Cities: Skylines developer Colossal Order splits with Paradox Interactive after 15 years

Publisher Paradox Interactive has confirmed that it has parted ways with Cities: Skylines developer Colossal Order, putting an end to a longtime partnership and transferring the franchise to a new studio.

The details:

• As announced by the two companies this week, Colossal Order will hand development duties for Cities: Skylines 2 to Iceflake Studios after they "mutually decided to pursue independent paths.” The partnership lasted for over 15 years and saw Paradox and Colossal Order release a total of four games together. “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,” Paradox wrote in a statement. “The decision was made thoughtfully and in the interest of both teams - ensuring the strongest possible future for the Cities: Skylines franchise.”
• Colossal Order will remain on the project until 2026, releasing its final few updates addressing bugs, quality of life improvements, and adding new content such as Old Town buildings and the long-awaited “Bike Patch.” Once those updates are available to the public, Iceflake will take on all development responsibilities beginning in the new year.
• This split comes after the disastrous launch of Cities: Skylines 2 in 2023, which followed several delays, with Paradox even issuing a warning ahead of its release about its performance issues. When the title arrived, it was plagued with bugs and struggled heavily with stability, resulting in key features being pushed back, such as the inclusion of official modding support, which is expected to arrive in beta form before the end of 2025.