Cities: Skylines 2 performance on PC won't be great at launch, warns Paradox

Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order's highly-anticipated city builder is just a week away from launching onto the PC platform. However, in a rare pre-release announcement, the publisher has revealed that the performance is not currently up to its standards. While the PC launch date isn't shifting, like the console version, it is expecting months of optimizations for fans to get more performance out of it.

"While our team has worked tirelessly to deliver the best experience possible, we have not achieved the benchmark we targeted," says the company. "In light of this, we still think for the long-term of the project, releasing now is the best way forward."

While no specifics were shared today regarding what kind of performance players can expect at launch, Paradox did say optimization efforts will continue post-launch:

"We will continually improve the game over the coming months, but we also want to manage expectations on performance for the coming release. Our ambition is for Cities: Skylines II to be enjoyed by as many players as possible, and we're committed to ensuring it reaches its full potential."

Today's announcement arrives soon after the game's minimum and recommended specifications were changed to ask for more powerful hardware. Here are the updated requirements for playing Cities: Skylines 2 in 1080p:

Recommended Spec FHD machines:

CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-12600K | AMD® Ryzen™ 7 5800X

RAM: 16 GB

GPU: Nvidia® GeForce™ RTX 3080 (10 GB) | AMD equivalent

OS: Windows® 10 Home 64 Bit | Windows® 11

Minimum Spec FHD machines:

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-6700K | AMD® Ryzen™ 5 2600X

RAM: 8 GB

GPU: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 970 (4 GB) | AMD equivalent

OS: Windows® 10 Home 64 Bit

This is certainly an odd announcement to arrive so close to the game's launch. Publishers usually admit performance issues after a game's launch, usually promising quick updates.

Fans will have to wait and see just how well Cities: Skylines 2 will run when it launches on October 24 on PC. It will also be available day-one on PC Game Pass.