When Cities: Skylines II launched six months ago, the highly-anticipated city builder was met with a huge amount of criticism for its major performance issues and simulation bugs. Developer Colossal Order has been slowly pushing out bug fixing updates since then to resolve some of the more major issues, while it also released the game's first paid content pack, Beach Properties DLC, just last month to overwhelmingly negative user reviews.
Now, in a statement, Paradox Interactive deputy CEO Mattias Lilja and Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen have announced "immediate and meaningful changes" to how the game's development will move forward.
This will begin with full refunds for anyone who purchased the Beach Properties DLC pack. The developer says that the DLC was rushed and should not have been pushed out in its current state. Its content instead is being made available to all players as part of a game update.
Here's how the Beach Properties refund process will be handled across each store:
Steam
- If you purchased Beach Properties separately or through a Steam Bundle (Expansion Pass Bundle or Beach Properties Bundle) you will automatically be refunded the amount equivalent to the cost of Beach Properties directly to your Steam Wallet.
Microsoft
- If you purchased Beach Properties separately or through a Bundle (Expansion Pass Bundle or Beach Properties Bundle) you will be refunded the amount equivalent to the cost of Beach Properties. We will shortly share the details on how the refunds will be made.
Paradox Store
- If you bought Beach Properties, the Beach Properties bundle, or the Expansion pass through the Paradox Store, you will automatically be refunded. If you purchased the Expansion Pass, you will keep your access to the Instant Unlock and Deluxe Relax station but will need to make a new purchase for any upcoming content.
Key Reseller
- If you bought Beach Properties or the Beach Properties Bundle through an approved 3rd party key seller you will be entitled to a refund. Please reach out to your retailer for information on how to do this, since it may vary between sellers.
Physical (Premium Edition)
- For this, the same conditions as Ultimate Edition apply. Beach Properties has not been sold separately as a physical box, but is included in the Premium Edition. For those of you who have redeemed your codes, you will automatically get the additional content upon its release.
While Ultimate Edition buyers aren't receiving refunds due to this mishap, the studio will instead be compensating them with three additional Creator Packs and three Radio Stations sometime in the future.
Other than the refunds, Colossal Order says it will now be fully focused on improving the base game and the recently released modding tools. Paid content will only be worked on after the game reaches a stable state via free updates. The studio adds that this means the Bridges and Ports Expansion pack is being pushed back to 2025.
Moreover, Paradox and Colossal Order says they will be working with a team of player representatives from the community to hear concerns and share future development plans for the game, to make sure "we do not repeat the same mistakes we have made in the past".
The Cities: Skylines II Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 versions' development was also touched on today. Paradox says optimization efforts are still ongoing for this release by a separate team but they aren't currently in a good enough state to give a firm release time frame. However, if some upcoming test builds show improvement, console players may be able to jump in starting October, 2024.
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