias Lilja issued a joint statement. Apologizing for the inconvenience caused and promising a refund for the majority of buyers of the Beach Properties DLC. Additionally, the DLC will now be free for all players. Those who acquired the DLC through the Ultimate Edition of Cities: Skylines 2 will not be refunded due to complexities related to partial refunds. But they will receive as compensation three creator packs and three radio stations worth a total of 40 euros. The whole thing is planned for the end of 2024.
We thought we could fix the game's flaws in an unrealistic time frame and rushed to release DLC that should not have been released in its current form. For all of this, we are truly sorry.
Leaders also expressed their desire to redefine their approach to game development and communication with the community. They plan to fully focus on improving the base game. And modding tools, while involving the community more in defining future priorities.
More transparency
With this in mind, a consultative meeting is planned with a small group of player representatives. Selected for their influence within the community. In order to discuss plans for the year 2024. This initiative aims to ensure full transparency and respond to player criticism, in the hope of not repeating past mistakes. But also to prepare a promising future for the game.
The Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive teams will provide complete transparency and respond to all questions and criticisms expressed.
This approach comes against a backdrop where, at the start of the year, increasingly toxic behavior among players threatened to limit developers' interaction with the community. However, hope remains that this new collaborative approach will bear fruit.
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Furthermore, the Bridges and Ports expansion was postponed to 2025. And the launch of the console version of Cities: Skylines 2 was also delayed for optimization reasons. These reports show the desire of Paradox and Colossal Order not to repeat past mistakes in terms of performance and quality of the game.