Cities: Skylines 2 made its PC Game Pass debut last October, with the promise of a console release to come in Spring 2024. Well, we're now in Spring 2024, and the team at Paradox Interactive has an update for us regarding Cities: Skylines 2 on Xbox Series X|S.
In short, the team is delaying its Spring-time target, due to "struggling to get Cities: Skylines II to the necessary level of optimization for a console release". The game is still due to come to console, and Game Pass, but we're going to have to wait a bit longer for it.
On the team's current timeline, it's expecting to assess an early build of the console version this month - with a "release build" not expected to be ready until October 2024. And even then, "some uncertainty remains" regarding these dates and that eventual console release.
"We have been struggling to get Cities: Skylines II to the necessary level of optimization for a console release, but are now hopeful that an upcoming build delivery in April will demonstrate sufficient progress for us to progress with a release candidate, and then a release build targeted for October.
Before we have seen and evaluated the progress made in these builds however, we will not be able to confirm the release date, and even then, some uncertainty always remains. Our ambition is to deliver the experience that you all deserved at launch, but it will take time."
In the meantime, if you have a beefy enough PC you can play the game right now through Xbox Game Pass, while us console players will have to hold our breath for a good while longer.