The Way Forward, an update from the team behind Cities: Skylines
forum.paradoxplaza.com
TL;DR:
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They apologized (again)
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They will refund everyone who bought the beach DLC and make it a free addition to the game, admitting it was tasteless that they made paid DLC when the game is in a broken state
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They will focus on base changes and better modding tools before starting to make more DLC (previously announced DLC has been delayed to 2025)
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Console release delayed
Honestly, this is a good update. It's everything we wanted to hear. Looking forward to buying the game when it gets fixed.
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It's the kind of decision you make when you run out of cash to keep funding development.
Paradox and Colossal Order have said they literally ran out of cash?
No, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
Everyone ran out of cash in this industry. Investment dried up, and they knew what state their game was shipping in. That doesn't mean you're wrong to be upset as a consumer either.
Paradox is extremely healthy.
If we're both going to be speculating here, I'm going with the more likely consideration for a publisher with record performance. In early August, they saw an early access game get its full release in an unfinished state to massive acclaim and sales (along with similar, larger trends) and decided to test their market with the same.
I don't even have a dog in this fight; I'm not a city management sim fan. I'm just calling it like it is.
And perhaps that health is because by that point they already started releasing multiple games far too early for a cash injection, one of which ended with them cutting Harebrained Schemes loose. I'm also calling it like it is. I don't see healthy companies sacrifice their long term fan base and development throughput for short term gains. It smells a whole lot like trying to stop the bleeding. As for assigning The Chinese Room to sequel a beloved RPG, I don't even know where to start there.
New to Capitalism?
No, hence my conclusions.
You've never seen a corporation sacrifice its long-term health to report short-term profits, to meet an upcoming quarterly report?
Ever?
I've never seen one I would call healthy.
Well, most people believe that all publicly traded corporations, healthy or otherwise, only focus on their next quarterly report profits, and that long-term strategy and growth goals are rarely if ever considered.
Granted, I'd much rather live in your world than mine, but I don't think you're correct on this one.
You don't see Take Two shoving GTA6 and Judas out the door for profits now, for instance. Paradox abiding by the same MO to burn good will for multiple games and then getting developers off their books is a move you make when you're out of better options.
And all the other corporations out there?
Remember your stance was that all healthy corporations would never sacrifice long-term health for short-term profits.
You're not really addressing my point, but instead skirting around it...
Our original disagreement was on if a healthy corporation would focus on the quarterly profits over long-term goals in the same way that an unhealthy corporation would. Your stance was that any healthy corporation would not.
Correct. We've seen tons of layoffs in this industry because their business models weren't healthy. So they'll make cuts, or push out games like Cities: Skylines II or Skull and Bones when they're not ready or will do long-term damage to their brand because they need to take the least bad option, but meanwhile, Take Two and Nintendo can push back marquis products another few quarters because they've got a moat of security around themselves. At times, those companies were not, and one day will not be, healthy, but then they sacrificed or will sacrifice something or other in order to survive to be healthy another day.