Cities: Skylines 2's new developer celebrates the occasion with a debut patch all about death, making citizens pop their clogs around the clock and removing immortality in easy mode: 'Previously, about 80% of them never died of old age'
PC Gamer
by Rick Lane February 22, 2026
AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary
Cities: Skylines 2 has received its first major update since transitioning to a new developer, Iceflake Studios, with a debut patch titled *First Frost*. While fans might have hoped for bold new features or improvements, the updateInstead focuses heavily on refining death mechanics in the game. This includes fixing bugs that caused citizens to die at odd times and removing immortality in easy mode, which previously meant 80% of them never aged or died of old age. The patch also increases the frequency of death calculations from four to sixteen times per day, aiming to spread out deaths more naturally and reduce clustering.
The update addresses a peculiar bug where citizens often expired between midnight and six in the morning due to time-of-day miscalculations. Additionally, it reduces cycling trips by 80%, shifting focus away from mobility and toward mortality. Beyond these tweaks, *First Frost* introduces new UI icons for traffic systems, improves tutorials, makes terraforming less aggressive, and enhances graphics with better shadows, snow support, and weather-dependent fog. The patch also finally enables autosave by default, a feature players have long desired.
While the update doesn’t bring major overhauls or new gameplay mechanics, it significantly improves game balance and realism. These changes aim to create a more challenging yet fairer experience for players managing their virtual cities. The patch has already received positive feedback, with Steam reviews jumping to 67% positive from an overall 54%. This
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Originally published on PC Gamer on 2/22/2026