Cities: Skylines 2's first DLC went down so badly it's free now, and the city builder devs have delayed the next expansion to focus on fixing everything else

Cities: Skylines 2 is still having a very rough time, to the point where every player who bought the recent Beach Properties DLC will soon be offered compensation, and its devs are delaying the Bridges and Ports Expansion as well as the console release of the base game.

Sadly for fans of the city builder, complaints surrounding Cities: Skylines 2 are hardly new, as when it launched on PC last year, it was heavily criticized for its performance issues. Unfortunately, six months on, the team behind it has now issued an apology regarding its recent Beach Properties Asset Pack, which launched last month, tempting players to experiment with waterfront buildings such as beachfront cottages. However, with an 'Overwhelmingly Negative' rating on Steam, it's clear to see that it didn't go down well, with many players expressing frustration about the lack of content included. 

In a new forum post, the CEO of developer Colossal Order, Mariina Hallikainen, and the deputy CEO of publisher Paradox Interactive, Mattias Lilja, say the team "rushed out a DLC" in an attempt to make up for the disappointment surrounding the base game. It says: "We asked for your patience and support, and you’ve shown those. In return, we let you down.

"We thought we could make up for the shortcomings of the game in a timeframe that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that should not have been published in its current form," it states. "For all this, we are truly sorry. When we’ve made statements like this one before, it’s included a pledge to keep making improvements, and while we are working on these updates, they haven’t happened at a speed or magnitude that is acceptable, and it pains us that we've now lost the trust of many of you. We want to do better."

Continuing, the team explains that along with changing the Beach Properties DLC's pricing to be free (although it's still $9.99 at the time of writing, and it's not clear when exactly this is planned to change), those who bought it will be