Will Cities Skylines Survive?

[Paddy]

Are we looking at end of a short lived franchise? With one of the most broken games Paradox have ever released. Broken performance, broke economy, no simulation, lifeless city it all this proves that Skylines 2 is NOTHING more than a map painter. There are mobile games with more depth than this. Can this franchise be redeemed or do you believe they got too big too fast and let greed pull them down into the slime?

[Jage]

Yes

[Paddy]

Originally posted by Jage:

Yes

Do you think that after the glitter of this shiny new game settles down even those with rose tinted glasses will be forced to recognize how shallow this game is?

[poida84]

Yes

[mrxak]

If they get their acts together quickly enough and actually deliver what they promised with performance that people were expecting, it'll be another comeback story we tell our grandchildren about, but also the third game will probably not do as well as it could have if they nailed this from the start, and they really only will get one do-over with this franchise. If the third game has a bad launch too, that's probably it for them.

Only way we'll find out what will happen is by waiting. But I suspect the waiting period before it's past the point of no return is pretty short. The kind of people who play these sorts of games don't seem especially forgiving. Just look at the SimCity franchise. The best thing people can do now is give honest feedback about exactly what the problems are and what expectations they had from the company's advertisements.

[Jage]

Originally posted by Paddy:

Originally posted by Jage:

Yes

Do you think that after the glitter of this shiny new game settles down even those with rose tinted glasses will be forced to recognize how shallow this game is?

Yes

[Paddy]

Originally posted by mrxak:

If they get their acts together quickly enough and actually deliver what they promised with performance that people were expecting, it'll be another comeback story we tell our grandchildren about, but also the third game will probably not do as well as it could have if they nailed this from the start, and they really only will get one do-over with this franchise. If the third game has a bad launch too, that's probably it for them.

Only way we'll find out what will happen is by waiting. But I suspect the waiting period before it's past the point of no return is pretty short. The kind of people who play these sorts of games don't seem especially forgiving. Just look at the SimCity franchise. The best thing people can do now is give honest feedback about exactly what the problems are and what expectations they had from the company's advertisements.

Agreed. if these issues aren't ironed out in the coming weeks i don't see this franchise coming back. They may still redeem themselves but they will have burnt too many who will be forever weary of this developer.

[orinocco]

I certainly hope it does survive. I had high hopes for this. Sadly they have been dashed.

I have been highly critical on a number of threads here and deservedly so. Paradox deserve all the ordure that is currently being thrown at them as well. If they sort it out and flesh it out from the bare bones it is now, then maybe, just maybe they will be able to salvage something from this debacle.

They better hope the modding goes down well. If that tanks, God help them. If they get too greedy when it comes to DLC, (Which I think they will. They just can't help themselves IMHO), then that could well be the final undoing of this as well. Paradox have hacked off a good many people putting this out in this state. I suspect many people are getting sick of being taken for mugs by them.

As I have said elsewhere in these forums, if this does bomb, and I really hope it doesn't. This game had such potential; then Paradox only have themselves to blame. Outright greed and cynicism is not a good look.

[Gentoo]

It isn't a good launch, but the OP is a tad overdramatic. I've seen much much worse than this. The game is playable for most people and enjoyable for at least a few hours (when it does start to get dull when you realize the economy system is pretty thin). It isn't what was promised, so is a big dissapointment, but it isn't the worst ever, or even close to that.

[Muzzup]

ummm are you just seeking attention ? , get real this game is the best builder despite a an un-Optimized launch , it can and will be fixed easily enough . go play roblox kid

[Ezze]

Originally posted by Paddy:

Are we looking at end of a short lived franchise? With one of the most broken games Paradox have ever released. Broken performance, broke economy, no simulation, lifeless city it all this proves that Skylines 2 is NOTHING more than a map painter. There are mobile games with more depth than this. Can this franchise be redeemed or do you believe they got too big too fast and let greed pull them down into the slime?

Generally paradox has been know to always release x1000 dlc's ... but I like some of thier games like Crusaders kings and City Skylines, but this City Skylines seems broke af at the moment.

[mrxak]

Originally posted by Muzzup:

ummm are you just seeking attention ? , get real this game is the best builder despite a an un-Optimized launch , it can and will be fixed easily enough . go play roblox kid

The problems go a lot deeper than optimization. The simulation they sold the game on isn't real. It's a bunch of smoke and mirrors. Somebody went into the trouble of covering it up, so it's not just a bug.

[briansterling81]

As negative as I have been on here, I don’t think it is the end. In 6-9 months they will finish the game but I won’t hand out trophies then for something that should have been fixed BEFORE selling it as a finished game.

[mrxak]

Originally posted by briansterling81:

As negative as I have been on here, I don’t think it is the end. In 6-9 months they will finish the game but I won’t hand out trophies then for something that should have been fixed BEFORE selling it as a finished game.

The recovery, if they do it, will probably go like this:
1. Rapid-fire performance patches and crash fixes over the first month. At least one a week to get the game in a playable state for most people who meet the minimum requirements.
2. Full mea culpa on the lack of simulation that they promised, and a commitment to actually deliver in a big future patch.
3. Actually release the big patch that implements the basic core of the game that they promised, probably no later than six months. Sooner would of course be better.
4. Some free new assets in the base game delivered as a thank you, and to make up for the lack of visual interest and variety in buildings.
5. Continual improvement in all areas for at least two years.

If they pull that off, people will forgive and forget. If they're slow about it, and they instead try and sell solutions with paid DLC, it's going to turn people off for good.

[tcassat]

The franchise is likely to survive.

Of course we have examples of franchises that were giants, like Sim City, dying because of completely stupid decisions made by suits who can't see anything beyond a few numbers on a few graphs. CS2 was certainly a victim of these same "suits", look for example how they're forcing the mods into a controlled environment that will inevitably diminish their potential. But I think that Cities Skylines, while suffering from the same problem as Sim City, is in a more comfortable situation.

Some reasons:

1. the community surrounding the first game is huge (thanks to the mods), and that in itself will guarantee that the first game will survive long enough while the developers try to fix the second game.

2. Cities Skylines 1 isn't much of a great simulation, it's not much more than a map painter, at least the vanilla version, so it's not like the fact that SC2 is pretty shallow is a deal breaker.

3. the fan community of the game is kinda fanatical, it's a bit of a meme in fact, everyone knows that on the Paradox forums you find a lot of weirdos who confuse electronic entertainment with their personality, and you can easily see this in the CS2 reviews on Steam, one of the worst games ever released on the platform (considering AAs or AAAs), with more than half of the consumers satisfied, even though the game is unplayable for most of them, as you can see in the reviews they wrote.

These things add up and give the series resilience, which is why I think it will survive. However, if my initial predictions are correct, it will take about 2 years for the game to become playable, and by then the vast majority will realize that CS1 is the better option, and that will be a dangerous thing for CS2, because the developers will have to spend a lot of time and money on it, while the fan base will be focused on a game that theoretically no longer generates revenue for the devs...

[jdrake5839]

After the last update, every performance issue I've had is completely gone. I'm playing in 1080p not 4k so I don't know if it's better for everyone else but it went from playable but noticeable to great in that regard. As for the gameplay, I certainly agree that the economy is a bit wonky but it's not that bad, just needs a few tweaks. I love CS1 and have hundreds of hours on it, even with all the DLC / creators packs and tons of DLC, I still don't see myself ever going back to 1 after playing 2. I think the 'franchise' will be just fine.