Developer Colossale Order has announced the purchase price for the “hasty-released” asset pack DLC Beach Properties for city building simulation Cities – Skylines 2 (in testing) and add its content to the base game free of charge.
After Cities – Skylines 2 (in testing) struggled with technical problems at launch, among other things, the studio promised to fix the title's performance problems before DLCs are released. Accordingly, the release of Beach Properties was postponed to the first quarter of this year. The DLC includes new regions with coastlines, four trees, six special buildings (which can be built under certain conditions and provide bonuses), and ten each of North American and European beach houses.
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However, the Steam reviews for Beach Properties, which was released in March, are catastrophic; out of over 1,300 Steam reviews submitted, 96 percent are negative. The reviews continue to criticize the condition of the main game, but also the scope of the ten euro asset pack, which can be used to place stand houses, but no other suitable decorative elements for the actual beaches.
Post in response Marina HallikainenCEO of Colossal Order, and Mattias Lilja, Deputy CEO of publisher Paradox Interactive, a joint announcement that is in part a letter of apology. Individual purchases from Beach Properties would therefore be refunded, as its content will now be included in the main game for free. Since a partial refund is difficult to implement for the Ultimate Edition, which also sells access to Beach Properties, buyers of this edition should receive access to additional later DLCs at no additional cost, which would have an equivalent value of around 40 euros. However, the paid extensions will be postponed again for the near future: the release of the extension Bridges and Ports will therefore be postponed to 2025. In addition, an exchange with a select group of players will be organized with representatives from Colossal Order and Paradox.
There was also an update on the console version: Work is still ongoing, a potential release date is October 2024, but that depends on whether the next internal build from this month achieves the set goals and can be further developed into a release candidate.
Hallikainen and Lilja also address the community's lost trust:
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We see and understand the disappointment that many of you have expressed following the release of Cities – Skylines 2 and the recent release of Beach Properties. We asked for your support and patience, which you have shown. In return, we left you hanging. We thought we could fix the game's flaws in a time frame that was unrealistic and rushed out a DLC that shouldn't have been released in its current form. We're really sorry about all of this. We have published statements like this before, in which we also promised improvements. While we are working on these updates, they are not coming at a pace or scale that would be acceptable, and we are saddened that we have lost the trust of many of you. We want to do better. […] And we hope that we can regain your trust from here on out. Earning trust is our responsibility and we hope these measures are a first step in the right direction.