Iceflake Studios now holds the future of Cities: Skylines

Iceflake Studios entered 2026 with one of the biggest responsibilities a management-game developer could inherit.

Cities: Skylines.

For more than a decade, that name had been closely associated with another Finnish developer, Colossal Order.

Colossal Order created the original Cities: Skylines, developed its sequel and worked with Paradox Interactive across the wider Cities series.

Then the relationship ended.

In November 2025, Colossal Order and Paradox announced that they would pursue separate paths. Development of the Cities: Skylines franchise would move to another studio.

That studio was Iceflake.

From the beginning of 2026, the Tampere-based developer assumed responsibility for existing and future development of Cities: Skylines II. That includes free updates, Editor work, console development, expansions and content packs. Colossal Order Ltd

That would be a significant assignment for any studio.

For Iceflake, it represents the culmination of almost two decades spent working on management and strategy games.

Iceflake Studios started long before Cities: Skylines II

Iceflake was founded in 2007.

The studio is based in Tampere, Finland, and today describes itself as a developer specialising in city-building and management games. paradoxinteractive.com

Its history stretches across PC, consoles, mobile and VR.

That matters because Iceflake’s arrival as the new Cities developer can otherwise appear surprisingly sudden.

It wasn’t.

The studio had already accumulated years of development experience before Paradox brought it into its internal development organisation.

The relationship between the two companies would ultimately begin with another management game.

Surviving the Aftermath brought Iceflake and Paradox together

Before Iceflake inherited cities filled with commuters, traffic and municipal services, it built a colony filled with survivors.

Surviving the Aftermath is a post-apocalyptic colony-management game.

Players establish a settlement following a global catastrophe and need to manage resources, buildings, colonists, exploration and threats.

The game entered Early Access in 2019.

More importantly for Iceflake’s development history, the studio worked closely with its players throughout that process.

Paradox described the game as being co-developed alongside its community, with regular updates incorporating player feedback. paradoxinteractive.com

That relationship continued throughout Early Access.

By the time version 1.0 approached, the game had received 20 major updates alongside smaller patches. paradoxinteractive.com

Managing a game while thousands of players actively test its systems teaches a studio something particularly useful.

Players will find everything.

Paradox bought Iceflake in 2020

The collaboration evidently worked.

In July 2020, Paradox Interactive acquired Iceflake Studios.

The Finnish developer became Paradox’s ninth internal studio at the time. paradoxinteractive.com

Paradox specifically pointed towards the two companies’ experience working together on Surviving the Aftermath.

The acquisition also expanded Paradox’s internal expertise and development capacity within management games. paradoxinteractive.com

That detail becomes particularly interesting several years later.

Iceflake was not acquired specifically to become the Cities: Skylines developer.

However, Paradox was already interested in the exact development expertise that would eventually make Iceflake relevant to the franchise.

Surviving the Aftermath became a long-term management project

Iceflake continued developing Surviving the Aftermath after joining Paradox.

The game reached version 1.0 in 2021. paradoxinteractive.com

Development continued afterwards.

New Alliances expanded interactions between societies.

Shattered Hope introduced additional challenges around resource production and colonists’ hope.

Rebirth added environmental restoration and terraforming systems. paradoxinteractive.com

That gave Iceflake experience maintaining and expanding an interconnected management simulation after launch.

It also established the studio firmly inside Paradox’s management-game portfolio.

Then a much larger opportunity appeared.

Colossal Order and Paradox ended a long partnership

To understand Iceflake’s current position, the history of Colossal Order cannot be ignored.

Colossal Order and Paradox worked together for more than a decade.

Their partnership produced four games and dozens of expansions, while the Cities community grew into millions of players. Colossal Order Ltd

The relationship included Cities in Motion, its sequel, Cities: Skylines and eventually Cities: Skylines II.

Then, on 1 November 2025, the companies announced a major change.

They had mutually decided to pursue independent paths.

Colossal Order would move towards new projects.

Paradox would retain the Cities franchise and place its future development somewhere else.

Iceflake Studios would take over.

Iceflake inherited more than future DLC

The scale of that handover deserves attention.

Iceflake did not simply receive responsibility for making an occasional expansion.

It took over all existing and future development for Cities: Skylines II.

That includes:

• free updates
• ongoing game development
• Editor work
• console editions
• expansions
• content packs Colossal Order Ltd

Colossal Order remained involved long enough to deliver several final updates, including work around bikes, Old Town buildings, bug fixes and Editor asset support.

Then responsibility shifted.

From the beginning of 2026, Cities: Skylines II became Iceflake’s game to develop.

Taking over somebody else’s city is different from building your own

Developing an established game creates a particular challenge.

Iceflake did not start with an empty project.

It inherited systems created by another developer.

Simulation.

Traffic.

Economy.

Buildings.

Road tools.

Public transport.

Utilities.

Citizens.

Editor technology.

Modding infrastructure.

Console work.

Expansion plans.

Then there is the community.

Cities: Skylines players have spent years learning how these systems behave.

Some players understand individual mechanics at an extraordinary level.

Taking over that development therefore requires more than learning the code.

Iceflake needs to understand the expectations surrounding it.

Studio Manager Lasse Liljedahl acknowledged the scale of that responsibility when the transition was announced, describing taking over the Cities franchise as both an honour and a significant responsibility. Colossal Order Ltd

Iceflake also inherited Cities: Skylines II’s unfinished business

The transition came at a complicated point in the sequel’s history.

Cities: Skylines II already existed.

Players already had expectations.

The Editor still required development.

Console editions remained part of the work.

Additional updates were needed.

Future expansions were planned.

Iceflake therefore did not receive the luxury of spending several years quietly developing a completely new Cities game before introducing itself.

It entered an existing development cycle.

That means the studio’s first task has been continuity.

Understand what exists.

Maintain it.

Improve it.

Then start building something new.

The handover has already moved into original development

By September 2026, the transition had moved beyond simply maintaining Colossal Order’s work.

On 15 September, Paradox and Iceflake released Expansion Pass 2 for Cities: Skylines II.

Paradox described the release as Iceflake’s first expansion pass since taking over development and its first wave of original content for the game. paradoxinteractive.com

The pass includes an immediate Downtown Market Set alongside future expansions, creator packs and a radio station.

That milestone is important.

The beginning of 2026 was about inheriting Cities: Skylines II.

The second half of the year is increasingly about seeing what Iceflake intends to do with it.

Then LEGO Skylines changed the story again

Cities: Skylines II is not the only city-building project now occupying Iceflake.

At gamescom Opening Night Live in August 2026, Paradox Interactive, Iceflake Studios and the LEGO Group announced LEGO Skylines. paradoxinteractive.com

The new game takes city building into the LEGO universe.

Players begin with a small plot and gradually develop a living city.

Iceflake is developing the project.

Paradox is publishing it.

That announcement makes the studio’s new position much clearer.

Iceflake has not merely been assigned maintenance duties for Cities: Skylines II.

It is becoming a studio associated directly with the Skylines identity.

LEGO Skylines gives Iceflake something Cities: Skylines II cannot

Taking over Cities: Skylines II means inheriting another studio’s foundations.

LEGO Skylines provides a different opportunity.

Iceflake can build something new.

The game can still draw on years of city-building experience, but it does not begin with the same technical and community history surrounding Cities: Skylines II.

That gives the studio two very different city-building challenges.

One requires stewardship.

The other requires creation.

The projects may ultimately tell us considerably more about Iceflake than either could individually.

Management games are increasingly becoming Iceflake’s identity

Iceflake’s official description now explicitly says the studio specialises in city-builder and management games. iceflake.com

That description makes sense.

Surviving the Aftermath asks players to manage a settlement and its inhabitants following catastrophe.

Cities: Skylines II operates at metropolitan scale.

LEGO Skylines takes city building towards a more playful, customisable direction.

The themes differ.

The underlying development challenge is familiar.

Create interconnected systems.

Give players control.

Make those systems understandable.

Then allow unexpected situations to emerge from their interaction.

Being part of Paradox matters

Iceflake’s position inside Paradox also separates this transition from simply handing Cities: Skylines II to another external contractor.

Iceflake has been an internal Paradox studio since 2020. paradoxinteractive.com

TechnologyBlog’s Paradox Interactive profile explores the publisher’s wider position across strategy, simulation and management games.

For Cities, that internal relationship potentially simplifies long-term coordination.

The franchise remains under Paradox leadership.

The development studio now sits inside the same organisation.

That does not guarantee that every development challenge disappears.

Cities: Skylines II remains a complicated simulation with a demanding community.

But the organisational relationship has fundamentally changed.

Iceflake now needs to establish its own Cities identity

For years, saying Cities: Skylines developer meant Colossal Order.

That association will not disappear overnight.

Nor should it.

Colossal Order created the franchise and spent more than a decade developing it.

Iceflake’s responsibility is not to rewrite that history.

It needs to write what happens next.

That process has already started.

Updates are continuing.

Editor work remains part of development.

Console work remains part of development.

Expansion Pass 2 has begun introducing original Iceflake content.

LEGO Skylines creates another branch of the wider city-building portfolio.

The handover is over.

The stewardship has begun.

Why Iceflake Studios matters in 2026

Iceflake Studios entered 2026 with an enormous inheritance.

It leaves the year looking increasingly like one of Paradox’s central city-building developers.

The journey did not begin with Cities.

Iceflake was founded in 2007.

It built experience across platforms.

Surviving the Aftermath established a close relationship with Paradox.

Paradox acquired the studio in 2020.

Years of management-game development followed.

Then the Cities franchise needed a new home.

Paradox chose Iceflake.

That decision handed the Finnish studio responsibility for one of modern PC gaming’s most recognisable city-building franchises.

It also created an unusual moment.

Cities: Skylines has a history.

Colossal Order built that history.

Iceflake does not need to pretend otherwise.

Its job is more difficult.

It needs to decide what comes next.

And in 2026, we are beginning to see the answer.