Cities: Skylines II Development Team Splits from Paradox

A Complicated Journey Comes to an End

Paradox Interactive has ended its partnership with Colossal Order, the creators behind the sequel to Cities: Skylines. Known for developing the initial Cities: Skylines in 2015, Colossal Order will shift their focus to new endeavors once they finalize a few outstanding updates. Ownership of the intellectual property remains with Paradox. Planning for the future, Paradox has announced that all development work, including forthcoming updates and the eagerly awaited console edition set for release in 2026, will be overseen by Iceflake Studios, a Finnish team within Paradox.

This decision comes after approximately two years of efforts aimed at rescuing the sequel's reputation along with that of the involved parties. The game was initially anticipated for an October 2023 launch on both PCs and consoles but debuted only on PC, complete with unexpectedly higher system requirements and numerous bugs. The persistent issues led to a growing rift between Colossal Order and the gaming community of Cities: Skylines. Although the game's stability has improved, the rollout of new content has been postponed, and a console release date remains elusive as the studio concludes their involvement.