Cities: Skylines 2 New Hotfix Removes The Offensive Radio Ad

Cities: Skylines 2 hotfix 1.0.12f1 rolls out today on Steam. The update is all about making the game run smoother by adding a variety of balance enhancements, bug fixes, and optimization tweaks. Along those, Colossal Order has now removed a potentially offensive radio ad from the game. The Spasm Electronics radio ad caught the devs in fury for its triggering content. However, thanks to hotfix it has been erased for all now.

For those unfamiliar, the ad in question from the city-builder game runs for 30 seconds and features a person talking on the radio where their voice changes to heavily robotic with constant repetition of the word “spasm.” Many fans thought the robotic voice sounded like a person having a seizure, and the word “spasm” itself was an offense to people suffering from the said issue. Many just considered it unpleasant.

Spasm is inoffensive
byu/AzemOcram inCitiesSkylines

As for now, the in-game ad and all the related posts from the Cities: Skylines subreddit have been removed, and updated with the latest patch. However, if those, who were yet to cross paths with the potentially triggering ad are curious about the content, a player has had it uploaded on their YouTube. 

The latest hotfix also comes with a bunch of tweaks and fixes. The update decreases the resolution of unnecessarily large characters. The fix helps players with low-memory graphic cards. Moreover, to help the game run faster on your GPU, the update will render small objects after big ones. To help the players cash the most in the game, Colossal has brought several tweaks for the companies by improving their profit. The developers have also addressed the game crashing bugs. 

Like many other games this year, Cities: Skylines 2 couldn’t launch to an ideal reception. Moreover, the developers’ prior warning about performance issues left fans frustrated with yet another “release now, fix later” pattern. However, the devs have actively been addressing the complaints, rolling out two hotfixes, and a commitment to weekly updates from the CEO herself. 

For those not in the know, the Colossal Order Chief Executive has posted the first among her promised weekly updates, reaffirming the studio’s dedication to prioritizing performance updates.

The performance improvements and bug fixes take top priority until we have reached a level we are satisfied with. All the performance improvements will benefit the development of the console platforms and we hope to bring the game to Xbox Series X/S and PS5 as soon as possible,” says Colossal Order’s CEO. 

The city-building sim was released on October 24, 2023, for PC. A port for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 is scheduled for launch in the spring of next year. In eXputer’s review, Asad rated the title 3.5/5, calling it an unfinished mess marred by optimization pangs and lackluster content.