Is Cities Skylines 2 available on Xbox Game Pass?

Cities Skylines 2 is making headlines, and so fans naturally want to know if it’s on the Xbox Game Pass. Unfortunately, the city-building title isn’t making waves for positive reasons - it has had a wealth of issues since launching just a few days ago. While players can get it on the PC Game Pass, the real question is about the console version. So we’ve looked into it, and have the answer.

While the game still has a “Mixed” reception on Steam, Cities Skylines 2 has many people very excited to get into it, whether they play on console or via the Xbox Game Pass. But, for those looking for that, we have some bad news.

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Can you play Cities Skylines 2 on Xbox Game Pass?

Yes, Cities Skylines 2 is on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate - if you play on PC, that is. This will no doubt upset many because the original plan was to have the game available at launch, according to Paradox Interactive. Thanks to a wealth of issues and errors close to the actual launch, the Xbox console version was delayed.

While originally slated for release on Xbox, you’re going to be in for a particularly long wait if you want to play on the console. While there is no hard confirmed release date, it’s likely that it won’t be until the game actually launches for consoles.

Because of a wealth of issues with Cities Skylines 2, the Xbox Series X|S was pushed back to Spring 2024. This means you cannot play on Xbox Game Pass on a console until sometime around March 2024. Fans are looking at anywhere from a 6-8 month wait if they want to play on console.

By then, hopefully, the game will be fixed. The major problems are a variety of crashes, stutters, and deep lag pockets for the latest installment in the city-building franchise. Ultimately, it seems to be poorly optimized for modern hardware. The developers stated they were developing for future hardware, but budget builds currently have a very hard time playing it.

Nevertheless, it’s not all negatives for Cities Skylines 2 fans. If you’re on the fence about playing the game, and don’t want to spend the money, you can play it on Xbox Game Pass on your PC, with an Ultimate subscription. It is also in the standard PC Game Pass.

However, it takes up far more space than the original game: 56 GB, up from the first title’s 4 GB. If you’re curious to see if it will run on your machine, now’s the time. Like all Game Pass games though, future expansions and DLC will not be available this way for free - but they will be available at a discount.

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Unfortunately, Xbox Series X|S fans are going to have to wait a bit longer for Cities Skylines 2, but fans with Game Pass can play it on PC for free. It will be interesting to see how the developers go about fixing the game’s reputation, now that it’s launched.