Cities: Skylines 2 launched in rough shape and was plagued by performance issues and general instability. Developer Colossal Order promised to fix the game. Now, the studio is slowing down their patch output and have even delayed official modding tools by several months.
Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen, also known as co_martsu on the official Paradox Interactive forums, posted an update on Nov. 13 detailing the state of the game’s post-launch development. She elaborated that the modding tool, the Editor, is still in the works and being prepared for an initial release. After that, they will continue expanding on the Editor during the lifetime of Cities 2.
She added that the Editor will likely take a few more months to complete and that CO will keep players updated with its development. “We expect it will take a couple of months to get the Editor in a shape where we can release it, but we don’t have a concrete timeline yet as we don’t want to make promises we can’t keep,” she said.
Other than the modding tools, Hallikainen commented on the game’s console release. Prior to the PC launch, the console version was pushed back to Spring 2024 to ensure the best quality and performance. Colossal Order claims that they’re doing everything they can to bring the console release to players in the first half of 2024, according to Hallikainen’s post. Their performance patches and updates for the PC version, which was in dire need of fixing, also benefit the game’s console version, she said.
Additionally, Cities: Skylines 2 on console will immediately have access to the Editor. It should be fully operational on PC by then, allowing console players to quickly catch up to their peers on PC with mods and custom assets. In case you missed it, Cities: Skylines 2 will host mods on its own platform, the Paradox Mods, instead of the usual Steam Workshop, allowing the game to bridge the gap between PC and consoles.
In light of all these developments, Colossal Order will be slowing down its patch output for the PC version of Cities 2. Hallikainen explained that they’ve been outputting patches quickly and thoroughly since release but will now focus on the more significant issues, which she claimed will take longer to fix.
She noted CO is focusing on intensive updates that cannot be resolved as quickly: “The team is now focusing on LODs and improving GPU performances, and while geometric LODs are largely automated, there are a ton of tweaks and adjustments required… This results in less frequent updates, so we won’t have weekly patches going forward.”
Cities: Skylines 2 is currently out on Steam and recovering from review bombs and a rocky launch, and it will likely take a while before it climbs to the heights of its stellar predecessor.
