Cities Skylines 2 is announced and as a loyal Cities Skylines player, you should be interested in the game and its sequel. Below you can see our summary after extensive research we conducted. Confirmed information are separated and can be found in our article here. Keep in mind that despite my best efforts to gather all the information, I may have left something out.
Since we learned about C:S2 at Sumer Game Fest, we’d have to say that the latest leaks from June 4, in the form of the leaked images, were true. You could follow the new leaks that came after the announcement 🆕. The latest leaks from June 4 have icons 🆕 ➡️, as the developers uncovered.
More about Cities Skylines 2 in my summary article. In other articles, you can watch the trailer, reveal system requirements or look on the price. The release date is set for October 24, 2023.
At the same time, I’m a fan of the new Cities Skylines 2 and the city-building/simulation/strategy genre in general. So for me, it’s also about some research of what the game features can the game include. I’m not trying to bash the game, and if the developers of Colossal Order are reading this, you rock and I can’t wait for your next game!
Leaks about Cities Skylines on GeForce Now…
… it was September 13 2021, when a C++ developer named Ighor July got into the depths of the GeForce Now system through the launcher. And in these depths, he found several mentions of the next games. One of them was Cities Skylines 2 with a “release date” of early 2022.
I don’t know how accurate this leak might be in general. Probably, if I work on this product, I will store in the database some “false-positive” games that have to “fool” any potential leakers. Despite how unlikely these leaks may seem, this Reddit was actualized, and some games were really confirmed and are available now.
However, if the new Cities Skylines 2 is available on GeForce Now from the start, it will be good news for gamers with weaker PCs. And it will also give the developers a bit more freedom to make the game more hardware-intensive, I think…
Cities Skylines 2 rumours from 2019
These can be found on Reddit in the r/GamingLeaksAndRumours community. It is a question of who is the unnamed source and how accurate he/she can be. If we want to talk about the source itself, it shows some topics where CS2 will be different/more advanced than the current version…
… a thing like “country mode” could bring more complexity to game and more challenges for players who don’t want to build the prettiest cities. Let’s remember the latest EA SimCity. When I compare SimCity and Cities Skylines, I have to say that the possibility to have multiple towns on one map, that could eventually work as one big ecosystem, was great. But the “delivery” of this game feature was really bad.
The things mentioned above aren’t bad at all. More infrastructure is what the current version of Cities Skylines lacks the most in my opinion. I want to build a functional city to live in and buy other realistic cities. For that reasons, more depth might be great.
Leaks from testers from 2020
Another leak was probably from one of the testers who works for Paradox Interactive. If I work as a game tester, what would possibly motivate me to leak such information? The question here is whether we can trust the leaker or not.
In my opinion and from my experience, I don’t know how many leakers come from the testing teams. If I had the opportunity to work as a tester (and if I wanted to, I probably would) I wouldn’t want to leak information at all. Because I’d probably lose my job and have confidentiality issues, right?
But if this is from 2020, then is question is why won’t Paradox unveil Cities Skylines 2 sooner? The game features that were leaked will likely appear in the new Cities Skylines because they just make sense.
I don’t know why the progression tree, but thinking about it more, it might be a better way to extend the game even more and lead the players a bit more by the hand.
2021 and the big announcement which didn’t happen
In November 2021, there was an “update from Cities Skylines,” which teased us a lot, but it seems to me that their expectations were not met. After all, judge for yourself…
Hey there everyone! Let’s let the Chirper of the bag: we have a couple of announcements coming soon — like REAL soon!!
… and after this, the DLC Airports was announced. Sorry Colossal Order DLC Airports, but it’s not as important as having such an update like Cities Skylines 2. And since this update, we’ve got this new content in the game…
- Cities Skylines: Airports
- Cities Skylines: Map Pack
- Cities Skylines: Plazas and Promenades
- Cities Skylines: Financial district
… and yes. Some other content packages will also be available. However, let’s put our hands on our hearts and acknowledge that these are not such big projects that would perhaps require everyone’s work, right? I’d like to see some of the the team already working on CS2 or other similar games.
Source: Steam
Colossal Order asked for CS2 suggestions in 2022
This is not a leak itself per see, but a reaction from Colossal Order to a tweet asking for suggestions for a sequel to Cities Skylines. A lot of people have responded to that call since.
Does it mean they are working on a new version? No.
Could it be bait and just friendly community management? Yes, but…
…if they don’t want to know this information from others, why would someone work for PDX and respond with this answer? Nevertheless, the responses from the community are awesome and as it can be seen below, there are some great tips that could be integrated and solved in a new possible game.
There are most of the tips that were mentioned in the comments:
- Advanced road edit system
- More larger cities with more people
- Social systems
- Larger production chains
- Large events like Olympics or Summits
- Custom network systems
- Fine-tuned zonings to mix zones and buildings together
- Seasons, more realistic weather
- Rezone areas and lots other than square
- Parking system, realistic population
- More things that will grow with city
- Enough content to build realistic cities
- Integrating mods into the game
- Improved water, more things to create Amsterdam
- More scenarios
- People with their own lives and deeper simulation
- More realistic cars, smooth addition of lanes
- Larger maps and use of full maps
- Blueprint modes
- Procedural generation of buildings
- Political systems with law, voting, councils, departments
- Realistic traffic peaks
- Bicycle networks, mixed pathways, car-free cities
- Greater control of transfers between industry and commercial sector
- Different neighborhoods (systems, buildings,…)
- Unbundled use of cars in services and “last-mile” delivery
- Modular buildings / underground stations
- Public beaches and more entertainment content for residents
>> More wishes for Cities Skylines 2 <<
And one last response from CaptainHQ, who created a great visualization of the features:
And now let us leave you to think. The things above could be super great if they were in the game. I hope that the response from Colossal Order isn’t just friendly community guidance. I hope that they have a checklist of features that will be in the game, and are checking the game features they already have ready. And for the features they don’t have, I hope they at least thought of integrating them.
🆕 Early stage play experience from Biffa Plays Indie Games from August 2021
YouTuber Biffa Plays Indie Games has some experience testing Cities Skylines 2 in its early phases. Below you can watch his video in which he starts talking about his impression.
He didn’t say anything “spicy” to me. The only thing that is perhaps interesting is the fact that he could play because he is on the Content Creator Discord server. Moreover, he has NDA with Colossal Order.
They have room for comments and feedback on how the game works, and Colossal Order listens to them. The game looked newer and better. He gave tips primarily on usability and making it easier for new players to enter the game. And also on getting challenges.
🆕 Leaked achievements from the 2023 evening announcement
Another new source is TrueAchievements.com, which lists 40 achievements that will be available in the new Cities Skylines 2. The best of them are:
- Unlock 150 map tiles in a single city.
- Create a city district and assign a city service to that district.
- Have 20 active transport lines. These can be passenger or cargo lines or any mix of the two.
- Create 10 different districts in a single city and assign policies to each.
- Follow a citizen’s lifepath from childhood to old age.
- Experience a rat infestation.
- Experience all four seasons by building a city in a climate with a snowy winter.
- Have buildings from all four zone types in a single city.
- Have a total of 10,000 tourist visits in a single city.
More in their article.
🆕 ➡️ June 2023 and leaked photos from Microsoft Xbox Store
Back in June, several images were uploaded to the Microsoft Xbox Store that presumably show more details from Cities Skylines 2. This picture, which shows the game UI, is (at least from my perspective) really important.
When I first saw this, I thought it might be “misinformation” because the UI is similar to the CS UI. Moreover, we can also see a lot of similar things we have in the current Cities Skylines. The question is how relevant this source is – I can’t see the images in the Microsoft Xbox Store with my own eyes.
Maybe I’m just being a bit cautious and advising you too much, but the current versions of Midjourney or Adobe can hypothetically create incredible images using AI. So it’s possible that these are just very well edited/tuned images. Let’s wait until they make it official. Either way, I guess we’re about to see another trailer.
But if you are a fan of speculations and leaks, then you should check out my “thoughts” from the pictures when I see them.
Update June 11: This leak was true. All of the images you see below are real! More the about actual in-game photo on my trailers page. The Cities Skylines 2 release date will be October 24.
Screenshot of UI:
… in the picture, we should see a city with different types of buildings. I don’t think it’s relevant to rate the graphics (this may still change). For me, it is important to look at the “game features”. On the top left panel we should see the classic statistics tabs.
We should also see (with high probability) a new “purple” zone, as it is in the same row as the other well-known zone types. Then we should see some new icons like “message” or “post”, just as the “wrench” icon. It will probably be confirmed that we will be able to use more services to. The blue icon next to the park looks like a “suitcase” icon. This means that more tourism features are likely to be added.
Also, under the “purple” zone icon, we should see a “growing” plant, which can mean that we will focus on sustainability in our cities. I’m really looking forward to seeing how deep we will go into these graphs and information.
On the bottom panel, we should see more detailed city “bars”. These will probably show more detailed demand for zones. To me, this is a signal that we will build more “natural” cities with balanced suburbs and downtowns.
Also, we should see a tile icon with the number 137 which probably means that the city has 137 tiles so far. It doesn’t seem to take up a particularly large area. But maybe there’s a larger portion that’s still hidden.
We can also see the confirmed weather and time. As we know from the trailer analysis and confirmed features, CS2 will focus on Weather as well
All the icons we know from the current Cities Skylines should appear on the middle page, except for the “message” icon. On the left, we should see these icons.
- Zones
- Districts
- Unique Buildings
- Roads
- Electricity
- Water
- Medical
- Recycling
- Education
- Fire Deport
- Police
- Public Transport
- Parks
- (I’m not sure about this one)
- Terrain changes
- Buldozer
To be honest, I was expecting more changes, but what do we know. Maybe in the future the icons will be continuously unified and new groups will be created. There’s also the question of what the “open tab” will look like. Looks like it will probably have to be tabbed again like it was in Cities Skylines 1.
On the right side of the panel, we should see some brand new icons. The first will be a money tab with additional information. The second will probably be a map of public transports. The third icon will probably be statistics and the last icon maybe policies?
We should also see “happiness” stats. These should be great for new users. Some other icons like photo-mod and notepad can be seen on the left. And the picture of a small man? I don’t know, I’m curious.
Screenshot of traffic:
The second screenshot shows the detail of traffic with highway and intersections. From previous articles, leaks and trailers, we suspect that traffic will be handled a bit better in the new CS2 than in CS1. And the possible result can be seen right here…
All images show more “smooth” intersections. On the left side of the picture, we can see a sophisticated system of an intersection. We can also see a smooth transition from “two-lane” to “one and one lane” going in different directions.
The images also show combinations of pedestrian routes with new roads. On the side of the road, there are a lot of cars parked here. I think there will be roads with parking spots. You can also see that most of the buildings have their own parking spaces. I hope there will be a bit more underground garages.
Conclusion
Even though I’m not a game designer, I have to admit that I would like to be involved in Cities Skylines product-wise. There’s a lot of opportunity here, and the individual leaks show a really diverse range what CS2 could look like.
And if we could get today’s game in a “new chassis”, which allows implement 15% of what the individual leaks describe, then I think we have a great game that can break records again. And also, I’m counting on a lot of DLCs to extend game features for us!
Cities Skylines 2 is confirmed for now and we are waiting for the fixed release date. The community is large and from what I’ve read while writing this article, there are a lot of people looking forward to the sequel. Now just don’t mess it up and it could turn out well. Fingers crossed it goes well!
