The one-year anniversary of Cities Skylines 2 is just around the corner on Thursday October 24, and – while there have certainly been improvements – the Colossal Order city builder is still struggling to win over fans. Despite strong foundations and some notable updates, we've yet to see a return to the best-in-class form established by its predecessor. Speaking with CS2 publisher Paradox Interactive's deputy CEO Mattias Lilja and chief creative officer Henrik Fåhraeus, I ask what went wrong, and if they're worried about competition.
The rough launch of city-building games, the dev's decision to require a persistent internet connection backfired when its launch was hit by severe server issues and network outages. Disconnects, crashes, lost game saves, and more plagued the game's release, dramatically impacting its reputation and leaving a potential opening in the market that perfectly suited the CS1.
"[The first] Cities was a very good game, and it would have been good even if the competition hadn't [struggled,]" Lilja says, "but I'm not going to deny that we got a bit of a free ride there." Of course, that begs the question: While Colossal Order is hard at work on the sequel, and continues to deliver major updates on a regular basis, does the team worry that someone else might do as it did almost a decade ago, and capitalize on CS2's rocky beginnings to try and steal its lunch?
"Cities 2 has had a tough launch," Lilja its. "Whether that opens up [opportunities] for others or not, we want to make sure we give the fans the game that they deserve – that's the thing we can do. But as you said, it's a space with more actors in it. We don't dominate that [genre] like we do with grand strategy, so I would [agree] that it's a more vulnerable position to have, of course."
"I think in general, we tend to be kind of inwards looking, honestly" Fåhraeus adds. "We look mostly at the quality of the games as they are, [rather than] worrying too much about competitors." Nevertheless, there's certainly been enough troubles among the studio's recent launches (other Paradox games such as Victoria 3 have also suffered heavy criticism from players) that it can feel like a worrying trend. That's something the pair are well aware of, and don't shy away from addressing frankly.
"If you want to look at something common to Cities 2 and Victoria 3, I guess it would be that we saw some flaws for the games before release, but we didn't really think that it was that serious," Fåhraeus says. In the months following the game's turbulent launch, Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen remarked that fixing player trust would be hard. Since then, multiple major updates have brought the game to a better place, but there's still much work to be done if that confidence is going to be restored.
"What we have done is engage the players more – have more beta tests, talk to them, listen to their better," Fåhraeus continues. "But I think the good thing is that our whole philosophy for our games [at Paradox] is that they're going to live a long time. And we are going to make these games great. I think we have a very positive trend on Cities 2 and Victoria 3, and hopefully we'll just continue in that direction."
It certainly feels like momentum on both has shifted in a positive direction since launch – Victoria 3 now boasts a 'mostly positive' 79% recent score, with its overall Steam rating close to escaping its 'mixed' label as it rises to 68%. Conversely, with just 53% of CS2 reviews recommending it, there's a lot further to go for the city builder before a recovery can be declared. In the meantime, the pair tell me Paradox is focusing on what it does best.
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