Cities: Skylines 2's first big expansion delayed yet again as studio seeks to "add more depth"

Cities: Skylines 2 players are facing yet another delay for the beleaguered city builder’s first major DLC expansion, with publisher Paradox Interactive having announced a new release window of “Q4” this year – closing in on two years after it was originally due to launch.

Cities: Skylines 2’s troubles are well documented; the city builder sequel got off a disastrous start in 2023, forcing developer Colossal Order to reprioritise its development efforts amid significant criticism of the game’s performance. Initially, the studio had planned to release its first DLC – the Beach Properties Asset Pack – shortly after launch, but it was delayed into the following year, while all other announced DLC (the Urban Promenades and Modern Architecture Creator Packs, and the Bridges & Ports expansion) shifted from Q1 2024 to Q2.

Unfortunately, the Beach Properties’ eventual arrival did little to improve the community’s goodwill; it was slammed by players for its high price and lacklustre content, leading Colossal Order to announced an ‘indefinite’ delay for all future paid DLC. Bridges & Ports was moved into 2025 as a result, but a further delay was announced last September, while Colossal Order focused its efforts on completing what it called the “crucial” assets editor.

In the months since, Colossal Order has continued to make improvements to the base game and launched some free “region” DLC. But that “crucial” assets editor remains unreleased, and now the studio has opted to delay Bridges & Ports yet again, moving it out of Q2 this year into Q4. “We’ve spent the last five months working hard on the Bridges & Ports DLC, and towards our upcoming expected release,” the studio wrote in a message shared on the Paradox forum. “After reviewing the content ourselves and sharing it with our early access group, we’ve received consistent feedback: the bridges are super exciting, and the port works well, but there are aspects of the expansion that are not as polished as they could be.”