Cities Skylines is one of the best building simulators you can play right now. Released in 2015, it still draws the attention of many people worldwide looking to prove just how easy it is to create a city that fixes the problems of their own. But with each new add-on, Cities Skylines 2 release date speculation follows. Here's what we know so far.
Down below, we'll outline and round up every bit of Cities Skylines 2 information we can find. Whether they're rumours, confirmed inclusions, or worthwhile educated guesses, we'll include them and our out own opinions to further the conversation.
And while you are here, make sure to check our list of the best free multiplayer games. Also, we have a list of the best free open world games. We've also added our thoughts around Starcraft 3 release date speculation and New World 2 speculation.
Cities Skylines 2 news
Rumors about Cities Skylines 2 largely appeared in the middle of 2021. The cause? A data leak from Nvidia suggested a new Cities Skylines game was set for a 2022 release. The information appeared on Reddit and quickly spread, but it still hasn't materialized into a new game.
Colossal Order hasn't expressly denied the rumours, however, leading us to shift expectations to 2023 and beyond. There's no official confirmation about a Cities Skylines 2 release date in any of this, but the game title being included in a Nvidia database (likely for game-ready driver support) is enough to suggest it's far enough into development to be on the GPU developer's radar for future support. And until Colossal Order say otherwise, we'll continue to expect it.
- Check out: Team Fortress 3 release date speculation
Since the leak, however, Cities Skylines has continued to get major and minor DLC, suggesting work on the hit continues. September saw the release of the Plazas and Promenades expansion, with plenty more radio add-ons, Content Creator packs, and the Financial Districts mini-pack rounding out the year we thought would usher in a sequel.
The most likely scenario is that Cities Skylines 2 will be announced in the last quarter of 2023 and released in the first quarter of 2024. With Cities Skylines getting console ports, a VR version, and an improved version of both in recent years, it's hard to imagine them dropping the game in favour of a sequel so soon after the branching success of the series.
Top five we want to see in Cities Skylines 2
The modding community has already managed to bring much of their proposed improvement for Cities Skylines 2 into this one, but there are still features we'd like to see brought into the default package.
Region play
Surprisingly, one of the most widely requested things for Cities Skylines 2 is the Region play feature from Simcity 4.
Region play might sound pretty strange for people who are not big fans of building games. It's basically the idea of managing multiple cities that can grow and trade with each other on a single save. Rather than just having bigger cities in the next, multiple in tandem is the dream.
More rural areas
Rural areas in Cities Skylines often feel forgotten about. Therefore, in Cities Skylines 2, people want to have a tighter focus on agriculture and the development of rural areas. Smaller, local airports, more meaningful supply chains, and more rural buildings come to mind.
Graphic updates
It is impossible to ignore the fact that Cities Skylines looks more outdated every year. In Cities Skylines 2, people expect to see graphic changes that can significantly improve the image. Also, a perfect option is to switch from Unity to another, more progressive game engine that will guarantee developers more capabilities. Even though it requires a lot of time and effort, it will definitely find feedback among the fans..
Free DLC
Though you won't have to spend quite as much as a stack of Sims 4 packs to 'complete' your Cities: Skylines collection, the cost of its near-decade long support is starting to balloon.
If there's one thing that stops people from playing a game again, it's having to start over or spotting all of the things they won't be to use without opening up their wallet yet again.
Not locking new, key features behind paywalls would be great. Maybe they could just offer new building styles and smaller things like radio stations to those willing to pony up the extra cash.
That’s it with the release of Cities Skylines 2. Even though the game is yet to be officially confirmed, the Nvidia leak has us thinking it truly exists. It might just have had a pandemic postponement push it back to 2023-2024. While you are still here, make sure to check our list of the best free simulation games.
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