Publisher Paradox Interactive and Cities: Skylines 2 developer Colossal Order have mutually decided to part ways, putting an end to a decade’s worth of collaboration that brought their names to the forefront of the city simulation genre.
Starting in 2026, the sequel’s development will be handed over to Iceflake Studios, developer of Surviving the Aftermath, who is currently “hard at work getting into the nuts and bolts of Cities: Skylines II.”
Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order Part Ways
Before departing, Colossal Order will wrap up work on a few updates to Cities: Skylines II, including its upcoming Bike patch arriving on November 19, Old Town buildings, alongside bug fixes and general improvements.
Furthermore, a beta version of the asset support for the Editor is also scheduled to go live before the end of 2025.
Starting in 2026, Iceflake Studios “will take over all existing and future development for Cities: Skylines II, including free updates for the current version, continuous work on the Editor and console editions, as well as future expansions and content packs.”
The publisher also notes that “Cities players will be able to look forward to new updates and content drops for many years.”
Cities: Skylines II’s launch was surrounded by a lot of hype, as the first game’s extremely dedicated community was looking forward to how Colossal Order would improve the sequel, only for it to fall short of expectations.
Struggling to maintain higher concurrent player counts than its predecessor, the sequel still hasn’t managed to recover while its console versions remain indefinitely delayed.
The split is, nonetheless, surprising as both Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order seemed dedicated to improving Cities: Skylines II before today’s announcement.
“Our partnership with Colossal Order is one of the longest-running relationships we’ve enjoyed here at Paradox,” said Mattias Lilja, Deputy CEO of Paradox Interactive. “Four games, dozens of expansions, and a community of millions of Cities players; it’s remarkable how much we’ve achieved together. We have deep respect for the Colossal Order team and we look forward to seeing where they go from here. On our end, we’re eager to continue working for the passionate Cities: Skylines community and make sure to provide them with more content and new experiences.”
Developer Iceflake Studios will share its plans for the sequel in the coming weeks.
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