Major Leadership Change for Cities: Skylines II
Publisher Paradox Interactive and developer Colossal Order have announced they are parting ways, marking a significant shift in the development of Cities: Skylines II. The decision to separate comes roughly two years after the city-building simulation’s turbulent launch in 2023.
Iceflake Studios Takes the Helm
According to Paradox Interactive’s official statement, Iceflake Studios will assume all existing and future development responsibilities for Cities: Skylines II. The transition will include all free updates for the current version of the game, ensuring continuity in the title’s ongoing support.
Improving Foundation for Transition
The handoff comes at a time when Cities: Skylines II has undergone substantial improvements. Despite its rocky start, the game has benefited from dozens of patches that have significantly enhanced performance and addressed core mechanics. Performance optimization has made it possible to build large cities on mid to high-end PCs without requiring extreme system specifications, a major achievement from its demanding initial state.
The economy simulation has received multiple overhauls, resolving the infamous high rent bug and implementing more logical land value calculations. These improvements have made the simulation more connected to actual supply and demand dynamics within players’ cities.
Community Considerations
While development quality has improved, some community concerns remain. The franchise has faced toxicity discussions around its launch and ongoing community dynamics, and official mod support has been a missing feature since release. The community will now look to Iceflake Studios to continue addressing these gaps while maintaining the progress Colossal Order achieved.
The partnership change represents a fresh start for a franchise that showed considerable promise despite its challenging beginning.