Frogwares has opened pre-orders for The Sinking City 2 ahead of its August 18, 2025 release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and the accompanying hardware requirements reveal a new baseline for PC gaming: you must be running Windows 11 and have a solid‑state drive, with a 70GB installation footprint needed just to hit 1080p at 30 frames per second.
It is a notable milestone. While the previous game in the series operated on the Unreal Engine 4 and supported older hardware, this sequel—now moving to Unreal Engine 5—pulls the rug out from under anyone still clinging to Windows 10 or a spinning hard drive. The announcement landed alongside a pre‑order pricing grid that starts at $49.99 / £41.35 for the Standard Edition, with Deluxe and Ultimate tiers loading in cosmetic packs and early unlock bonuses.
What the announcement actually revealed
Pre‑orders for The Sinking City 2 went live on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The game launches on August 18. The Standard Edition is priced at $49.99 / £41.35, while the Deluxe Edition adds a digital artbook, soundtrack, and an in‑game outfit for $59.99 / £49.99. A pricier Ultimate Edition includes the Deluxe content plus a season pass with future story expansions, but Frogwares has not yet detailed those expansions.
The PC system requirements, however, are what will trip up a segment of players. The minimum spec lists:
- OS: Windows 11 (64‑bit)
- Storage: 70 GB available space on an SSD
- Target performance: 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second
No recommended specifications were shared. The minimum is, in effect, the baseline for hitting entry‑level console‑like visuals. Anything above that—higher frame rates, 1440p, or 4K—will almost certainly push beyond those boundaries, but Frogwares has not yet published those tiers.
What this means for you
If you are a PC gamer interested in The Sinking City 2, the requirements impose a hard fork in your hardware situation.
For home users and everyday players, the most immediate impact is the Windows 11 lock. Microsoft has been aggressively pushing the newer OS, and game developers are slowly following. You cannot install The Sinking City 2 on a Windows 10 machine. If you have postponed upgrading because of TPM worries or hardware compatibility, this title forces the issue. Microsoft’s support for Windows 10 ends in October 2025, so the timing aligns with broader industry changes.
The SSD requirement, while increasingly common, still leaves behind budget gaming laptops and desktops that shipped with bulky HDDs. You need a drive with at least 70 GB free—and because SSDs perform best when not completely full, you should reserve extra space for over‑provisioning and future patches. The game may load assets on the fly using Unreal Engine 5’s streaming tech, so running it from a mechanical hard drive would likely introduce stuttering or multi‑minute load screens.
Power users and enthusiasts trying to push beyond 1080p 30fps will have to extrapolate. A requirement for an SSD suggests the game leans on fast data streaming, which also means a capable GPU and plenty of system RAM, though Frogwares has not yet confirmed those numbers. If your system barely scrapes past Windows 11 and SSD, you will likely still need a recent mid‑range graphics card to maintain stable frame times.
For Xbox Series X|S or PlayStation 5 owners, the announcement is simpler: the game runs on the hardware you already own, and there are no cross‑platform compatibility concerns beyond the usual storefront choice. The Standard Edition, at $49.99, is the sensible pick for most buyers; the Deluxe extras are cosmetic only, and the Ultimate’s season pass is a bet on content that does not yet have a release schedule.
How we got here
The shift toward Windows 11 and SSD‑only requirements did not happen overnight. In 2024, both Alan Wake 2 and Starfield drew a line in the sand by demanding SSDs, citing the need for real‑time asset streaming that simply cannot be serviced by platter drives. Microsoft’s own DirectStorage API, which debuted on Xbox and later came to Windows, assumes an NVMe SSD architecture to work properly. The Sinking City 2 is now the latest high‑profile title to formalize that transition.
Windows 11 exclusivity is rarer but not unprecedented. Most games that “require” Windows 11 in their store listings will technically run on Windows 10 with a few workarounds, but Frogwares appears to have set a strict OS check. This could stem from Unreal Engine 5’s dependencies on newer system libraries or from a desire to simplify technical support.
For the franchise, The Sinking City 2 represents a considerable technical leap. The 2019 original was built on Unreal Engine 4 and ran comfortably on Windows 7 with a GeForce GTX 660 or Radeon HD 7870. The sequel marks the studio’s full embrace of current‑gen hardware, leaving behind not only last‑gen consoles but also a decade’s worth of PC configurations.
What to do now
If you want to play The Sinking City 2 on PC at launch, here is a straightforward checklist:
- Verify your OS version. Open Settings → System → About. If you see “Windows 10” under Edition, you will need to upgrade to Windows 11. Check Microsoft’s PC Health Check tool to confirm your processor, TPM 2.0, and Secure Boot support. If your hardware is incompatible, a full system upgrade (or a console purchase) may be the more economical path than buying a new PC just for one game.
- Check your storage. Look at your primary drive’s type in Task Manager’s Performance tab. If it is a HDD and you lack an SSD, you can add a SATA SSD for as little as $25–$40. External SSDs connected via USB 3.0 are not recommended for game installations because of latency and bandwidth limits; an internal drive, even a SATA model, is far better.
- Pre‑order with caution. The Standard Edition gives you the full base game. Deluxe and Ultimate extras are primarily digital flair and an undefined season pass. Unless you are a collector or trust Frogwares to deliver meaningful story expansions, the base version is the best value. On PC, consider purchasing through a storefront with a refund policy (Steam, for example, allows refunds within two hours of playtime) so you can test performance before committing.
- Wait for performance benchmarks. No recommended specs have been released. If 30 fps at 1080p is the minimum, you will want independent benchmarks to see what hardware runs the game at 60 fps or higher. Hold off on any hardware upgrades until outlets publish real‑world testing.
- Console as a fallback. If your PC cannot run the game and a major upgrade is not in your budget, the console route is straightforward. An Xbox Series S at around $299 can run the game, and you avoid the hardware compatibility headache. The Series S targets similar performance profiles to what the PC minimum implies, though likely with dynamic resolution scaling.
What comes next
The Sinking City 2’s requirements mark a turning point where Windows 11 and an SSD are not just recommendations but absolute mandates for new releases. With Windows 10’s end‑of‑life imminent and Unreal Engine 5 titles proliferating, expect similar announcements from other major studios through 2025. For PC gamers, the days of “it still runs on my old rig” are fading fast. The hardware floor is moving upward, and this August it will catch some players by surprise.