Cities: Skylines 2 coming this year: 'the most realistic city simulation ever created'

Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order just made it official: a sequel to 2015 urban city builder Cities: Skylines is headed our way.

And although we don't have a ton of details about Cities: Skylines 2 yet, apart from a brief statement from the publisher and the cinematic announcement trailer you can see above, we won't have to wait all that much longer to play it. A specific release date hasn't been announced, but Cities: Skylines 2 is coming out in 2023. Hey, I know that year. That's this year!

"Cities: Skylines 2 offers the most realistic city simulation ever created, in which players can build any kind of city they can imagine and follow its growth from a humble village to a bustling metropolis," says Paradox Interactive. "From individual households to the city's economy and transportation system, Cities: Skylines 2 offers a deep and immersive simulation that welcomes both new and veteran players."

Describing its next city builder as "revolutionary" and "the most open-ended city-building sandbox on the planet," Paradox says "Cities: Skylines 2 lets players create and maintain cities that come to life like never before, complete with fully-realized transport and economy systems, a wealth of construction and customization options, and advanced modding capabilities."

That's a lot of vague press release buzzwords, but it's hard not to be excited for the sequel, especially since it's coming so soon. Following the disastrous launch of EA's SimCity in 2013, Cities: Skylines quickly and successfully filled the urban city builder gap. After releasing in 2015 it sold over 12 million copies and dominated the city builder genre. The community has kept busy, too, creating more than 100,000 custom maps and buildings and tens of thousands of other mods for the builder.

There are already lots of interesting city builders coming in 2023, especially in the medieval and survival genres, but a big, brand new urban city builder from Paradox and Colossal Order is cause for excitement. There's no release date or price yet, but in the meantime you can check out the official Cities: Skylines 2 website.

PRODUCTS

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.