Cities: Skylines 2 Publisher Has Bad News About the Game’s…

Summary

Cities: Skylines 2 will not have mod support at launch, but Paradox promises that the wait will be worth it.
The decision to use a proprietary modding platform called Paradox Mods instead of established solutions like Steam Workshop is to ensure inclusivity across PC and consoles.
The development of Cities: Skylines 2's mod support is currently in closed beta, and the game won't directly support mods from its predecessor due to an entirely new codebase.

Cities: Skylines 2 won't have mod support at launch, Paradox Interactive has revealed. This confirmation arrived as part of a wider update on the Cities: Skylines sequel that also saw its publisher vow that the wait for the game's mod support will very much be worth it.

Originally released in 2015, Cities: Skylines is still touted as one of the best city builders of all time. That's in no small part thanks to its extensive support for modding that elevated Colossal Order's title from a compelling management sim to an incredibly expansive experience with near-infinite replay value.

And while its sequel will be looking to build on that momentum, it won't support third-party content at launch, Paradox has announced. That's in no small part due to the way modding will work in the upcoming game; instead of offering community modifications via established frameworks like the Steam Workshop, which is how Cities: Skylines handled mods, its follow-up will use a proprietary content platform called Paradox Mods. Although the same service was previously integrated into over a dozen other Paradox-published titles, its support for Cities: Skylines 2 will still necessitate some additional development efforts that will prevent it from being available on day one.

Paradox cited "inclusivity" as the main reason for the decision to circumvent established solutions like the Steam Workshop and Nexus Mods in favor of a proprietary modding platform for Cities: Skylines 2. Elaborating on that point, the publisher revealed that serving community content via Paradox Mods will allow it to offer such modifications across both PC and consoles. In contrast, only the PC version of the original game allowed modding. There are currently no plans for the city builder to support alternative mod platforms, presumably so as to drive the adoption rate of Paradox Mods.

The publisher also revealed that the Cities: Skylines 2 mod support is currently in closed beta. As part of this stage of development, the feature has been rolled out to some established third-party content creators who are now working on beefing up the game's selection of modifications, Paradox said. The fact that Cities: Skylines 2 uses an "entirely new codebase" means that the upcoming game won't directly support any mods developed for its predecessor.

Paradox also acknowledged that the developers at Colossal failed to achieve the initial performance benchmark they targeted, which was also reflected in the recent decision to raise the game's system requirements. And while that turn of events signals that Cities: Skylines 2 might not offer the most optimized performance at launch, moving ahead with its 2023 release was still deemed as "the best way forward," the publisher said. As a reminder, Cities: Skylines 2 was initially targeting a multi-platform launch on October 24. However, that date is now only valid for the PC version of the game after Colossal and Paradox delayed the console ports of Cities: Skylines 2 back in September.

Cities: Skylines 2 launches October 24 for PC, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S ports being slated to release June 30, 2024.