Paradox is releasing a new DLC for Cities Skylines. But players are furious on Steam: They want no content for an old game, but rather improvements for the sequel.
What was presented? Publisher Paradox has introduced a new DLC for its city-building game Cities Skylines called “Shops of Shibuya Bundle”. On Steam, they published a post about it.
However, the post has not been well received: As of now (September 13, 9 AM), the post has received nearly 500 comments, and many are criticizing Paradox’s actions. Many are demanding improvements for the sequel.
This is what the user CyberSyns complains:
Paradox, this is insulting. How about you fix City Skylines 2 first before you crawl back and try to exploit the larger player base of this game?
Cities Skylines 2 is still a major construction site 2 years after release
What is the problem with Skylines 2? Cities Skylines 2 was released as a successor on October 24, 2023, and will soon celebrate its 2nd anniversary. However, players are not in a celebratory mood, as the state of Skylines 2 is still quite poor. Initially, it was mainly severe technical problems and a broken AI that plagued Skylines 2.
However, many of the mentioned problems still exist today: Looking at the current reviews on Steam, one can see that the state hasn’t really changed. The game currently has over 77,000 reviews on Steam and is rated “Mixed” (52% positive).
A player who has spent over 400 hours in Cities Skylines 2 explains (via steampowered.com): “In summary, Cities Skylines 2 had so much potential but ultimately failed to realize it.”
New DLC for predecessor not well received
Players’ reactions to the announcement of the new DLC have been less than positive: Many feel misled and are upset about Paradox’s decision to invest time and effort into a DLC instead of fully focusing on fixing the issues of the soon-to-be 2-year-old sequel.
Are there any positive remarks? Yes, there are also people trying to smooth things over, explaining that no developer is behind the new content. Someone writes (via steamcommunity.com):
These DLCs were not developed by Paradox or Colossal Order. They come from content creators whose work we all know and appreciate. This content was created by modders and is a good way to support their work.
I understand that CS2 is an embarrassing game and that the announcement of new DLCs does not sound particularly positive, but in this case, we should not let these community members, who have long provided their work for free, go without getting anything in return. This also goes for CS1.
What’s behind it: Publisher Paradox and developer Colossal Order have been offering DLCs for Cities Skylines for some time now, which consist of content created by developers from the community. The new DLC “Shops of Shibuya Bundle” is also another community product.
The idea behind it is quite clever: With such DLCs, community mods and projects can be monetized, allowing both the community and the developer to benefit.
A professor of educational sciences wanted to investigate the relationship between personality and depressive disorders and complex problem-solving skills. To see these skills in action, the study participants were to play the city simulation Cities: Skylines. In the game from Finnish developer Colossal Order, the goal is to build a highly efficient functioning metropolis: An 8-year-old city builder on Steam is so complex that it can be used for psychological studies.
