Cities: Skylines 2 Dev Admits To Rushing DLC To Make Up For Poor Launch

thegamer.com:

Last month, Cities: Skylines 2 fell to "mostly negative" on Steam over its controversial DLC, Beach Properties. The backlash was so bad that developer Colossal Order pulled it from storefronts and began issuing refunds, admitting that it had rushed the expansion out the door to try and make up for the game's equally as rocky launch.

"We asked for your patience and support, and you've shown those. In return, we let you down. We thought we could make up for the shortcomings of the game in a timeframe that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that should not have been published in its current form," Colossal Order wrote in a blog post addressing the controversy. "For all this, we are truly sorry [...] We want to do better."

We will change the pack to be a free addition to the game, refund it to the extent possible, and provide additional content within the Ultimate Edition.

The overwhelmingly negative response to Beach Properties has completely changed how Colossal Order is handling the game, as it now pledges to focus on free patches and updates before spending any more time on paid content.

This means that the Bridges and Ports expansion has been delayed to 2025, while Creator Packs are being produced independently so as to not "take any focus away from the work on improving the [base] game."

Developer Colossal Order was also incredibly candid about the console port in its apology letter, admitting that it has been "struggling" to optimise the game. As such, it cannot confirm a concrete release date at this time, but the change in focus and approach to the base game will not impact development on the console port as it's being handled by a completely different team.

"[We] are now hopeful that an upcoming build delivery in April will demonstrate sufficient progress for us to progress with a release candidate, and then a release build targeted for October," Colossal Order wrote. "Before we have seen and evaluated the progress made in these builds,