Once again, the family-friendly game series takes a leap forward. With new features and improvements, Farming Simulator 22 will allow every aspiring farmer to creatively build their farm no matter the age or real - life profession. Either on their own, or cooperatively in multiplayer for up to 8 players on consoles and 16 on PC, Mac and Stadia.

New crops, new maps, new machines, and new brands are just the beginning of what players can expect. And on top of that, it is getting snowy, too - players should prepare for the exciting addition of seasonal cycles – as well as other features to be announced soon!

Two new maps plus an updated alpine Erlengrat map will put emphasis on different kinds of farming operations through the seasons.

With a set of more than 400 machines and tools from more than 100 authentic agricultural brands including new categories, players can look forward to an improved and realistic-as-ever simulation. But even for new players, it will be easy to dive into agriculture, animal husbandry (including cuter animals) and forestry.

New Gameplay

QA Lead Ken Burgess and Gameplay Developer Stefan Maurus from GIANTS Software take a look at some interesting new details you'll find in Farming Simulator 22. Most of them previously not announced - so, don't miss out! 

Ken and Stefan provide you with a glimpse of the new foliage of crops reacting dynamically to the wind, improved particle effects and other new features and improvements. You'll find short summaries of both gameplay videos below - but if you want to know more, watch the videos! 

Featured in part one:

• Improved foliage and dynamic wind reactions on crops
• Parallax Occlusion Mapping effects on ground textures
• New brand: Continental!
• New feature: automatic header tilt and height control
• New feature: manual gear shifting!
• Improved animations and sounds
• ... and more!

Featured in part two:

• New ground textures for various ground working tools...
• ... and their effects on gameplay
• CLAAS XERION SADDLE TRAC
• New cow shed by Rudolf Hörmann
• Improved slurry application
• ... and more!

New Map: Elmcreek

Elmcreek is a brand-new map inspired by North-American landscape in the Midwest.

Senior Level Designer Florian Busse from GIANTS Software explains how Elmcreek came to - where the inspiration was taken from, why the layout of the farm and fields are the way they are, and more!

What's different from Ravenport?

The most obvious difference compared to Ravenport, the US map in Farming Simulator 19: The flat landscape has no coastline. Instead, Elmcreek has a hidden canyon with a cave, which contains big rocks, embedded seamlessly into the landscape. 

In the "flat" area, you'll also notice slight increases and decreases in elevation. So you can drive under our railroad line, which goes straight through the land with its underpasses, and you can even drive over it when you come across the railroad bridge or some of the various other bridges on the map that go above rivers and streams.

What else is there to discover?

The focus of Elmcreek is on vast areas of farmland. It's basically a large industrial area with some residential areas and businesses. There are still spurs of infrastructure reminiscent of a large town on the map. There’s a gas station, various small businesses, residential areas, even a baseball stadium, and a bowling center. But also, if you pay close attention, there are some spots to discover that are even special to the seasonal cycles in the game.

How does the farm layout look like?

We decided to place the farm in the middle of the map, so that players can spread out to all sides and have all the possibilities to create their own unique farm. To do this, we reduced the number of additional decorative buildings in the farm area and decided to make the buildings open and accessible. This way, you have more space for your own buildings, without those that you don't need getting in your way.

Both the garage and barn interiors feature multiple levels. You can drive into the buildings and store your vehicles there. The barn can also be used as a storage room for pallets, big bags or other items you need for farm operations. Forklifts and other small vehicles will fit through most of the doors.

What about field shapes and sizes?

The fields may seem small at the beginning of your career. But remember: in the beginning, you won't have much money. And the bigger the field, the higher the costs. In total, there are 81 predefined fields on Elmcreek, more than we’ve had before. But we still have the larger fields typical for the region. And as always, you will have the ability to merge or create fields at your own discretion. Use a plow with create fields enabled and use your imagination to create your own unique landscape in Elmcreek.

If you look at the map, you will notice that many various field shapes exist. Some have rounded off edges, some are shaped completely differently. This is to provide a more authentic alignment with the infrastructure and a believable embedding. That also means: You'll have to be more efficient and do some additional things. You'll have to cut trees, combine fields and adjust the field shape so that the helpers are of good help to you. You determine the best way for your farm to be efficient.

How does it work in multiplayer?

If you explore the map and go to its corners, you will see farms that you can use in multiplayer mode. They have the same layout concept as the starter farm, with small fields in proximity. The surrounding fields make them an ideal starting area with opportunities to expand later. You can, of course, build your own farms however you wish on any land that you own on the map.

New Feature: Seasonal Gameplay

In Farming Simulator 22, you need to prepare for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. If you don't, you'll see your valuable crops wither away. That is, if you choose to play with seasonal cycles enabled, of course.

Here's Gameplay Developer Jos Kuijpers from GIANTS Software providing you with an introduction of the seasonal changes in the game

Visual changes through the seasons

Let's take a look at the most obvious change: the visuals. Since we showed you the four seasons in Farming Simulator 22 last time, we updated the visual appearance of various assets in the game. The tint of trees, grass and bushes is more homogeneous now.

We updated the general game graphics, too (and we're still working on it) - so, you'll notice more detail here and there. Reflections on water, for example. Whether you look at season-specific aesthetics or not, nature looks more natural.

Since each season comes with its own characteristics, the atmosphere changes quite a bit throughout the year. In spring, trees start to grow their leaves in vibrant colors. They mature into lush green trees in summer. Take a look:

In Fall, the color pallet changes - the atmosphere turns a bit melancholic before everything will be covered in a thick layer of snow when winter comes around. Here and there, it even gets icy. We recommend paying the waterfall a visit to enjoy a cave-like place of solitude, riddled with icicles. But we won't spoil it for you, right now! 

Seasonal gameplay: on or off?

By implementing seasonal cycles, we added a new level of gameplay to Farming Simulator 22. It's not just a visual thing. Unless you want it to be. In this case, you deactivate "seasonal growth", so you plant and harvest your crops independently of the season.

The seasons in-game are divided into months. A year consists of twelve days. Meaning, each day in-game is the equivalent of a month. Using the timescale control, it is up to you how fast the days pass. Basically, a season can range from half an hour of playtime up to a long weekend.

If you still want to keep the seasonal charm of running a farm in the middle of winter - go ahead. You can turn off snow separately if you want. As usual, the new feature can be deactivated, so you have more control of your gameplay experience. 

Seasonal gameplay on: Mind the calendar!

Do you want the full experience, including seasonal cycles with impact on gameplay? You'll have to take a look at the new crop calendar, then! The calendar provides an important overview and tells you when you have to plant your crops, and when to harvest if seasonal growth is activated.

Take the new crops, for example: Grapes and olives have to be planted from March to June. Harvest season for grapes starts in September and last until the end of October. Olives, though, you have to harvest in the month of October. Sorghum, the third new crop in Farming Simulator 22, needs to be sown from April to May. It'll be ready to harvest from August to September. 

You also have to bear in mind that the demand for your crops, and therefore the selling prices, change throughout the year. To get the best price, you will have to store your harvested crops and sell them when the demand is high due to the season. 

More to do, more to keep in mind

As you can imagine, snow covering your farmlands requires more actions from you. There's some snow plowing needed to get rid of the snow and keep your roads and yards clear. Also, you have to plan ahead if animal husbandry is part of your farming operation. Store enough food for the winter! 

If you don't like to shovel loads of snow and don't possess any animals, you might think about starting production chains. If you have the resources available, you can deliver them to various production halls to produce goods. You might even get into the hauling business to transport all the crops and goods to the next link in a production chain. Remember, you can start multiple production chains at once. As you can see, there's still a lot to do in winter.

New Feature: Production Chains

Get your production chains started in Farming Simulator 22! And don't stop with selling the wheat after harvesting. Instead, deliver it to the grain mill, so it gets processed into fine flour and bring it to the local bakery. Then, you decide what they'll do with it!

New building types, shops and businesses

So, what's new exactly? There are a lot of new building types in Farming Simulator 22. While some are already placed on the new maps and ready to take your goods for further processing, you can also build them yourself - making them your business to expand your farming operation. Since the feature is still a work-in-progress, we won't show you everything today. 

One of the businesses being part of a production chain is the bakery. If you want to generate income from delicious cakes or fluffy bread, you need to supply them with flour, sugar and butter as well as other ingredients. To get those, you have to visit other links of the chain like the grain mill, dairy, or the sugar mill. 

Your new bread and butter

How you get one resource from one point to another, is your choice: either haul it yourself if your farming business is able to handle loads of goods or let the businesses do the heavy lifting - for a fee, of course. The grain mill or sugar mill, for example, let you decide if you transport the processed goods to the next link in the chain  yourself or if the mills deliver them.

Also, in case of the bakery, you can also decide if they sell the produced goods directly or if you distribute them to the local supermarket, restaurant or farmer's market to generate even more income. One way or another, if you're selling baskets full of freshly baked bread instead of just the harvested wheat, you'll make more money. 

Especially, since you not only have various options on what to produce, you can start multiple productions at once. Just make sure, you provide the necessary resources to keep the production going. 

Based on the GIANTS Engine 9, Farming Simulator 22 features many technical improvements such as more realistic AI behavior and richer worlds. Thanks to those worlds, players will be drawn even deeper into the virtual farming lifestyle. For example, motor sounds of their tractors appear even more realistic through acoustic gear selection and graduated reverberation.

Better performance on all platforms: with DirectX 12 support on Windows, texture streaming, multi- threading optimization, occlusion culling and temporal anti-aliasing amidst other optimizations, the newest Farming Simulator will receive a performance boost on all systems laying the foundation for even more complex mod customization to enjoy more content.

Farming Simulator 22 will come to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, Mac and Stadia on November 22, 2021.