What a long (and traffic-efficient) road it’s been! Eight years after Cities: Skylines first broke ground, we’re just one month away from sharing the very last expansion for the city-builder that changed our lives. It sounds dramatic, but I think it’s safe to say all of us at Paradox, and the incredible developers at Colossal Order, can scarcely remember a time when we weren’t working on the next fun addition to Cities, or when we weren’t eagerly watching players all over the world building the most creative, efficient, or vibrant cities to date.
There’s definitely a bittersweet feeling as we announce the last addition to the game; it’s like we’ve been working on the same city for a decade, but we’ve filled all the tiles, got every service running, and ensured every road, train, and bike lane are perfectly optimized. It’s time to let the city run without us.
On the other hand, we’re as excited as can be to load up a clean map and start all over again, since Cities: Skylines II is launching this year! This isn’t the end of the Cities journey, merely the exciting conclusion to the first chapter, and we hope it gives you plenty of fun to keep you building until our sequel is ready.
Our last expansion is called “Hotels & Retreats,” so right away, I can tell you the expansion includes — you guessed it — hotels and retreats. Lots of new tourism buildings will become available in your city, from smaller, low-budget options like hostels, cabins, and small chain hotels, which will grow and unlock bigger offerings all the way up to grand, luxurious resorts. Managing these hotels will be easier if you match the right resort to the right location, e.g. putting a conference hotel in your thriving business district, a nature retreat in a picturesque mountain park, and so on. Support your growing hotels with new tourism structures, build their popularity, and make your city the vacation destination of choice!
“Hotels & Retreats” will also launch alongside our final few Content Creator Packs, including content themed around “Railroads of Japan”, historic factory styles in “Industrial Evolution”, and a taste of New York with new residential buildings inspired by “Brooklyn & Queens”. We think it’s fitting that we send off Cities: Skylines with art and style from major staples of civic design that have stood the test of time, as well as a way to keep virtual visitors coming to your city long into the future.
Once all of these additions launch on May 23, the original Cities will still get support and love while we’re working towards the sequel, but obviously our next major update will be to tell you more about what’s in store with Cities: Skylines II. We can’t wait to see what everyone builds all over again, and we hope you’re just as eager to try your hand at urban design as you’ve been for the last eight years.