Cities: Skylines 2 community is getting more toxic, CEO bemoans

Colossal Order is back from the holidays

Colossal Order, the developer of Cities: Skylines 2, has returned from the holidays – and that includes the weekly blog posts by the company’s CEO Mariina Hallikainen on the state of the game. In her first address of 2024 she reiterated that mod support was the highest priority for everyone on the team at the moment, but that upgrades to stability and performance of the upcoming console version were progressing in parallel.

Hallikainen stated that another patch would be released ahead of the mod editor’s release with a focus on fixing the simulation and visual errors. However, a large part of the blog covers the topic of toxicity in the community, which has been getting worse since the controversy around Cities: Skylines 2’s launch last year.

The weather conditions in the Cities: Skylines 2 community are still stormy :: Colossal Order / Paradox Interactive

“Last but not least, we have seen a growing tendency of toxicity in our community, something we have not experienced to this extent before. Not only directed towards our devs but also our fellow community members – resulting in people hesitating to engage with the community,” the CEO wrote. She warned that this development could have negative consequences in the long term for the entire community, as it could “discourage creativity and modding, something we would be very sad to see.”

Another concern is the mental health of the people working on Cities: Skylines 2. “We have always treasured having the devs present on the different social platforms and having direct communication with the community, but our biggest responsibility will always be protecting the team and making sure they work in a safe environment so they are allowed to do their best staying motivated and productive,” Hallikainen wrote. She called for the community’s help to allow the developers “to be able to stay and be continuously active.”

Hallikainen hasn’t touched on this topic for the first time in this latest blog entry, as she herself admitted. Since previous attempts at calming the community down failed, she asked for users’ opinion on what steps should be taken next: “Should we add more moderation or is the only option to pull back our engagement on our end? How can we make sure the community is a safe place for you to share your thoughts and hopes for the game?”

It’s a pretty clear message this time around: Behave in an acceptable manner or we won’t be able to keep talking to each other – which is totally reasonable, given the climate online.

2024 is going to be an important year for the city-builder: It will be launched on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, where it hopes to get a better start than on PC, will finally receive the long-awaited mod support, and get additional content from its delayed DLC roadmap.

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