Cities: Skylines 2 Launch Slated for 2023: What Does That Mean?

Cities: Skylines 2 is coming! As you may or may not know, the editorial team here at 2Game has been all but certain that a new Cities: Skylines game was being made for the longest time. And then, out of the blue, Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order just dropped right in and plainly announced with no minced words: Cities: Skylines 2 launch is slated for 2023.

That's right - Skylines 2 is coming out this year! And despite the fact that we're yet to receive any official gameplay videos about the next installment of this detailed city builder, we thankfully already know a bunch of things about this seminal release.

Over the next couple of sections, we're going to share all this information with you, too, and theorize as to what that might mean in a practical sense! Naturally, Colossal Order is bound to provide more info as we go, so consider this article a bit of a starting point for the hype ahead. Let's get to it!

READ MORE: The Coolest Cities: Skylines Projects You Need to See

Could Cities: Skylines 2 Launch in 2023?

Right off the bat, it's important to note that, yes, Paradox and Colossal both claim that Skylines II Cities is coming out sometime this year! The very first announcement trailer for the game plainly says so, which is an extremely exciting prospect indeed. Now, we understand that some may find this to be a rather tall order, but it's worth highlighting the obvious fact that Colossal Order has been working on Skylines 2 for a good long while.

Back in 2020, in fact, we could help but discuss the theoretical possibility that the devs were already busy plugging at Cities: Skylines 2. We had a number of reasons to believe this was the case, too, and we recommend you give that article a whirl to get more context as to what's been going on.

Then, a whole two years after the article was published, we went into even more depth on what Cities: Skylines 2 may or may not be. Even with all those years coming and going, we couldn't help but think that something was up at Colossal Order. And now, we're all but certain that we were correct!

A 2023 Launch Window is Possible (and Probable!)

In other words, A 2023 launch window is not only possible and desirable, but also highly likely. Colossal Order can't have made such a huge city-building sandbox in less than a year, either, so it's been coming for a good long while. Quite probably for as long as 2Game has been anticipating its announcement, in fact! The only thing we couldn't have anticipated is how long the studio would keep this project under wraps.

With that out of the way, we do still have a bunch of information to go through, much of which could tell us what the game will end up being like. One last thing before moving on, though: Cities: Skylines 2 will be available via Game Pass on day one. Something to consider!

Is Cities Skylines 2 going to have DLC?

Just as the original Cities: Skylines massively benefitted from the DLC it received throughout its lifespan, it is pretty much guaranteed that Cities: Skylines 2 will also receive additional DLC. According to Colossal Order, "Once the PC version is where we want it to be, we will be focusing on the console release and DLC content".

Indeed, although we don't yet have exact release dates, we know that Colossal Order's artists and outsourcing partner are working on the first asset pack, Beach Properties, and we've been given a broad window for the following:

Asset pack: Q1 2024 (initially planned for Q4 2023)
Creator packs: Q2 2024 (initially planned for Q1 2024)
Medium expansion: Q2 2024 (no change)

We can't wait!

The Things We Know About Cities: Skylines 2

We'd call Cities: Skylines 2 exciting, but that doesn't really encapsulate the reality of the situation. This is - according to Colossal Order - "the most realistic city-builder - ever," which we can't help but expect out of this developer. From what we've been told so far, we should expect all the basics that were available in the first game, including all your usual city services and signature buildings, just vastly expanded upon!

The topic of DLC availability will be interesting, note. Cities: Skylines received substantial improvements through post-launch expansion packs, improving the city-building experience and allowing players to really make their residential districts flourish. The sort of stuff that the community's now come to expect out of a game of this caliber. It's not a big stretch, though, that Colossal Order is well aware of this. Cities: Skylines 2 gameplay improvements ought to include at least some of the original game's DLC features, we believe, though we'll need to wait and see how that pans out.

We've got plenty of questions about the Cities: Skylines 2 launch!

The truth is, though, that Colossal Order is yet to begin discussing the game in earnest at this time. While some features, like the infamous Chirper, are already confirmed, precious little is known about the core gameplay loop of this city builder. How important will the traffic be? What about parking? At the very least, we do know that there's no multiplayer - it's a good sign that the devs have got their priorities in order!

Cities: Skylines is Bound to Have Informed Its Sequel

One thing we haven't really seen discussed online is the fact that the first Paradox Interactive  Cities: Skylines is all but certain to have affected the development of its sequel. Specifically, the game's post-launch support and the community responses to what Colossal has been doing with it.

Over the past couple of years - during which C: S2 is sure to have been worked on - Colossal has produced and published a huge array of expansion packs for the original title. From the regular Content Creator packs all the way to massively important feature-laden Mass Transit or Industries X-Pacs, there's a wealth of experience present here. While it's impossible for Skylines 2 to be bigger than Skylines on day one, these old DLC packs may have given the devs some ideas on what needs to be present in the base game by default to allow you to get to experience how your city grows! I mean, one thing's for certain. Don't be surprised to see Cities: Skylines II pushing your creativity and problem-solving to another level.

The lack of competition may be curious, though

As excited as we are about Skylines 2, there's a big elephant in the room that needs to be considered, too. The original game did not launch in a vacuum. It was hugely affected by the previous failure of 2013's Sim City, and launched basically as a response to the city-building community at the time.

The funny bit, though, is that we haven't really had a serious new city-building title ever since Cities: Skylines first came out! It's a bit mind-boggling if you think about it. Colossal Order is a tried-and-true industry veteran, but we're curious to see how the studio handles such a relatively pressure-free environment. One thing we know for sure, though, is that Skylines 2 needs to push the genre forward. No one else will!

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