Paradox has released a major new Cities: Skylines 2 update, and it's a very big one indeed, bringing overhauls to economic systems, a building upgrade rework, and more.
The Economy 2.0 update has been a long time in the making, but it's finally here, and the patch notes are just as extensive as you'd expect from an update with a name as bold as Economy 2.0 (and hey, let's face it - that's a sexier name than 1.1.5f1).
The aforementioned building upgrade rework gives you more control over the Selected Info Panel's building upgrade feature; you can control which upgrade types you want to see, and you can relocate or remove sub-buildings as well.
Of course, as the name suggests, this update is all about Cities: Skylines 2's economy, and the list of changes to the game's economic systems is truly extensive.
Changes have been made to features like area demand, employment, city services, and crime rates, and a number of other changes have also been implemented, including increased map tile cost, an option to unlock all map tiles (which also disables achievements), and much more.
If you're wondering whether any major performance improvements have been implemented in this patch, the answer is yes, but those improvements are relatively limited.
This update brings various UI optimizations, as well as improved FPS when "placing complex buildings or roads", but there aren't any massive, sweeping visual or performance boosts in this one.
I'd strongly recommend giving the full Cities: Skylines 2 Economy 2.0 patch notes a look if you want to know everything they contain, but be warned: it's a pretty extensive list.
So, what's next for Cities: Skylines 2 now that the Economy 2.0 patch is upon us? This update contributed to delays to the game's upcoming Creator Packs, which are included in its most recent roadmap, so hopefully, we'll get to see those being released sooner rather than later.
There's also the console release of Cities: Skylines 2, which was delayed again back in April and which is now targeting an October release window (although Paradox says that even meeting this target might be difficult).
We'll likely hear more about Paradox's plans for the game in the coming weeks, although information will likely be scarce within the next month or so owing to Finnish developer Colossal Order's summer break.
Cities: Skylines 2 is available right now on PC via either Steam or the Microsoft Store, and it's also available as part of a PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
