Paradox Interactive's sprawling city builder Cities: Skylines 2 launched on PC Game Pass over a year ago now, and at the time, its console version was delayed due to optimisation issues. Since then, the game has been delayed and delayed even further - and it sounds like we're no closer to that elusive Xbox Series X|S launch here in November 2024.
In a new update post on the game's Steam page, Paradox talks about the planned console release, and how much trouble the team is having in getting the Xbox version running. Currently, it is in a "playable state by significantly lowering the graphics quality" on console, but the team isn't willing to make such a big compromise for the Xbox release.
"Currently, we are experiencing both simulation issues (CPU) and graphics issues (GPU) which become noticeable when players take certain actions that cause frame rate drops or memory overload. These issues are particularly challenging due to the hardware limitations of consoles.
At this point, we have managed to get the game to a stable and playable state by significantly lowering the graphics quality. However that's to the level where it becomes a compromise that we are not willing to make. Once we get it to an acceptable level, further optimizations are needed for both simulation and memory usage before we are ready to share the console version."
The team goes on to say that, at this time, it "cannot provide a release estimate to avoid it being premature and potentially misleading". Cities: Skylines 2 on Xbox is still "a top priority" for the studio though, so hopefully, we get some more positive news on this Game Pass release soon.
Paradox Interactive hasn't mentioned anything specific about Xbox Series S here - unlike other studios who've been open about their struggles developing for the all-digital console in the past. We'll have to see how this whole situation shakes out - but in the meantime, here's hoping this one comes to console Game Pass sooner rather than later.