Colossal Order

This article is about the video game developer. For the architectural order, see giant order.
Colossal Order
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games
FoundedJune 2009; 15 years ago (June 2009)
Headquarters
Tampere
,
Finland
Key people
Mariina Hallikainen (CEO)
Number of employees
30[1] (2022)
Websitecolossalorder.fi

Colossal Order is a Finnish video game developer known for its business simulation game series Cities in Motion and for its city-builder series Cities: Skylines.[2][3][4][5][6] The company was founded in Tampere, Finland in 2009. The developer is closely linked to Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive,[7] which tests, markets, sells, distributes, and owns the intellectual property of all games by Colossal Order.[8] The CEO of Colossal Order is Mariina Hallikainen.[9]

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.[8]

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.[8] 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.[7]

In its early phase, the company was coached by the Yritystalli program of the Tampere University of Technology,[8] but advice was sought directly from experienced Finnish game development companies as well, specifically Remedy Entertainment and Frozenbyte.[7] 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.[8]

In October 2015, Colossal Order was awarded the Finnish Game Developer of the Year (Finnish: Vuoden suomalainen pelinkehittäjä) award at the DigiExpo [fi] convention. The judges thanked Colossal Order for focusing: "from its inception ... on – in addition to developing games – also developing its business model".[10]

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.[7]

Unlike the game developers that founded it, Colossal Order does not develop mobile games.[7] Instead, the company focuses on PC games.[10] Employees of the company have their own internal wiki platform for developing games.[11] Games by Colossal Order are known for their active modding communities.[11] One of the programmers at the company works full-time on modding tools.[12]

The best-known game of the company[13] is the city-building game Cities: Skylines published on March 10, 2015. It competes with games of the SimCity and Cities XL series. A total of 14 expansion packs, 22 content packs and 23 music packs were released for the game.

Cities: Skylines II was announced on March 6, 2023 and released on October 24, 2023 for Windows.[14][15] Console versions of the game were delayed until Q2 2024.[16]

List of games

Year Title Publisher Platform(s)
2011 Cities in Motion[2][5][17] Paradox Interactive Windows, MacOS, Linux
2013 Cities in Motion 2[3][5][18]
2015 Cities: Skylines[4][19] Windows, MacOS, Linux, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PS4, PS5, Switch, Stadia
2023 Cities: Skylines II[6] 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c "Company". Colossal Order. Archived from the original on 7 March 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  6. ^ a b Steam (6 March 2023). "Cities Skylines II on Steam". Steam. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d e Mika Sorvari (17 March 2011). "Esittelyssä Colossal Order" [Introducing Colossal Order]. Gamereactor Finland (in Finnish). Gamez Publishing A/S. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  8. ^ a b c d e Eskelinen, Päivi (19 May 2011). "Vakavasti mukana pelibisneksessä" [Seriously in with the Games Business]. Rajapinta (in Finnish). 2011 (3). Tampere University of Technology. Archived from the original on 22 November 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  9. ^ Barton, Seth (July 2018). "Tomorrowland". MCV. No. 937. Future Publishing. pp. 44–17.
  10. ^ a b "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.
  11. ^ a b 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.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ "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.
  14. ^ Cities Skylines II | Announcement Trailer I (YouTube Video). Colossal Order. 6 March 2023.
  15. ^ "Build Your World Without Limits in Cities: Skylines II, Available Now on PC - Paradox Interactive". paradoxinteractive.com. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  16. ^ "Cities: Skylines II - Update on Console Release Window". Paradox Interactive Forums. 28 September 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  17. ^ Jon Michael (22 March 2011). "Cities in Motion Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  18. ^ Leif Johnson (11 April 2013). "Cities in Motion 2 Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 17 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  19. ^ Robert Purchese (11 February 2015). "Cities Skylines release date revealed". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 12 February 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2015.