Theory About Why Cities Skylines 2 was Released Before It Was Ready

I have no excuses for playing computer games but it is the best way I know to procrastinate.  And when you have problems that you really can not solve no matter how hard you work, then what could be more appropriate than to dig your own grave a little deeper by wasting time with a game?  

What could it hurt?

So I was excited to get the second version of Cities Skylines, the current leading city simulation game.  I knew from the forums that all was not well in Paradise with CS 2 and they were right.  I really wonder if I can charge Paradox for testing their game for them.  

Here is a short list of what I find annoying and which feels like bugs to me.  This list is not comprehensive, many other people have identified many more problems than what is listed here. In no particular order:

1. Many neighborhoods are plagued with buildings being abandoned for no particular reason that I can see.  You have to go in by hand and bulldoze these buildings or it will lower the property values of the neighborhood.  The abandoned buildings never seem to get recycled on their own that I can tell.

2. It would not be possible to survive the first 15 or 20 levels of the game without extensive government subsidies.  Things are just too expensive until, suddenly, you are profitable.  But even then things are not all well because profitability seems to fluctuate wildly.

3. There never seems to be much demand for the more advanced buildings like apartment buildings and so forth.  You are pretty much stuck with suburban neighborhoods.

4. Service buildings are very expensive until you suddenly become wildly profitable.  Advanced buildings in each area are priced completely out of reach.  

5. The radio is very repetitive and, worse, just wrong.  For example, it is always complaining about power outages when there is plenty of power and water shortages when there is plenty of water.

6. People are always complaining about lack of health care even when there seems to be plenty of health care.

7.  The transit systems are totally manual.  There are never any trams, or cargo trains or anything else unless you explicitly create routes for them.  This gets tiresome.  Also the UI for trams and buses makes it hard to tell where track is laid when creating routes.

8. There used to be many more special buildings which are useful for attracting tourists and beautifying neighborhoods.

9. All the fun of watching people use the subways and buses seems to be gone.

10. But the best bug of all is that if you save your game, restart the program, and restore the game then 3 times out of 4 you will be promoted to the next level.  It beats working.

So, two things.  Why did they release this anticipated sequel before it was ready?  And is the original game really that much better.  My guess for the former is that they had to get the game out there by Christmas because that is when so much of the money in the game business is made and so they rushed it.  Or maybe they were under contractural obligations.

And finally, is the first game that much better.  So I tried playing it after maybe a year absence and yes, it is much better.  It has challenges and I may not be the best player, but one is a mature and interesting city simulation and the sequel is just a buggy piece of software that is not ready for prime time.