Paradox Interactive parts ways with the creators of Cities: Skylines II — game support transitions to another studio

Two years have passed since the release of the city-building strategy Cities: Skylines II. The game had a huge number of technical issues, terrible performance, and many controversial decisions. The publisher Paradox Interactive and studio Colossal Order put a lot of effort into fixing the situation, and they did succeed in some cases, but the overall picture remains disheartening.

What is known

Even at release, critics noted that Cities: Skylines II is an imperfect game with great potential, and the authors failed to realize it. The Swedish publisher officially announced that it has made the difficult decision to end its collaboration with Colossal Order.

After more than ten years of successful cooperation on many projects we are proud of, Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order have mutually decided to go their own separate ways. This step was carefully thought through and made in the interest of both teams — to ensure the brightest future for the Cities: Skylines franchise.

Now, the development of Cities: Skylines II will be undertaken by the Finnish studio Iceflake — Paradox's internal team. It is stated that the Iceflake Studios team has extensive experience working on games of this genre and understands the upcoming tasks well.

From the beginning of 2026, the new team will start working on the city-building strategy, will release new content, and finally launch the console versions of Cities: Skylines II, which were originally supposed to be released at the beginning of 2024. By the end of the current year, developers from Colossal Order will release another update, two user kits, and two radio stations.

Source: Paradox Interactive