The upcoming Cities: Skylines 2 PS5 and Xbox Series X|S releases have been delayed again, publisher Paradox Interactive has announced.
In a post on the official Paradox forum, the publisher says that although the plan was originally to launch the console versions of the game in spring this year, a release date hasn’t been announced so as to avoid “further promises we might not be able to keep”.
Paradox’s current plan is to evaluate an early build in April and to target a release build for October, but the studio is avoiding announcing a release date until then, so it could be a good while before the console versions of Cities: Skylines 2 see the light of day.
The post also contains a general apology from Paradox regarding the state of Cities: Skylines 2.
The game’s Beach Properties DLC pack launched last month and is currently sitting at an Overwhelmingly Negative rating on Steam, with just 4% of user reviews being positive. Many users are complaining that the pack was rushed, and that it doesn’t contain enough content to justify its price.
The base game itself isn’t faring much better, sporting a Mostly Negative rating across 2,349 recent reviews.
In its apology, Paradox says that it has let its fans down, and that it is “truly sorry” that it rushed out the Beach Properties DLC before it was ready. The studio also admits that the timeframe it set itself for fixing Cities: Skylines 2‘s issues was “unrealistic”.
As a result of the response to Beach Properties, Paradox says it will now offer the DLC for free and refund players who bought it as a standalone purchase “to the extent possible”. Ultimate Edition owners won’t be refunded, but they will get an extra three Creator Packs and three Radio Stations at no extra cost.
Going forward, Colossal Order and Paradox say they will focus on free updates and performance improvements rather than new paid content, which means the previously-announced Bridges and Ports expansion won’t launch until the first quarter of next year.
Additionally, Paradox says it’s going to assemble an “advisory meeting” between the studio and a “small group of player representatives” in order to discuss where to take Cities: Skylines 2 next.
Colossal Order and Paradox go into detail regarding some of the decisions they’ve made in a supplementary FAQ, which you can read right here. In the meantime, Cities: Skylines 2 is available right now on PC via Steam, and you can also play it as part of a PC Game Pass subscription.
