Colossal Order (company)

Colossal Order is a Finnish video game developer known for its business simulation game series Cities in Motion and for its city-builder Cities: Skylines.[2][3][4][5] The company was founded in Tampere, Finland in 2009. Its publisher is Paradox Interactive.[6] Paradox tests, markets, sells, distributes, and owns the intellectual property of all games by Colossal Order.[7] The CEO of Colossal Order is Mariina Hallikainen.[8]

Colossal Order
TypePrivate
IndustryVideo games
FoundedJune 2009 (June 2009)
Headquarters
Tampere
,
Finland
Key people
Mariina Hallikainen (CEO)
Number of employees
30[1] (2022)
Websitecolossalorder.fi

History

Colossal Order was founded in the summer of 2009 by a group of game developers of the mobile game company Universomo. Mariina Hallikainen was hired from outside of Universomo as the CEO of the new company.[7]

At first, Colossal Order had difficulties obtaining funding for its first game, the business simulation game Cities in Motion, that was already in development when the company was founded.[7] Investors thought that Cities in Motion would not attract a large enough clientele. Instead of big investors, the first steps of the company were funded by Finnish public instruments – Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, Tekes, and DigiDemo finance of the Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture – as well as small private investors.[6]

In its early phase, the company was coached by the Yritystalli program of the Tampere University of Technology,[7] but advice was sought directly from experienced Finnish game development companies as well, specifically Remedy Entertainment and Frozenbyte.[6] Upon being founded, Colossal Order compared dozens of publishers and ended up signing a publishing agreement with Paradox Interactive after over a year's worth of negotiations.[7]

In October 2015, Colossal Order was awarded the Finnish Game Developer of the Year (Finnish: Vuoden suomalainen pelinkehittäjä) award at the DigiExpo convention. The judges thanked Colossal Order for focusing: "from its inception ... on – in addition to developing games – also developing its business model".[9]

Games

The relationship between Colossal Order and its publisher Paradox Interactive has been characterized as constructive. Colossal Order has the freedom to create games without limitations set by the publisher, bar those on schedules.[6]

Unlike the game developers that founded it, Colossal Order does not develop mobile games.[6] Instead, the company focuses on PC games.[9] Employees of the company have their own internal wiki platform for developing games.[10] Games by Colossal Order are known for their active modding communities.[10] One of the programmers at the company works full-time on modding tools.[11]

The best-known game of the company[12] is the city-building game Cities: Skylines published on March 10, 2015. It competes with games of the SimCity and Cities XL series.[13][14][15] Cities: Skylines got its first expansion pack, After Dark, on September 24, 2015. Its second expansion pack, Snowfall, came out on February 20, 2016.[14] A third expansion pack, Natural Disasters, was released on November 29, 2016, the fourth expansion pack, Mass Transit, on May 18, 2017.[16] The fifth expansion, Green Cities, came out on October 19, 2017, and the sixth expansion, Parklife was released on May 24, 2018. The seventh expansion, Industries, was released on October 23, 2018, and the eighth expansion, Campus, was released on May 21, 2019.[17] The ninth expansion, Sunset Harbor, was released on March 26, 2020.[18] The tenth expansion, Airports, was released on January 25, 2022.[19] The eleventh and most recent expansion, Plazas and Promenades, was released on September 14, 2022.[20]

Cities: Skylines II was announced on March 6, 2023 and is set to release on October 24, 2023.[21][22]

List of games
Year Title Publisher Platform(s)
2011 Cities in Motion[2][5][23] Paradox Interactive Windows, MacOS, Linux
2013 Cities in Motion 2[3][5][24]
2015 Cities: Skylines[4][25] Windows, MacOS, Linux, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PS4, PS5, Switch, Stadia
2023 Cities: Skylines II[26] Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S, PS5

References
  1. Calvin, Alex (13 July 2022). "12m sales and counting: What's behind Cities: Skylines' building success?". Gameindustry.biz. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  2. Quintin Smith (5 January 2011). "Some Impressions: Cities in Motion". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on 8 April 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  3. John Walker (15 August 2012). "On the Buses: Cities in Motion 2". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  4. Alec Meer (10 March 2015). "Wot I Think: Cities: Skylines". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on 11 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  5. "Company". Colossal Order. Archived from the original on 7 March 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  6. Mika Sorvari (17 March 2011). "Esittelyssä Colossal Order" [Introducing Colossal Order]. Gamereactor Finland (in Finnish). Gamez Publishing A/S. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  7. Eskelinen, Päivi (19 May 2011). "Vakavasti mukana pelibisneksessä" [Seriously in with the Games Business]. Rajapinta (in Finnish). Tampere University of Technology. 2011 (3). Archived from the original on 22 November 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  8. Barton, Seth (July 2018). "Tomorrowland". MCV. No. 937. Future Publishing. pp. 44–17.
  9. "Cities: Skylines toi vuoden suomalaisen pelinkehittäjän palkinnon" [Cities: Skylines earned the Finnish Game Developer of the Year Award]. Tivi (in Finnish). Archived from the original on 31 October 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  10. Peel, Jeremy. "How Colossal Order touched the clouds: the making and success of Cities: Skylines". PCGamesN. p. 1. Archived from the original on 27 August 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  11. Wordsworth, Rich (21 May 2015). "Cities Skylines: Built this city on mods and coal". Redbull. Archived from the original on 22 November 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  12. "Colossal Order liittyi Rovion ja Supercellin joukkoon" [Colossal Order Joined Rovio and Supercell] (in Finnish). Markkinoint&Mainonta. 30 October 2015. Archived from the original on 16 February 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  13. "Cities In Motion". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  14. "Colossal Order". IGN. Archived from the original on 7 March 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  15. "Cities In Motion". Dome. 16 February 2011. Archived from the original on 25 March 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  16. Purchase, Robert (18 August 2016). "Natural Disasters are coming to Cities Skylines in a new expansion". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 19 August 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  17. Jones, Alison. "University is Coming to Cities: Skylines". Invision Game Community. Archived from the original on 14 March 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  18. "Cities: Skylines - Sunset Harbor DLC is on the Horizon for PC and Console". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  19. "The new Cities: Skylines expansion is all about big modular airports". pcgamer.com. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  20. "Cities Skylines' Plazas and Promenades expansion out now on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC". Eurogamer.net. 14 September 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  21. Cities Skylines II | Announcement Trailer I (YouTube Video). Colossal Order. 6 March 2023.
  22. Wilde, Tyler (11 June 2023). "Cities: Skylines 2 looks amazing". PC Gamer.
  23. Jon Michael (22 March 2011). "Cities in Motion Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  24. Leif Johnson (11 April 2013). "Cities in Motion 2 Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 17 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  25. Robert Purchese (11 February 2015). "Cities Skylines release date revealed". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 12 February 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  26. Steam (6 March 2023). "Cities Skylines II on Steam". Steam. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
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