The makers of Cities: Skylines II have pledged to concentrate on fixing the bottom sport after followers revolted in opposition to a disappointing paid DLC. The $10 Beachfront Properties pack scored a surprising 96 p.c damaging ranking in Steam critiques and now the businesses behind the city planning sim have apologized, promised refunds for the newest paid content material, and introduced an “advisory assembly” with high-profile gamers to chart Skylines II’s redemption course.
“We thought we may make up for the shortcomings of the sport in a timeframe that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that ought to not have been revealed in its present kind,” reads a brand new joint assertion from Colossal Order CEO Marlina Halikainen and deputy Paradox Interactive CEO Mattias Lija. “For all this, we’re actually sorry. After we’ve made statements like this one earlier than, it’s included a pledge to maintain making enhancements, and whereas we’re engaged on these updates, they haven’t occurred at a velocity or magnitude that’s acceptable, and it pains us that we’ve now misplaced the belief of a lot of you.”
The businesses mainly admit that plowing forward with Cities: Skylines II’s post-launch plans regardless of the underlying sport nonetheless needing tons of labor compounded points and burned by means of the remainder of the neighborhood’s goodwill. Final month’s Beachfront Properties DLC was simply the cherry on prime: a paid replace that rankled gamers with its bad-looking homes and lack of precise beachfront belongings. “Absolute bullshit,” one Steam assessment reads. “They launch a DLC earlier than even fixing the sport. The enshittification of issues continues.”
Since Cities: Skylines II arrived final October, gamers have been complaining about issues with restricted enhancing instruments, huge efficiency points, too few belongings, and wonky financial simulations, with cities both being too simple to fund or going utterly bankrupt. Skylines II maker Colossal Order promised no paid DLC till the sport’s efficiency points at launch had been fastened, and regardless of many enhancements, pushing forward with the $10 Beachfront Properties DLC whereas different points remained unaddressed pushed neighborhood sentiment right into a nosedive.
“Apparently the brand new meta is to launch sequels in precisely playable, unfinished states and make everybody endure,” wrote one participant on Steam. “Builders struggling. Gamers struggling. Status of studios struggling.”
Whereas Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive will refund the Beachfront DLC and make it free for everybody, gamers who acquired it by means of the Final Version of the sport will obtain $40 price of creator packs and radio stations as a make good as an alternative. Future paid DLC just like the Bridges and Ports Growth have been pushed to 2025 whereas the builders concentrate on free patches and fixes to the bottom sport. The console model of Skylines II has additionally been delayed. Beforehand concentrating on this spring, the sport now gained’t come to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Sequence X/S till October on the earliest.
Up to now, many Skylines II gamers have greeted the announcement as an excellent first step that can have to be backed up by tangible progress. Others really feel the scenario is past restore. “Very good of them to say all that, although I’m sort of uninterested in studying guarantees of a greater future on a regular basis with nothing to indicate for it,” wrote one participant on Reddit. “Hope the upcoming updates will likely be passable as a result of I actually wish to love the sport.”
