As Paradox Interactive recovers from the troubled launch of Cities: Skylines 2, the company is returning to the first game in the series, which it had apparently abandoned more than a year ago, with paid DLC.
Last May, 18 months ago for those who count, Paradox Interactive seemed to have closed the door on the long Cities: Skylines roadmap with what was supposed to have been the city builder's last major update and mini-expansion. At the time, the company said it was shifting its focus to Cities: Skylines 2, but that plan didn't go so well.
The much-hyped sequel launched with technical problems so glaring that they overshadowed basically everything else in the simulation. However, months of patches and fixes haven't completely cured all of Cities: Skylines 2's ailments, as its first DLC also suffered from similar issues and was eventually made free due to fan backlash. Most recently, developer Colossal Order delayed all planned DLC for the sequel (some packs were delayed more than a year past their original release windows) to work on the game's most pressing issues first.
Hot on the heels of all that drama, Paradox Interactive is now returning to its most assured success. Cities: Skylines (The First) just received three new nature-themed paid DLC packs. The Mountain Village Pack and Map Pack 3 focus on “mountain peaks and alpine terrain”, while Radio Station Alpine Tunes brings new songs.
“We also want to assure those of you playing Cities: Skylines 2, that the development of this new content for Cities: Skylines is a completely separate effort,” the publisher explained in its announcement blog. “The content you'll find in this version of Cities: Skylines has been implemented by Tantalus, the studio that managed the console ports for Cities: Skylines. No resources were diverted from Cities: Skylines 2 for this; our friends at Colossal Order remain fully focused on developing and improving Cities: Skylines 2. This focus allows us to release some updates without compromising any of the games.”
The editor of Cities: Skylines 2 says players are “less accepting” of games “fixing things over time” these days.