Paradox Interactive just dropped a bombshell that nobody saw coming, except everyone totally saw it coming. After more than 15 years of partnership, four games, and millions of players, Paradox and Colossal Order have mutually decided to pursue independent paths. Translation: Colossal Order is out, and a different studio is taking over the Cities Skylines franchise.
The news came wrapped in corporate speak about mutual respect and exciting new directions, but let’s be real about what happened here. Cities Skylines 2 launched two years ago as a technical disaster, stayed broken for months despite updates, charged players for rushed DLC that didn’t even include beaches in a beach-themed pack, and still hasn’t made it to consoles. This breakup was inevitable.
What Actually Happened
On November 16, 2025, Paradox announced on their official forums that development of Cities Skylines would move to Iceflake Studios, one of their internal management game studios based in Tampere, Finland. Iceflake will take over all existing and future development for Cities Skylines 2, including free updates, the editor, console editions, and all future expansions and content packs.
Colossal Order will implement a few final updates before completely departing, including the long-awaited bike patch, Old Town buildings, bug fixes, and general improvements. They’ll also deliver a beta implementation of asset support for the editor before year end. Then starting January 2026, Iceflake takes full control.
Both companies issued carefully worded statements emphasizing mutual respect and the thoughtful nature of the decision. Mariina Hallikainen, CEO of Colossal Order, thanked Paradox for their trust and collaboration while expressing confidence the franchise will thrive under Paradox’s leadership. Mattias Lilja, Paradox’s Deputy CEO, praised the partnership and what they achieved together over four games and dozens of expansions.
But read between the lines. This wasn’t an amicable parting of ways where both sides agreed they’d accomplished everything possible together. This was Paradox taking back their most valuable property from a developer who couldn’t fix the mess they created.
The Cities Skylines 2 Disaster
To understand why this split happened, you need to know just how badly Cities Skylines 2 launched. The game released for PC on October 24, 2023 with severe performance problems that Colossal Order openly acknowledged one week before launch. They literally warned players the game wouldn’t hit their performance benchmarks but decided to release it anyway.
Players with high-end hardware reported random FPS dips, slowdowns, hitches, and complete freezes lasting several seconds. Even at 1080p resolution on powerful systems, Cities Skylines 2 struggled to maintain playable framerates. Technical analysis revealed the game was rendering massive amounts of unnecessary geometry with an absurd number of draw calls, particularly for shadows.
One deep dive found that shadow mapping alone accounted for 4,828 out of 6,705 total draw calls in a single test frame. That’s 72 percent of all draw calls going to shadows, many of which affected between zero and under 100 pixels in the shadow map. The inefficiency was staggering, with performance gains of up to 50 percent possible just by disabling shadows entirely.
The problems weren’t limited to rendering either. As cities grew larger, the simulation itself would slow to nearly nothing. Players reported that at 300,000 population, placing new objects became a slideshow with everything stopping for several seconds. Zooming in and out caused extreme stuttering. Frame rates would dump into single digits despite moderate graphics settings.
These weren’t minor bugs that could be patched quickly. These were fundamental architectural problems with how the game was built. And two years later, many of these issues persist.
The Beach Properties Controversy
Making matters worse, Colossal Order and Paradox decided to release paid DLC while the base game remained broken. The Beach Properties asset pack launched in May 2024 for $9.99, promising beach-themed content for coastal cities.
Players were furious to discover the DLC didn’t actually include beaches. The asset pack received overwhelmingly negative reviews on Steam, with only 4 percent of users expressing satisfaction. The backlash was so severe that both companies issued a joint apology admitting they rushed the DLC out prematurely and should never have published it in its current form.
They offered refunds to everyone who purchased Beach Properties separately and made it free going forward. For Ultimate Edition owners who couldn’t get direct refunds due to distribution complexities, they promised three Creator Packs and three radio stations worth approximately $40 as compensation.
In their apology, the CEOs acknowledged they thought they could make up for the shortcomings of the game in an unrealistic timeframe. They admitted to rushing out DLC that had no business being released. It was an embarrassing admission that they prioritized generating revenue over actually fixing their product.
Console Versions Still Don’t Exist
Cities Skylines 2 was originally supposed to launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S alongside the PC version in October 2023. Those console versions got delayed to Spring 2024. Then they got delayed again to October 2024. Then delayed indefinitely as Colossal Order struggled with optimization.
As of November 2025, two full years after the PC launch, the console versions still don’t exist. Xbox players were told the game would come to Game Pass, but that keeps getting pushed back as the studio can’t get acceptable performance on console hardware.
Now Iceflake Studios inherits this problem. Part of their mandate is delivering the console editions that Colossal Order never managed to finish despite multiple years of work. Whether Iceflake can succeed where Colossal Order failed remains to be seen.
Who Is Iceflake Studios
Iceflake Studios might be new to most Cities Skylines fans, but they’ve been part of Paradox since 2020 when the publisher acquired them. Based in Tampere, Finland, the same city where Colossal Order is located, Iceflake specializes in management and simulation games.
Their portfolio includes titles like Prehistoric Kingdom, a dinosaur zoo tycoon game that’s been in early access. They’re a smaller studio compared to what Colossal Order became over the years, but Paradox clearly believes they have the technical competence to salvage Cities Skylines 2.
Studio Manager Lasse Liljedahl issued a statement expressing excitement about taking over the franchise. He emphasized that Iceflake has a decade of experience making city building and management games, sees a strong foundation in Cities Skylines 2, and believes there’s enormous potential waiting to be unleashed.
That’s corporate speak for we’re going to fix all the stuff the previous developer couldn’t. Time will tell whether they can actually deliver on that promise.
What Colossal Order Is Saying
Colossal Order’s official statement emphasized gratitude for the partnership and pride in what they achieved. CEO Mariina Hallikainen talked about how Cities in Motion grew into a cherished franchise with millions of passionate players worldwide. She expressed confidence the franchise will continue thriving under Paradox’s leadership.
She also mentioned the studio is excited to channel their experience, creativity, and passion into new projects that align with their long-term vision. That’s the first acknowledgment that Colossal Order plans to continue making games, just not Cities Skylines.
Reading between the lines, it sounds like Colossal Order wanted to move on from Cities Skylines anyway. They spent over a decade on this franchise across four games. Maybe they’re genuinely ready to try something different rather than being the Cities Skylines studio forever.
Or maybe that’s just the polite version of events. The reality could be that Paradox fired them and they’re spinning it as a mutual decision to save face. We’ll probably never know the full truth.
What This Means for Players
If you currently play Cities Skylines 2, not much changes immediately. Colossal Order is delivering their final updates including bikes, Old Town buildings, bug fixes, and the asset editor beta before end of 2025. The transition to Iceflake happens at the start of 2026.
Iceflake has promised to introduce themselves to the community in the coming weeks and share their plans for what’s next. That roadmap will be crucial for determining whether players should stick with Cities Skylines 2 or write it off as a lost cause.
The big questions are whether Iceflake can fix the fundamental performance issues, deliver the console versions, and restore trust with a community that’s been burned repeatedly. Those are enormous challenges that will define whether Cities Skylines 2 has a future or becomes a cautionary tale.
For fans of the original Cities Skylines, this might actually be good news. That game still has an active player base and extensive mod support. If Colossal Order moves on to new projects, maybe they’ll create something fresh rather than trying to stretch Cities Skylines into territories it wasn’t designed for.
The Bigger Picture at Paradox
This developer split is just the latest in a series of problems for Paradox Interactive. The publisher has faced criticism for buggy launches across multiple franchises, aggressive DLC strategies that nickel and dime players, and a pattern of releasing games before they’re ready.
Cities Skylines 2 was supposed to be a flagship release that demonstrated Paradox could deliver polished experiences at launch. Instead it became another example of their problems. The fact that they’re essentially firing the developer and bringing in a replacement suggests they’re trying to course correct before the franchise is damaged beyond repair.
But it also raises questions about Paradox’s management and oversight. How did Cities Skylines 2 launch in such a poor state with their approval? Why did they allow paid DLC to release while the base game remained broken? What role did publisher pressure play in the decisions that led to this mess?
Those questions probably won’t get answered publicly, but they matter for understanding why this partnership ended and whether Iceflake will face similar pressures.
FAQs
Why did Paradox and Colossal Order split up?
While both companies describe it as a mutual decision to pursue independent paths, the split follows Cities Skylines 2’s troubled launch with severe performance issues, ongoing bugs, controversial DLC, and console versions that still don’t exist two years after the PC release.
Who is taking over Cities Skylines development?
Iceflake Studios, a Paradox-owned internal studio based in Tampere, Finland, will handle all future development of Cities Skylines 2 including updates, console editions, and expansions starting in January 2026.
Will Colossal Order release any final updates?
Yes, Colossal Order will deliver the bike patch, Old Town buildings, bug fixes, general improvements, and a beta of the asset editor before completely departing at the end of 2025.
When will Cities Skylines 2 come to consoles?
The console versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S still don’t have a release date despite being originally planned for October 2023. Iceflake Studios has inherited responsibility for delivering these versions.
What was the Beach Properties controversy?
Cities Skylines 2’s first paid DLC, Beach Properties, received overwhelmingly negative reviews because it didn’t actually include beaches. Paradox and Colossal Order apologized, offered refunds, and made it free after admitting they rushed it out prematurely.
How long did Paradox and Colossal Order work together?
The partnership lasted over 15 years and produced four games in the Cities franchise, along with dozens of expansions and content packs that built a community of millions of players.
Does Cities Skylines 2 still have performance problems?
Yes, many players continue reporting performance issues, stuttering, and frame rate problems even two years after launch despite multiple optimization attempts from Colossal Order.
What will Colossal Order do next?
Colossal Order stated they’re excited to channel their experience and creativity into new projects that align with their long-term vision, suggesting they plan to continue making games outside the Cities Skylines franchise.
Conclusion
The end of the Paradox and Colossal Order partnership marks the conclusion of one of the longest-running developer-publisher relationships in modern gaming. They accomplished impressive things together over 15 years, turning Cities Skylines into a beloved franchise that dominated the city building genre.
But Cities Skylines 2 exposed fundamental problems in how both companies approach game development. Launching a product knowing it doesn’t meet performance benchmarks, releasing paid DLC while the base game remains broken, and failing to deliver console versions years after promises were made, all these decisions eroded player trust and damaged the franchise.
Whether Iceflake Studios can salvage the situation remains uncertain. They inherit a game with deep technical problems, a community that’s been burned repeatedly, and console versions that might not even be technically feasible given the performance constraints. Those are enormous challenges for any studio, let alone one that’s relatively unknown to most players.
For Colossal Order, this could be an opportunity to move on from a franchise they’ve worked on for over a decade and try something new without the weight of expectations and legacy code holding them back. Or it could be a humiliating exit from a property they built into a phenomenon.
Either way, the Cities Skylines story is about to enter a new chapter written by different hands. Whether that chapter will redeem the franchise or serve as its epitaph depends entirely on whether Iceflake can accomplish what Colossal Order could not, fixing the fundamental problems that have plagued Cities Skylines 2 since day one.