Cities: Skylines 2 refunds “rushed” DLC and delays console release

19 April, 2024

'Cities: Skylines 2' screenshot.

The team behind Cities: Skylines 2 has apologised to players for a “rushed” expansion pack and delayed the console release of the city builder game.

Cities: Skylines 2 was released at the end of last year, with players immediately experiencing technical difficulties. A number of hotfixes were released to try and fix a number of bugs and the beach properties expansion pack was delayed to 2024. Publisher Paradox Interactive and developer Colossal Order eventually released the paid DLC last month, but fans weren’t impressed.

“I take no pleasure in saying it, but releasing paid DLC when the game’s known, sometimes game-breaking bugs, still haven’t been addressed in the several months since release is inexcusable,” wrote one fan, with Cities: Skylines 2 getting a number of “mostly negative” reviews on Steam.

Responding to the backlash, CEO of Colossal Order Mariina Hallikainen and Mattias Lilja, the deputy CEO of Paradox Interactive, released an apologetic joint statement yesterday (April 18) that promised to refund the DLC for a majority of players and add it to the base game.

“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. 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,” they admit. “For all this, we are truly sorry.”

“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.”

However, players who purchased the £74.99 Ultimate Edition of Cities: Skylines 2 won’t be refunded for the beach properties expansion “due to the distribution of the Ultimate Edition across digital and physical storefronts, which create significant complexities for executing a partial refund.” Instead, Ultimate Edition owners will receive a further 3 creator packs and a number of radio stations.

The pair went on to promise “meaningful changes” that include a “complete focus” on improving the base game and modding tools as well as involving the community. This means the bridges and ports expansion will be delayed to 2025.

“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,” they added.

The console release of Cities: Skylines 2 has also been delayed once again. In September last year, the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game were delayed to Spring 2024 and now Paradox has confirmed that they need at least another six months of work. “Before we have seen and evaluated the progress made in builds (planned for April and October) we will not be able to confirm the release date, and even then, some uncertainty always remains,” they said.

“In closing, we want to reaffirm our dedication to making Cities: Skylines 2 the best city builder it can be. We appreciate your support and feedback, and hope we can regain your trust going forward. It’s our responsibility to earn it, and we hope these actions are a first step in the right direction,” the statement finished.

In other news, South Korean singer BIBI has released a new song called ‘Eve’, in collaboration with the upcoming PlayStation 5 title Stellar Blade.

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