Cities: Skylines 2’s first DLC goes free after massive community backlash

Cities: Skylines 2 continues to struggle. The developer’s chief executive, Mariina Hallikainen, announced on April 18 that all purchases of its first DLC, Beach Properties, will be refunded. She also promised to involve the community more in the development process and pivot away from paid DLC until at least 2025.

She said this and more in a post on Paradox Plaza, the official forum of publisher Paradox Interactive. Hallikainen apologized to the community for underperforming and delivering a DLC that “should not have been published in its current form.” The Cities 2 dev at Colossal Order has been trying to make amends with the community following a rocky launch. But its efforts haven’t been “happening at a speed or magnitude that is acceptable,” she said. To make amends, the game’s first DLC, Beach Properties, will be free for all players, and buyers will be refunded the full amount. Players who own the Ultimate Edition, however, will be compensated with extra DLC that is to come.

Hallikainen shared some good news with players as well. “Player representatives,” as she called them, will be included more within the development process and be given the utmost transparency from both Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive. These player representatives will be chosen based on the size of their following within the Cities: Skylines community, indicating they may be YouTubers or other content creators who have dedicated themselves to the city-building franchise.

Due to focusing on delivering tangible and meaningful updates to Cities 2, Colossal Order will be pivoting away from paid DLCs for a while, with the Bridges and Ports expansion pack delayed to 2025. The studio will also dedicate more time to developing and improving the recently released modding tools, which lack some functionality regarding the asset editor.

The console version of the game still seems a way off, according to Hallikainen, but the company is confident it will launch this year. Unfortunately for console players, Colossal Order cannot “confirm the release date.”

Hallikainen thanked the community for their continuous support and pledged once again that Colossal Order will do everything in its power to make Cities 2 the best city builder out there.

Cities: Skylines 2 has been struggling since launch and is sitting at a “Mostly Negative” recent review score on Steam, with 29 percent of users willing to recommend the game. When we reported on it in March, the Beach Properties DLC had a mere four percent of positive reviews, and it now appears that its store page has been removed.