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After more than a decade of successful collaboration across numerous titles that we’re both immensely proud of, Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order have mutually decided to pursue independent paths.

Development of the Cities: Skylines franchise will move to a different studio under Paradox Interactive’s leadership and Colossal Order looks forward to building on its experience across new projects and exploring new creative opportunities.

This means the Cities: Skylines franchise will move to a new developer, and we’re pleased to announce that Iceflake Studios will be taking the lead. Based in Tampere, Finland, Iceflake Studios is one of Paradox Interactive’s internal management game studios and is hard at work getting into the nuts and bolts of Cities: Skylines II.

It sounds like the original cities skylines devs have jumped ship. Doesn’t sound good for the future of the game or the franchise

    • Mad_Punda@feddit.orgEnglish
      1·
      4 hours ago

      They have been working on an unannounced city builder for a while now. Maybe not on the same scale as cities skylines, but at least it’s the same genre. So hopefully they have gathered some experience in the area already? Can’t speak to the results yet, though.

      I’m more worried they don’t have the capacity to meaningfully improve anything about cities while also working on that new thing.

    • ampersandrew@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      21 hours ago

      Echoes of Paradox moving Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 to The Chinese Room for some reason none of us on the outside understand.

      • rtxn@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        20 hours ago

        That is still so fucking mysterious to me. The Chinese Room makes exactly one type of game, which is “guided-interactive narrative experience” to be diplomatic. The exact opposite of Bloodlines 1. Dear Esther, Ozzy Mandus And The Crankhog Machine, their entire portfolio follows the same formula: strong in art direction, atmosphere, and story; weak in gameplay. Even a hit like Still Wakes The Deep only takes gameplay as far as “throw object to make the thing look away”. Their gameplay systems are not just middling but comfortably average, just enough to keep the player engaged while moving through the (admittedly beautiful) environments.

        So why the fuck did Paradox choose them for Bloodlines 2? Are they stupid?

        • ampersandrew@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          20 hours ago

          The only explanation I can come up with is that they’re a studio that reliably ships finished projects, and maybe that was all Paradox was looking for.

        • False@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 hours ago

          Just because that’s all you’ve done doesn’t mean that’s all you can do.