Last week, Cities: Skylines 2 developer Colossal Order released an in-game radio ad that it found offensive. Now, the engineering manager has questioned some of the reactions from the public.
Colossal Order used a hotfix to remove the ‘Spasm Electronics’ ad from the in-game radio stations after members of the community objected to its sounds, which they said resembled the sound a person would make when being held.
It’s fair to say that fans of the newly released city builder had their opinions about the decision, but for Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen some reactions have gone too far. In a post on Steam, Hallikainen asked players to stop attacking other community members, and even the developers themselves, because of this pulled ad.
“We want City: Skylines 2 to be accessible to everyone, so we decided to remove that radio ad,” said Hallikainen. “However, I was surprised by the manner of the conversation. The best part of the Cities: Skylines community has been how helpful and kind its members have been to each other, and we hope to see that continue with Cities: Skylines 2.
“I would like everyone to remember that when they join public discussions. I would urge everyone to leave constructive criticism and remember that if there is a problem with the game it is not appropriate to attack a fellow community member or select developer or Colossal Order partner. We read all feedback and are more inclined to give polite feedback (including criticism) back to the dev team. You can be part of a good community if you choose.”
Elsewhere, Hallikainen said that Colossal Order is looking to eliminate bugs in the garbage aspect of the game, with a particular focus on balance.
The next installment of Cities Skylines 2 will also improve stray dogs, which are probably the most prevalent in the game. “Their number is adjusted so that we don’t end up with a lot of abandoned dogs all over the city,” explained Hallikainen. “Newlyweds should immediately accept their partner’s dogs into the family and not leave them behind. The plans to fix this problem quickly caused a debate over whether we should turn this bug into a feature. I personallyat
Perhaps more importantly, Hallikainen vowed not to release new paid DLC for Cities Skylines 2 until the developer fixes the game’s outstanding performance issues “to our standards”.
“As a small team, we must focus on the work that has been done to avoid spreading too thin,” said Hallikainen, before promising to deal with the players’ suggestions, such as the addition of improvements to the quality of life that existed in the first game. but they were missed in the sequel “due to priorities and time constraints”.
“My promise to you is that the Colossal Order will continue to work on Cities: Skylines 2 to reach its full potential,” said Hallikainen.
In the month leading up to the launch of Cities: Skylines 2 Paradox has announced that the Xbox Series X|S and PS5 versions of the game have been delayed to spring 2024. to allow developers more time to match “quality and performance across platforms.”
Minimum and recommended PC specifications have also been raised to accommodate “next-generation” game features, as well as to allow for a “better player experience”. In the following joint statement the developer of Colossal Order and the publisher Paradox agreed they “didn’t win the benchmark” aimed at launch performance on PC, but stuck to the planned release date anyway.
Despite the warning, Cities: Skylines 2 surpassed 100,000 concurrent players on Steam on launch day as it soared to the top of the storefront bestseller chart. However, many of these players were left frustrated by the game’s poor performance shown earlier, as well as the number of bugs, resulting in a ‘mixed’ user score that at the time of writing the city builder sits at a positive 56%. to measure.
Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or privately at wyp100@proton.me.
