Cities: Skylines 2 console release delayed to 2024

A city at night in Cities: Skylines 2.
(Image credit: Paradox Interactive)

Highly anticipated city-building game Cities: Skylines 2 has been delayed on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, less than a month before its originally planned release. 

In a joint statement released today (Thursday, September 28) from publisher Paradox Interactive and developer Colossal Order, it was confirmed that while the title will still be released as planned on PC on October 24, the console release is being pushed back to 2024 in order to “reach the quality targets we have set”. 

“We are hard at work getting the game ready for our release on October 24. While doing so, we have come to realize that we need more time to reach the quality targets we have set,” the statement reads. “As we want to provide the best experience for our players, we are updating the release window for Xbox and PS5 to spring 2024. The additional time allows us to focus on matching the quality and performance across all platforms.”

In a FAQ post on the Paradox Forum, it’s also been confirmed that all console pre-orders will be automatically refunded - the time this takes may vary depending on what platform customers had bought the game on. It was clarified that the pre-order bonus content - the Landmark Building pack, which contains nine famous landmarks from around the world - will still be available on console, although further details on how to get it will be revealed later down the line.

Cities: Skylines 2 will be available to play via PC Game Pass from day one, although, for obvious reasons, it won’t be playable via console Game Pass then. It’s still planned to arrive there when the game releases on Series X|S, though. 

If you want something else to play on console while you wait for the release of Cities: Skylines 2, be sure to check out our lists of the best PS5 games and best Xbox Series X games.

Catherine Lewis
News Writer, TechRadar Gaming

Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.