@selixThe Cities Skyline Paradox
Why the sequel stumbled
and how a new studio might save it
Announcement: “An Update on Cities: Skylines II” (Paradox Interactive).
In mid-November 2025 Paradox Interactive and its long-time partner Colossal Order announced a quiet but monumental shift. After more than fifteen years together, the companies would “pursue independent paths”. The Cities: Skylines franchise – Paradox’s flagship city-building series – would be handed to Iceflake Studios, an internal Finnish team. Colossal Order (CO) would finish one last “Bike Patch” and an asset-editing beta, then move on to other projects. The announcement formalised a split that players and critics had anticipated for months. Cities: Skylines II (CS2) had launched in October 2023 to technical issues, design missteps and a conspicuous lack of mod support. A year later, many of those problems persisted, and Paradox’s patience wore thin.
In this article I attempt to disentangle the facts of that breakup, to understand why CO floundered, why Iceflake has been given the keys, and whether the sequel’s underlying issues can realistically be fixed.
A brief history of the series
Cities: Skylines (2015) emerged from the rubble of Maxis’ SimCity reboot, combining approachable city-planning mechanics with modding openness. Developed by the Helsinki-based Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive, CS1 quickly became the dominant city builder. Its success spawned dozens of expansions and thousands of user-made mods via Steam Workshop. CO – a studio of around thirty people – became a darling of the simulation genre.
Technical sources: Launch performance warning (GameSpot); CS2 performance analysis (Paavo Huhtala).
In 2023 CO attempted to leap ahead with a sequel. Built in Unity’s High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) and promising per-citizen simulation, a dynamic economy and cross-platform modding, CS2 launched on PC in October 2023. Even before release, Paradox warned that performance might not meet players’ expectations. The warning was prescient: the game shipped with heavy GPU bottlenecks, slow simulation speeds and a bare-bones economy. An autopsy by developer Paavo Huhtala found that every pedestrian model had 6,000 vertices (complete with fully modelled teeth) and that props such as pallet stacks were rendered in full detail even when invisible. The engine lacked occlusion culling and relied on high-resolution shadow maps, causing “an innumerable number of draw calls”. The result was a city builder that taxed even high-end GPUs while leaving CPU cores idle.
Player critique: “One Year Later – Cities: Skylines II Is Still a Broken, Lifeless Mess” (Paradox Plaza forums).
Alongside the rendering problems were deeper simulation issues. A year after release one forum thread titled “One Year Later – Cities: Skylines II Is Still a Broken, Lifeless Mess” complained of mindless citizens, dead public spaces and traffic AI that took nonsensical routes. The poster wrote that the sequel’s touted dynamic economy was “nonexistent”. Such criticisms weren’t isolated; they reflected a broader perception that CS2 had shipped as an unfinished Early Access game. CO acknowledged the problems and postponed the console release and paid DLC to focus on patches. Despite multiple updates, players still reported simulation slow-downs and path-finding issues in 2024 and 2025.
Modding coverage: Paradox Mods FAQ (Shacknews); Hallikainen on missing mod support (Game Rant).
Modding – a pillar of the first game – was largely absent. Paradox and CO announced that, unlike CS1’s open Steam Workshop, CS2 would use Paradox Mods, a centralised platform to ensure cross-platform compatibility. In October 2023 Shacknews quoted an official FAQ explaining that mods would be “confined in official capacity to the Paradox Mods platform” because the publisher wanted a single hub accessible on both PC and console. The FAQ went further: “We won’t support other platforms such as Steam Workshop”. This business decision frustrated PC modders and delayed many of the quality-of-life fixes that CS1 had enjoyed through community mods. In February 2024, CO CEO Mariina Hallikainen admitted that the team’s “biggest regret” was launching without mod support; Gamerant summarised her comments, noting that she acknowledged community frustration over the missing Editor and inadequate mod tools.
The facts of the change
Paradox’s November 17 2025 update sets out the formal arrangements. The post states that Paradox and Colossal Order “mutually decided to pursue independent paths” and that the decision was taken “thoughtfully and in the interest of both teams”. The Cities: Skylines franchise will move to Iceflake Studios, one of Paradox’s internal management-game teams based in Tampere, Finland. Iceflake will take over “all existing and future development” of CS2, including free updates, ongoing work on the in-game Editor and console versions, and future expansions. CO will deliver one final update, colloquially called the Bike Patch, adding bicycle infrastructure, Old Town buildings and bug fixes. A beta of the asset-editing tools will be released before year-end, after which Iceflake will assume full development duties from the start of 2026.
Statements from the principals frame the split as amicable. Hallikainen thanked Paradox for fifteen years of collaboration and said CO was “excited to channel our experience, creativity, and passion into new projects”. Paradox deputy CEO Mattias Lilja expressed gratitude for CO’s achievements and emphasised Paradox’s commitment to “provide [Cities players] with more content and new experiences”. Iceflake studio manager Lasse Liljedahl called taking the reins “an immense honor and a great responsibility” and said the team sees “a strong foundation and so much potential waiting to be unleashed”. Together, the statements project optimism: the old guard departs gracefully, the publisher pledges continued support, and a new studio vows to unlock the game’s latent promise.
On launching early: Paradox on Cities: Skylines II and iteration regrets (Kotaku).
Yet hidden between the lines is a tacit admission of failure. In an October 2024 interview discussed in Kotaku, Lilja conceded that launching CS2 in October 2023 was a mistake, saying that Paradox and CO were “actually in agreement that iterating this live was probably the right way to go” but that, in hindsight, they “should probably not launch that early”. In other words, the game was knowingly released unfinished with the hope that post-launch patches would complete it; the strategy backfired. By late 2025 the sequel remained tarnished, and shifting development to an internal studio gave Paradox a way to reframe the narrative without cancelling the project.
Why Colossal Order faltered
Several interlocking factors contributed to CO’s struggles with CS2.
Technical overreach
The team aimed high: a next-generation city builder with per-citizen simulation, realistic economies and cinematic visuals. But CO was still a 30-person studio – tiny by AAA standards – and Unity HDRP proved unforgiving. The engine’s GPU bottlenecks weren’t the result of exotic path-tracing but of ordinary models being rendered at absurd detail. Buildings and props lacked lower-detail meshes and proper occlusion culling, so millions of polygons were drawn even when off-screen. Shadows were computed at high resolution for every object. These problems could theoretically be solved through asset rework and rendering optimisations, but doing so required months of drudge work and careful pipeline changes – hard tasks for a small team already firefighting bugs.
On the simulation side, CO promised a dynamic economy and deep agent-based behaviours, but the implementation lagged behind the ambition. Players complained that citizens moved like drones, parks were empty and emergency services were purely decorative. Traffic AI took nonsensical routes, and public transport usage barely affected congestion. Economic interactions between industries were shallow, and the employment model produced bizarre labour shortages or surpluses. Fixing such systemic issues often requires redesign rather than quick patches; CO did release an Economy 2.0 update in mid-2024, but by the time of the split the simulation still felt off.
Management and business constraints
CO was simultaneously developing the PC release, console ports and multiple DLCs while also building an entirely new modding platform. Paradox’s decision to use Paradox Mods for cross-platform compatibility meant that CO had to engineer modding tools that worked on PC, Xbox and PlayStation while meeting console platform security requirements. As the Shacknews article notes, Paradox and CO confirmed that mods would be “confined in official capacity to the Paradox Mods platform” and that there would be no official support for Steam Workshop or Nexus Mods. The rationale was to provide a “centralized, cross-platform hub”, but it removed the de-facto modding infrastructure that had empowered CS1. Building a secure, cross-platform modding system is a multi-year effort; CO underestimated the work and ended up shipping the game without modding tools at all. Hallikainen later called this omission their “biggest regret”.
At the same time, Paradox wanted a steady flow of revenue from DLC and console versions. Lilja’s comments reveal that the publisher deliberately chose to release early and iterate publicly. That strategy might work for small indie games, but CS2’s player base expected a polished sequel, and paying customers became unwilling beta testers. Patches that fixed one issue often introduced new bugs, and repeated delays of the console release eroded trust.
Human factors
CO’s team had been working on city-builders for over a decade. Burnout and fatigue likely played a role. The company’s history is entwined with the Cities series; moving on allows them to avoid being perpetually defined by “the team that broke Cities” and to experiment with new projects. Their public statements emphasise gratitude and optimism, suggesting that leaving the franchise was as much a relief as a dismissal.
Why Iceflake might succeed
Past work: Surviving the Aftermath review (Screen Rant).
Iceflake Studios isn’t a household name, but it has relevant experience. Founded in 2007 and acquired by Paradox in 2020, Iceflake developed Surviving the Aftermath, a post-apocalyptic colony-builder that entered early access in 2019 and reached full release in November 2021. Screen Rant’s review described it as an “entertaining city-building game” and praised its blend of survival mechanics and management. The game launched rough in early access but steadily improved; by 1.0 it was viewed as “mixed or average” by Metacritic (around 69/100) and maintained a consistent player base. Unlike CS2, its challenges stemmed more from content depth and pacing than from catastrophic performance problems. Iceflake therefore has experience iterating a complex simulation into a stable product.
As an internal studio, Iceflake is directly accountable to Paradox. The publisher can allocate more resources, embed technical specialists and control the roadmap more closely than with an external partner. Iceflake also inherits CS2’s source code, toolchain and documentation. Without the emotional investment that CO had, Iceflake may be more willing to prune systems, simplify mechanics and cut features that don’t work. Liljedahl emphasised that Iceflake sees “a strong foundation and so much potential waiting to be unleashed”. The foundation isn’t nothing: CS2 has larger maps, improved road tools, realistic topography and flexible zoning. If Iceflake can optimise assets, implement proper level-of-detail and occlusion culling and iteratively rework the simulation, the game could reach a state where it’s enjoyable for mainstream players.
However, expectations must be managed. Iceflake cannot rewrite the engine from scratch. The Unity/HDRP foundation, the cross-platform modding constraints and many of the simulation patterns are baked in. The studio will likely focus on performance optimisation, bug fixing and incremental economy/traffic improvements rather than grand redesigns. The Paradox Mods platform will remain the only officially supported mod hub, so deep code mods akin to CS1’s may never return. That’s a business decision that Iceflake cannot overturn.
Paradox’s course correction
The publisher’s response to CS2’s troubled launch reveals a broader shift within Paradox. Kotaku’s October 2024 piece notes that Paradox executives have been on an “apology tour” addressing missteps across several projects, including Bloodlines 2, Prison Architect 2 and the cancelled Life By You. Lilja admitted to PC Gamer that they misjudged hardware compatibility and that releasing early was a misstep. By moving CS2 to an internal studio, Paradox signals a desire to control timelines, budgets and quality more tightly. It mirrors similar decisions: Paradox previously shifted development of Bloodlines 2 to a new studio and delayed Prison Architect 2 indefinitely due to technical problems. The company appears to be prioritising quality over rushing sequels out the door.
Paradox has also been transparent about what the short-term roadmap entails: the Bike Patch, asset-mod beta and ongoing console work. After Iceflake takes over, the studio will share its own plans. The messaging emphasises continuity rather than abandonment. There’s no talk of a Cities: Skylines III, and Paradox continues to encourage players to connect their Paradox accounts for cosmetic rewards. Whether this rebuilds trust depends on execution.
Ultimately, Cities: Skylines II is a cautionary tale of ambition outrunning capacity. Colossal Order set out to deliver the most realistic, detailed city-builder ever made but underestimated the technical and design challenges. A small team built an engine that rendered thousands of hidden vertices, shipped without proper mod support and relied on patches to finish the simulation. Paradox, eager to capitalise on the success of CS1, allowed an unfinished game to launch, hoping to “iterate live”. Players rightly rebelled. A year later the sequel still feels unfinished, and the publisher has handed the project to an internal studio while letting the original creators bow out gracefully.
Does this mean CS2 is doomed? Not necessarily. Iceflake inherits a game with a solid core and a passionate community. The studio’s history with Surviving the Aftermath shows it can shepherd a complex management game from rough early access to a polished release. Paradox’s decision to move development in-house suggests a willingness to allocate resources and accept delays. Significant performance fixes – better LODs, occlusion culling, asset optimisation – are engineering tasks that can be accomplished over time. Simulation adjustments to traffic and economy are harder but not impossible. What CS2 will never become is CS1 with all the modding freedom; the Paradox Mods platform and console parity goals make that clear. For players willing to accept that constraint, there is still hope that Iceflake can turn CS2 into a stable, satisfying city builder. The road will be long, but at least the car is now being driven by a team that isn’t running on fumes.