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Console Launch Exclusive Cities: Skylines Xbox One Edition Available Now

Today we’re excited to announce that Cities: Skylines Xbox One Edition is now available on Xbox One! Our robust city builder allows would-be city planners to turn their dream city into a “reality” from the comfort of their own couch.

Because city building can be a complicated process, and since we’re, you know, a bunch of good guys, we’re happy to provide some tips and pointers before you jump into the game. If you’re already planning a nice look for your first city in Cities: Skylines Xbox One Edition, you can’t just sit down and randomly put down houses and suddenly have a city; there’s a bit more to it than that.

Cities: Skylines has always had road building at the core of its gameplay, so the first thing you see as you begin your humble ascent to mayor of the most beautiful city in the world is a pair of roads connecting to a highway junction. This highway is where people will come in when they visit or move into your city, so your first order of action is to connect a road network to it — this road network is essentially the start of your city.

Cities Skylines Screenshot

Now that your roads are in place, your next step is to populate your city with people! There are three different kinds of zones that you can have next to your roads: residential, commercial, and industrial (and, well, later also office, although that is a subset of the industrial zones). You’ll want to start by creating residential zones next to your roads, and this is where your first houses will start getting built by your first citizens.

However, no city will function without basic city services. Your citizens won’t enjoy your bustling young town for long if they don’t have access to water and electricity. To remedy this, you can build a water pumping station or a water tower to supply water, and a water drain pipe to pump dirty water out. If you use a water pumping station, make sure you don’t place it downstream from your drain pipe or people will eventually get the water they flush out of their toilets coming out of their taps!

After you have set these up, you need to connect them to your houses with water pipes so that the water can travel to your citizens’ houses. And just like the houses, the water pumping stations, towers and drain pipes all need the power of electricity, so now you need to build a power plant or a wind turbine. Remember, though, that these create air or noise pollution, meaning you will want to avoid putting them right next to your residential zone. A coal power plant, for example, should probably be built in an area further away where you also create an industrial zone, so that citizens don’t have to breathe a bunch of dirty air. If you go for greener energy in the form of a turbine, make sure to place it where it’s windy for maximum power. Then, of course, you must connect your power plant or wind turbine to your city using power lines.

By now you’re probably starting to get demand for some commercial buildings. Who wants to live in a city without shops or stores after all? Try to avoid mixing residential and commercial zones, since the commercial areas are quite noisy and people living next to them might start to complain. So both commercial and industrial zones should be placed with care so as to avoid unhappiness while also being close at hand for your citizens. And don’t forget that traffic needs to be able to flow; people need to go to work, and goods need to be delivered from industrial zones to commercial ones.

Cities Skylines Xbox One Edition Screenshot

Once you’ve done all this, you’re close to unlocking your first milestone which will grant you a decent sum of money along with access to a medical clinic, landfill, elementary school, and the ability to take loans and set taxes. The clinic and landfill will take care of your sick citizens and piling garbage, while the elementary school will help to educate your citizens, as industrial and commercial buildings start levelling up and requiring a more proficient work force. Now keep it up and you’ll soon have a bustling metropolis with all kinds of city services on your hands in no time in Cities: Skylines Xbox One Edition.