Cities: Skylines developer Colossal Order is being taken off Cities: Skylines II after publisher Paradox Interactive announced they’ve parted ways.

Both Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order have “mutually decided to pursue independent paths” and the decision to stop working together was made “thoughtfully and in the interest of both teams.” The goal is obvious, to ensure “the strongest possible future for the Cities: Skylines franchise.”

While the game will be managed by Colossal Order until the new year, its new developer, Surviving the Aftermath team Iceflake Studios, will take over “all existing and future development.”

Paradox describes Iceflake as one of their “internal management game studios”, who are based in Tampere, Finland. Iceflake opened their doors in 2007 and got acquired by Paradox more recently in 2020.

“Taking the reins on a genre-leading franchise like Cities is an immense honor and a great responsibility,” said Iceflake Studios manager Lasse Liljedahl. “There’s a huge, loyal community out there and I want to say to every member of that community that we will humbly carry this legacy with respect, together with all of you.”

Iceflake may not have been working on Survive the Aftermath for as long as Colossal worked on Cities: Skylines, though Liljedahl was keen to note they have “a decade worth of experience from making city building and management games.”

Cities: Skylines II was originally released back in 2023 for Windows PC (via Steam), though its console ports have been consistently delayed. The sequel had immense expectations considering how wildly popular the first game was, and its initial release has had issues, delays on updates, and more.