The release of Cities: Skylines II was not a smooth ride. Even before its launch on PC last October, the studio indicated that the title would have problems, and the recent arrival of its first DLC did not help matters, now pushing the teams to speak out.
DLC refunded to players
In a message published on the game's forum, Paradox Interactive indicates that it has not been able to correct the problems raised by players, having released the DLC Beach Properties in haste, and apologizes to his community as follows:
Advertisement
We see and understand the disappointment that many of you have expressed following the release of Cities: Skylines II and the recent release of Beach Properties. We asked for your patience and support, and you showed it. In return, we have disappointed you. We thought we could fill in the game's gaps in an unrealistic time frame, and we hastily released DLC that shouldn't have been released in its current form. We are sincerely sorry for all of this.
As a result, the studio made the decision to reimburse players who had purchased this first DLC:
The very first thing we are going to do is compensate those who purchased Beach Properties. We will be changing the pack to make it a free addition to the game, refunding it where possible, and providing additional content in the Ultimate Edition.
For owners of an Ultimate version of the game, reimbursement will not be possible, but Paradox will offer 3 Creator Packs and 3 Radio Stations to the players concerned as compensation:
Unfortunately, it will not be possible to refund Ultimate Edition buyers. Indeed, the distribution of the Ultimate Edition in digital and physical stores significantly complicates the execution of a partial refund. We recognize that this situation is far from ideal, especially considering the dedication shown by those who have stayed with us since the game's launch. We are determined to reward that loyalty, and that's why we will compensate Ultimate Edition owners by adding 3 Creator Packs and 3 Radio Stations which together represent a value of 39.99 USD. We hope that this solution will allow you, whatever your method of purchase, to benefit from fair compensation.
The studio then explains that it will make “immediate and significant” changes to its approach to game development and its communication with players, and says it is now focusing on improving the base game and modeling tools.
Console versions postponed
After its release exclusively on PC at the end of last year, Cities Skylines 2 was initially supposed to land on Xbox Series X|S and PS5 in the spring, but the situation pushed the studio to postpone the console version of the game:
Advertisement
As you know, we had planned a release in the spring of this year. We have been hesitant to communicate an actual release date due to the uncertainty we face and to avoid making further promises that we may not be able to keep.
We've been struggling to get Cities: Skylines II to the level of optimization necessary for a console release, but we're now hoping that a future build shipping in April will show enough progress to allow us to move on to a release candidate and then to a launch version planned for October.
However, until we see and evaluate the progress made in these versions, we will not be able to confirm the release date, and even then some uncertainty remains. Our ambition is to give you the experience you all deserve at launch, but it will take time.
The studio specifies that the team working on the console version is different from that in charge of the PC version, and that this will therefore have no impact on the latter.
Paradox concludes its message by thanking the players and reaffirms its desire to make Cities: Skylines II “the best city builder possible”, while hoping to regain the trust of its community. We therefore hope that the teams can quickly find solutions to improve the game.
Remember that Cities Skylines 2 is available now on PC as well as in PC Game Pass and will be released directly in Xbox Game Pass when it arrives on consoles. You will find the studio's full message at this address.