Colossal Order announced that it will no longer be working on Cities: Skylines 2. Iceflake Studios will handle its post-launch support and development.
I didn’t know games could choose to be made by new developers
No, game’s aren’t alive and cannot choose anything. The higher-ups at publisher and IP owner Paradox Interactive can, however.
Usually these things happen at Microsoft when they shut down studios, like what happened with Essemble Studios (Age of Empires, Halo Wars) and Double Helix Games (Killer Instinct).
Age of Empires is a bit different, because I don’t think they’ve moved the same game around between different studios in the midst of development. ES got shut down in 2009, with all existing Age of Empires games having long since ceased development. Then in 2013 Microsoft decided to release an HD remaster of the 1999 Age of Empires 2, and they brought Hidden Path on to do that. And then with the 2019 Definitive Edition they brought on board Forgotten Empires (who had also developed the official expansions in HD). The new development team in each case was being brought on to create a completely new release.
The KSP2 and Bloodlines 2 examples above both involved unreleased in-development games being given by the publisher to a different development team, and Skylines 2 is a still-supported game being given a different developer for future updates.
C:S2 (not to be confused with CS2) is not “mid development” in the usual sense either. It’s well post-launch. It is still being updated though, with new features added. The modern thing of launching games before they’re done has messed up how we speak about games.
I’ve heard of developers choosing to make new games, but I didn’t know games could choose to be made by new developers! Inspiring!
KSP2 comes to mind
Bloodlines 2 came to my mind. And it even has the same publisher as Skylines.
No, game’s aren’t alive and cannot choose anything. The higher-ups at publisher and IP owner Paradox Interactive can, however.
Usually these things happen at Microsoft when they shut down studios, like what happened with Essemble Studios (Age of Empires, Halo Wars) and Double Helix Games (Killer Instinct).
Age of Empires is a bit different, because I don’t think they’ve moved the same game around between different studios in the midst of development. ES got shut down in 2009, with all existing Age of Empires games having long since ceased development. Then in 2013 Microsoft decided to release an HD remaster of the 1999 Age of Empires 2, and they brought Hidden Path on to do that. And then with the 2019 Definitive Edition they brought on board Forgotten Empires (who had also developed the official expansions in HD). The new development team in each case was being brought on to create a completely new release.
The KSP2 and Bloodlines 2 examples above both involved unreleased in-development games being given by the publisher to a different development team, and Skylines 2 is a still-supported game being given a different developer for future updates.
C:S2 (not to be confused with CS2) is not “mid development” in the usual sense either. It’s well post-launch. It is still being updated though, with new features added. The modern thing of launching games before they’re done has messed up how we speak about games.
But yeah, you’re right.
Thanks Tips!