Paradox announce "revolutionary" Cities: Skylines 2 for later this year

Cities: Skylines turns 8 years old next week, so Paradox are celebrating with a special announcement: a new Cities: Skylines. As part of today’s Paradox Announcement Show, the publisher revealed their urban management sequel Cities: Skylines 2, coming from the studio behind the first game, Colossal Order, is coming later this year.

The original Cities: Skylines launched in 2015, and it’s received substantial post-launch support since then, with dozens of DLC packs and updates hitting the game. Paradox Interactive’s CEO Fredrik Wester called the first game a “profound success”, it having sold 12 million copies since launch, with 5.5 million players joining the city last year alone.

Colossal Order’s CEO Mariina Hallikainen says “we’ve brought the years of experience we’ve gained to take a new step forward in the city builder genre, again.” The team calls Skylines 2 the “most realistic city simulation ever created,” pointing to some of the deeper features available in the sequel. Skylines 2 will have more advanced modding tools, additional options for construction and customisation, and “fully-realised transport and economy systems.”

Our review for the first Cities: Skyline said it was, “very much the traditional yet hyper-modern city-builder that everyone’s been crying out for.” Since then, its roads have expanded into many of RPS’s ‘best of’ lists including the best management games on PC, the best worst neighbourhoods on PC, and a definitive ranking of the greatest video games from the 2010s - not available for debate.

Paradox say we can learn more about the sequel “in the coming months,” but in the meantime, we can celebrate the original’s 8th birthday on March 10th. Cities: Skyline is £25/$30/€30 on Steam and it recently joined Game Pass, too.