Cities: Skylines 2 boss says they 'completely overestimated' the Unity engine's capabilities

Cities: Skylines 2 boss says they ‘completely overestimated’ the Unity engine’s capabilities | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these City Builder Cities: Skylines 2’s new developer breaks cover on its plans for the sequel’s future, revealing a patch that will include changes players ‘have been requesting for a long time’ City Builder Cities: Skylines 2’s new developer celebrates the occasion with a debut patch all about death, making citizens pop their clogs around the clock and removing immortality in easy mode: ‘Previously, about 80% of them never died of old age’ City Builder You can play Cities: Skylines for free this weekend, ahead of the launch of its first expansion in 2 years Roguelike Slay the Spire 2 is one of the year’s biggest hits, which is a good time to remember it abandoned Unity because of the dev fee debacle: ‘That is how badly you f****d up’ Assassin’s Creed Former Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry director says Ubisoft ‘became very allergic’ to new games, which contributed to a ‘talent drain’ Assassin’s Creed Former Assassin’s Creed director doesn’t think the current way of making big budget games is ‘tenable’: ‘I think the future lies in smaller teams’ The Elder Scrolls Skyrim’s co-lead designer says Starfield’s main problem is that it never fully cohered as a game: ‘It was a releasable game, but it wasn’t the best’ Gaming Industry Amidst high profile live service failures, Arc Raiders production director says he hopes other studios are ‘given the same chance we had, because it’s so hard to put a game out’ FPS Deus Ex: Invisible War wasn’t what it should have been because the studio moved to an engine that was really built for Thief: ‘A super-boneheaded call, very bad decision… it really tanked development’ City Builder Manor Lords’ dev is experimenting with a new trading system that allows for ‘deliberate economic strategies’, including establishing monopolies on resources RPG Clair Obscur’s famously small (but not that small) developer isn’t interested in becoming less not-that-small: ‘I think it’s good to have limitations when you are creative’ RPG Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 failed to meet expectations for Obsidian, but Grounded 2 was a hit, and the future is looking positive for the Pillars of Eternity universe Adventure ‘It’s a damn miracle we were able to salvage Hytale,’ original co-founder and new owner Simon Collins-Laflamme says: After years in development at Riot, ‘it was barely playable’ FPS Former Highguard dev who called out grave-dancing over the reveal trailer says the discourse ‘had some very dark corners that may have accelerated the timeline of our failure,’ but adds, ‘it wasn’t the primary cause’ RPG Skyrim’s lead designer thinks Bethesda should stick to its in-house engine: ‘The benefits that you get from switching to Unreal Engine are probably not going to materialise until two titles down the road’ PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!MarathonGDCBest PC gearQuizzes Games Sim Cities: Skylines 2 Cities: Skylines 2 boss says they ‘completely overestimated’ the Unity engine’s capabilities News By Christopher Livingston published 18 March 2026 “Our mistake was to bank on something that was not yet proven,” says Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen. 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Subscribe to our newsletter In the wake of Cities: Skylines 2’s shaky launch and mixed reception, developer Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive have parted ways, with a new dev, Iceflake Studios, stepping in to continue patching the city builder.The issues with Cities: Skylines 2 ranged from poor optimization to an absence of modding support to a perceived lack of features (at least when compared with the original) to its Bridges & Ports expansion being delayed for more than a year.At least some of Skylines 2’s struggles both during development and post-launch were due to the Unity engine the game is built on, according to Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen. “We completely overestimated the engine’s capabilities at the beginning of the project,” Hallikainen said when we talked earlier this month.Article continues below You may like Cities: Skylines 2’s new developer breaks cover on its plans for the sequel’s future, revealing a patch that will