Cities: Skylines 2 developer Colossal Order has posted a clear apology over the current state of the game and is issuing refunds for the recently released Beach Properties DLC, which went down like a lead balloon with the community. The console release of the game has been further delayed as a consequence of a renewed focus on improving the base game on PC.
“We see and understand the disappointment” company CEO Mariina Hallikainen and Deputy CEO Mattias Lilja wrote in a joint statement. “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 first step on this path is to refund the Beach Properties DLC to anyone that purchased it, and to make the DLC free for all going forward. Refunds for this will not be possible for those who purchased the Ultimate Edition of the game, but they will be compensated with three additional Creator Packs and three more Radio Stations.
For details on refunds, head to the Paradox Plaza FAQ.
The team’s focus will return to the base game and modding tools, with an effort to be more open about progress and involve the community more in setting the priorities. Since launch, there’s been a lot of criticism over the game’s level of optimisation, with unexpected issues that stemmed from various areas, like some assets not having low detail LODs, bugs with the postal service, the way that housing is reserved and more. CO has addressed many of these issues with updates in the past five months, but more clearly remain, and the Beach Properties DLC felt to players like a let down considering the amount of content it included and the continuing issues with the game.
They explained, “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 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.”
For the console release of the game, which had originally been intended to come alongside the PC version at the end of 2023, this has been delayed from Spring to October, so long as sufficient progress is being made in optimising the game – it’s worth noting that the console team is separate from the PC team and so is not splitting focus.
