Cities: Skylines 2 publisher says players "have higher expectations" today and are "less accepting" that games will "fix things over time"
Oct. 10, 2024“A few games bring in most of the players, and most games are dropped quite quickly”
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Cities: Skylines 2’s publisher thinks that players have developed “higher expectations” of games and are also “less accepting” that they’ll be fixed over time.
That’s according toParadox Interactivedeputy chief executive officer Mattias Lilja, whospoke to Rock Paper Shotgunabout the delay of Prison Architect 2, as well as thecancellation of Life By You, and reception of Cities: Skylines 2. Talking about the former, Lilja says there were “quality issues” – notably “not the same kind of bucket of challenges that we had with Life By You” – which ultimately led to it being pushed back “to give the players the game they deserve” when it launches.
It’s more than that, though, as Lilja continues: “It’s also based on the fact that we, in all transparency, see that fans right now, with a squeezed budget for games, have higher expectations, and are less accepting that you will fix things over time. That’s our take. The gaming space has always been the winner-takes-all type of environment. A few games bring in most of the players, and most games are dropped quite quickly, and this is even more pronounced now, [during] maybe the last two years.”
Lilja goes on to say that when it came to Cities: Skylines 2 – which launched last year tomajor performance issues, and thanks tomultiple delays still hasn’t released on consoles– Paradox “knew we would have some issues, like in every release.” He later admits that some of those things were “issues that we had not really understood fully, and that’s totally on us.” When it comes to the city-builder’s performance, Paradox chief creative officer Henrik Fåhraeus says in a separate conversation that “we underestimated how it will be perceived by players.”
Slightly more optimistically, Fåhraeus says Paradox learned from Cities: Skylines 2 that “if we could have brought players in to try it on a larger scale, that would have helped,” and that going forward, the publisher wants to have a “larger degree” of openness with players, “and quite early if possible.” With that in mind, hopefully the publisher might be able to avoid the same pitfalls in the future.
A year later, barely any of Cities: Skylines 2’s first-year DLC has actually launched and now it’s all been delayed again.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
I’m one of GamesRadar+’s news writers, who works alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield’s student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming’s news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you’re sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.
After 2.5 million sales, Manor Lords publisher says it “would almost be arrogant” to not be surprised by the city builder’s success - but “you cannot count on it to repeat”
Overthrown is a unique sandbox game “relative to most of the genre,” with an ever-changing world that separates itself from genre giants like Minecraft
As if The Outlast Trials couldn’t get any more deranged, the horror co-op game’s big new update adds more tooth guns and lady who lives in the walls
