Game publisher Paradox Interactive has split with Colossal Order, the studio behind Cities: Skylines II. Colossal Order, which also made the original Cities: Skylines back in 2015, will move on to something new after completing a few last updates. The intellectual property will remain with Paradox, which said today that work on Cities: Skylines II will be moved to Iceflake Studios. The Finland-based internal team will be responsible for all development, including future content updates and the long-awaited console version, starting in 2026.
The move comes after about two years of trying to salvage the citybuilding sequel and the reputations of all parties. While the game was initially expected to debut in October 2023 on PC and consoles, the launch was limited to PC, with higher minimum specs than previously announced and with a lot of bugs. The ongoing issues caused tension and toxicity between Colossal Order and the Cities: Skylines audience. Although the game has reached a more stable state, new content has been slow to arrive and there is still no sign of a console launch as the studio exits their project.
Prison Architect 2, set to launch in September, has been indefinitely delayed, with the studio behind the game also announcing that it will refund customers who pre-ordered the prison building sim. It’s yet another road bump for publisher Paradox Interactive following the cancellation of a Sims-like game in June.
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Originally released in 2012 on PC, Prison Architect lets players build and maintain large prisons filled with criminals and guards. The original game received updates for years and was even ported to consoles and mobile devices. In 2019, Paradox Interactive purchased the franchise from original developers Introversion Software, and in 2024 announced a full, 3D sequel. However, the game was delayed earlier this year. And now, it’s been delayed again with no new release date.
On August 2, Paradox and developer Kokku announced that Prison Architect 2 was no longer arriving on September 3. In a post on the official Paradox forums, the devs explained they “need more time to improve both the game’s performance and its content.”
Paradox Interactive
The studio and publisher also added that they “can’t commit” to a new release date or window as they are re-assessing the “scope of work needed to be done before the game is release-ready.” It also warned that communication between the team and fans will be limited until they feel more “comfortable” showing the game and talking about a release timeline.
As a result of this indefinite delay, Paradox Interactive is refunding all pre-orders on all platforms and has pledged to include all previously promised pre-order digital items in the base game.
In a Q&A included with the announcement, the studio and Paradox stressed that Prison Architect 2 isn’t canceled.
It also doesn’t help that Paradox has had a string of failures and misfires over the last year or so. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, first announced in 2019, was nearly canceled after multiple delays and a developer swap in 2023. The Lamplighter’s League was an expensive flop. And Cities: Skylines 2 launched in such a poor state that Paradox was forced to stop all DLC plans so the devs could focus on fixing the city builder.
Even Prison Architect 2 had some issues before this delay, with the original studio—Double Eleven—leaving the project over a financial disagreement with Paradox, leading to the publisher swapping the team out for Kokku in 2024.
It hasn’t been a great week for Paradox Interactive, and things just got a little worse for the publisher. It has announced another delay for Prison Architect 2, the sequel to a cult hit from 2015. The game had been set to drop on May 7 (which was already ) but now it won’t arrive until September 3.
Though builds of Prison Architect 2 had been certified for all platforms, the developers at Double Eleven ran into some technical problems that will take some time to resolve. Some issues concerning memory usage and minimum spec configuration failures emerged. Although the team says its work on fixing those have been successful so far, some other technical challenges started popping up, leading to significantly more crashes.
Double Eleven will use the extra development time to improve the prison management sim’s stability and to refine some of its features. Paradox says it will also take the opportunity to let players get a look inside the development process via additional developer diaries and streams. A stream is set for April 25.
Paradox notes that console players who pre-ordered will automatically be refunded due to platform policies — they’ll need to buy Prison Architect 2 again to get a pre-order bonus. Steam players can request a refund if they wish.
The Prison Architect 2 delay comes one day after studio Colossal Order said it would refund all players who bought the first asset pack for Cities Skylines 2, another game Paradox is publishing. While the asset pack (which will be ) worked, there appeared to be a consensus among fans that there wasn’t enough in there to justify the $10 price. There are bigger issues at play though, as Colossal Order has more work ahead to optimize Cities Skylines 2 . The studio has also delayed the console release and other DLC as it focuses on fixing the core concerns.
