Cities: Skylines II News

Welp. The Cities: Skylines series turns 11 years old today, so publishers Paradox have announced a bunch of stuff designed to celebrate that occasion. Look, look, they've said, here's a brand new expansion for the original Cities: Skylines and it'll launch next week. Oh and, they've also said, recently under-new-management sequel Cities: Skylines 2 is getting a couple of creator packs.

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Paradox are celebrating 11 years of the Cities: Skylines series with new content coming for both games, so here's what you need to know.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/03/cities-skylines-celebrates-11-years-with-lots-of-new-content-on-the-way/

[h2]A word from The Cities Team[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Eleven years of city-building, creativity, and a community that keeps raising the skyline.[/p][p][/p][p]This month, Cities: Skylines turns 11. What started with a handful of carefully placed roads has grown into vast regions of glass buildings, tangled highway interchanges, sleepy suburbs, and transport networks that are always at 100% efficiency. [/p][p][/p][p]Every district painted, every mod installed, every comment and piece of feedback has shaped this journey. The past eleven years belong as much to you as they do to us. During the Month of March, we will be celebrating you and the new editions to both of our games, both for Cities: Skylines from Tantalus Media and Cities: Skylines II from Iceflake Studios.[/p][p][/p][h2]A Month Built by You[/h2][p][/p][p]All month long, we’ll be marking the anniversary with a dedicated roadmap packed with fresh content, new releases, community events, contests, and a few birthday surprises along the way. It’s a celebration of where Cities: Skylines began and how far it has come, while looking ahead to what’s next on the horizon.[/p][p][/p][p]Take a look ahead at what’s in store for the anniversary celebration throughout the month of March.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]We’re kicking things off with a Free-to-Play weekend for Cities: Skylines on Steam from March 5th to 9th. If you’ve got friends who’ve been city-curious, this is their moment. Or maybe it’s time to spin up a fresh map and see if you’ve still got the magic touch when rush hour hits.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p]
[/p][p][/p][h2]Cities: Skylines leads the way![/h2][p][/p][p]Then on March 10, it’s lights out and away we go with Race Day, a brand-new expansion developed by Tantalus Media. This one brings serious energy to your streets. Build custom racing venues, map out running and cycling routes, line the roads with roaring crowds, and turn your city into a full-blown festival of speed. It’s loud, it’s lively, and it’s something completely different for your skyline.[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]That same day, we’re also rolling out more content for Cities: Skylines. Two new Content Creator Packs, Iconic Brutalism and Renewed History, join the lineup, along with a brand-new station, 8 Gear Radio. There’s also a free patch landing for everyone, adding road fences and a new Employment Info View so you can get a clearer picture of how your workforce keeps the city moving. More info will come closer to release![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]Everything launching on March 10 will be available separately, or together in the Race Day Bundle for $23.99 / £20.15 / €23.99, which saves you 17% if you want the full set.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Cities: Skylines II Joins the Celebration[/h2][p][/p][p]The party keeps going on March 18, when Cities: Skylines II jumps in with two new Content Creator Packs, Office Evolution and City Stations, plus two radio stations, Smooth Vibes FM and Skyrail Radio. A new free patch from Iceflake Studios will also arrive that day, marking their second update for the game.[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]Office Evolution reshapes your high-density office zones with new signature buildings that blend heritage architecture and bold modern design. Your business districts are about to get a serious glow-up.[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]City Stations expands your transport toolkit with compact depots, detailed rail yards, alternate station designs, and new landmarks that fit neatly into growing cities. Pair that with Smooth Vibes FM and Skyrail Radio, and your citizens will have the perfect soundtrack for their daily commute.[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]All March 18 releases will be available individually, or together in the Office Evolution & City Stations Bundle for $21.99 / £18.49 / €21.99, saving 15% if you grab the bundle.[/p][p]
March is packed. Whether you’re building, racing, redesigning skylines, or just tuning in to the radio, there’s plenty to keep your city busy.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]Steam Community Items[/h2][p][/p][p]As a token of our appreciation to the community, we have released several Cities: Skylines II-themed Steam Community items to lighten up your Steam profile! As you play, you'll occasionally receive trading card drops, which will be placed in your Steam Inventory. The community items include trading cards, profile backgrounds, and emoticons. In addition to these, we have also updated the achievement icons. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The community items will be available right now, so if you want, feel free to showcase who’s the best mayor in town![/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]This patch should not affect mods, and loading of old savegames is supported.[/p][p][/p][p]After our first patch last week, we received a lot of great feedback from you. Thank you for all the comments and for pointing out the issues, especially regarding the lighting. Now we have prepared a hotfix, addressing the lighting and some other points you raised. [/p][p][/p][h3]Visual:[/h3]

• [p]Reduced indirect multiplier value back to the original value.[/p]
• [p]Global Illumination setting can now be enabled correctly.[/p]

[h3]UI:[/h3]

• [p]Camera zoom now works when the color customization color wheel is open.[/p]
• [p]Development tree title text visibility improved.[/p]

[h3]Misc:[/h3]

• [p]Fixed issue where Autosave setting state sometimes reset unintentionally.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Post-mortem[/h3][p]We want to go through how and why this happened.[/p][p][/p][p]The way we develop the game is by creating a branch to our version control for each new feature or a fix that we plan to make. These branches are basically separate workspaces, so every change or feature can be worked on in their own dedicated space without getting mixed up with other work going on at the same time.[/p][p][/p][p]With the previous patch, we had a branch where we worked on adding the new fog system driven by the simulation. On that same branch, we made minor changes to the visuals of the different climates and their seasons, weather, and night lighting. At the same time, shadow improvements were worked on in another branch, and a development value related to indirect lighting was set to a high value to make sure we remember to go through and correct it later, once it’s been merged with the other visual changes. Eventually, this development value in indirect lighting got shipped with the previous patch unintentionally.[/p][p][/p][p]Unfortunately, we combined these changes in the wrong order. We had already made the biggest visual polish check on the game before the shadow changes, which meant that the incorrect value simply slipped through our fingers. Our focus was on testing patch stability, game balance, and performance at this point. We are now making changes to our processes to make sure we also catch these kinds of visual issues, even if they come up at the end of the development cycle.[/p][p][/p][p]Thanks for reading! We will continue working on Cities: Skylines II, and as always, keep the feedback coming![/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Time for a sale! Cities: Skylines II is 30% off for the first time, and the Creator Packs are also on sale! [/p][p][/p][p]Complete your collection today! 👇[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]