Cities: Skylines creators Colossal Order are handing the series over to the Surviving The Aftermath devs

And saying goodbye to Paradox after 15 years of collaboration

Cities: Skylines developers Colossal Order are moving on from the city building series and parting ways with publishers Paradox Interactive, after 15 years of collaboration. They're handing Skylines over to one of Paradox's in-house teams, Surviving The Aftermath developers Iceflake Studios, who will take over "all existing and future development for Cities: Skylines 2", spanning free updates and paid expansions.

Colossal Order will chip in a few final Cities: Skylines 2 updates before they depart for greener pastures. These include the addition of some bikes and Old Town buildings (coming 19th November), Creator packs and radios (December 3rd​), and a few "general improvements" or bug fixes. They're also putting together a beta for asset mods in the game's editor, to launch before the end of the year. Iceflake are grabbing the reins from the start of 2026. Presumably, they'll also be making Cities: Skylines 3, if such a project ever comes to pass.

All that's from an announcement post on the Paradox forums. There's also a FAQ which offers a tiny bit more background. Colossal Order are departing to "work on new projects and explore new creative opportunities", while Iceflake - whom Paradox bought in 2020 - bring "strong experience in simulation and city-building games" and have demonstrated "the creativity, technical expertise, and passion needed to take on the development of Cities: Skylines".​

We never final-reviewed Surviving The Aftermath, but Nate (RPS in Peace) wasn't blown away by the early access build, commenting that "although the model they've put in place is plenty of fun, I couldn't in good conscience say there was anything strikingly unique about it - at least not yet."

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In fairness, Cities: Skyline 2 fared even worse at launch in 2023. Sin called it "a standard-bearer that ought to have higher standards", concluding that the game "offers little that feels substantially new or improved enough to warrant a sequel". The game launched in a shonky state, with Paradox baldly confessing that they knew the performance was dodgy before launch, but underestimated how much players would care.

RPS hardware boffin James found the performance to be "considerably less terrible" as of April 2024, but many patches later, Skylines 2 still has a mixed user review reception on Steam as of writing.

All in all, you might be disposed to read Paradox's promise that Cities: Skylines 2 will retain the same "core identity" after Iceflake takes over as a negative. "While every studio brings its own development style, our shared goal is to continue evolving the game in a way that stays true to its foundation," the FAQ goes on.