New developers of Cities: Skylines 2 have started patching the game with deaths in the virtual city.

New Developers of Cities: Skylines 2 Start Patching the Game with Deaths in the Virtual City

The city-building simulator Cities: Skylines 2 has received its first major patch from the new developer studio Iceflake Studios, which replaced Colossal Order at the end of 2025. And the debut turned out to be thematically grim: the First Frost update is almost entirely dedicated to overhauling the mortality system.

It turned out that city residents were dying incorrectly — due to a bug, most deaths occurred strictly between midnight and six in the morning, and rare calculations of indicators led to mass send-offs to the afterlife. Now the game calculates mortality 16 times more often to avoid simultaneous deaths of citizens.

The main surprise affected the easy mode: previously, about 80% of the population effectively became immortal, but now "eternal life" has been revoked — citizens age and die naturally again.

The patch also reduces bicycle usage by 80%, adds new interface icons, updates the tutorial for beginners, and improves graphics — lighting, shadows, snow, and weather effects. Finally, more than two years after release, autosave has been enabled by default.