SCS Is Moving Straight On: North Dakota Is Now Officially Announced for American Truck Simulator!

SCS Software officially introduced North Dakota as an upcoming map expansion for American Truck Simulator on 2 August 2026. Development of the complete state is therefore already under way. The DLC can already be added to our wishlists on its official Steam page. SCS has not yet announced a price or release date – Steam currently only states “To be announced”.

The announcement comes at a remarkable moment. While we are still waiting for the already extensively previewed South Dakota DLC, SCS is already working on its northern neighbour. However, that does not automatically mean North Dakota will be released directly after South Dakota. SCS did not establish a specific order for its upcoming ATS expansions with this announcement. The only certainty is that the next major construction site in the Northern Plains already exists.

The first official SCS post names Bismarck, Fargo, Pembina and the region around Devils Lake. The Steam description is even more specific. Deliveries are set to take us to Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, Minot and Williston, among other places. Medora is also mentioned – together with the spectacular Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the west of the state.

That already outlines a remarkably broad cross-section of North Dakota. Bismarck is the state capital, Fargo lies in the far east near the Minnesota border, while Williston is far to the west in a region heavily shaped by the oil industry. Pembina, meanwhile, is located in the far north near Canada. We cannot yet infer a Canadian expansion or even a drivable border crossing from this. However, the announcement clearly shows how far north our future journeys are intended to take us.

SCS has also revealed the first names from the road network. Interstate 94, one of the state’s most important east-west connections, is set to be included. Interstate 29 runs through Fargo in the east and continues towards Grand Forks and the Canadian border. The developer also names ND-57 and parts of the famous Enchanted Highway. Huge metal sculptures stand along that road – exactly the kind of unusual roadside detail that makes us leave the highway in ATS map expansions.

North Dakota’s scenery will provide a strong contrast between the colourful Badlands in the west and the fertile plains in the east. Wide prairies, rivers and National Grasslands will also be represented. Anyone expecting a completely flat map may therefore be surprised. Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the western Badlands in particular should feel noticeably different from the open agricultural areas in the east.

For our cargo contracts, SCS has already named the two expected heavyweights: agriculture and oil. North Dakota contains vast areas of farmland, while the oil industry plays a central role, particularly in the west. Energy production and manufacturing are also due to be represented. In its blog post, SCS additionally mentions a sugar processing plant in Wahpeton. The DLC is therefore intended to offer more than long roads between fields by connecting several different economic regions.

SCS is once again placing numerous striking landmarks between those industries. Confirmed or explicitly named locations include the World’s Largest Buffalo in Jamestown, the Enchanted Highway sculptures, Four Bears Bridge near New Town, Scandinavian Heritage Park in Minot and the distinctive State Capitol in Bismarck. They are joined by the state’s tallest TV tower and Wahpper, Wahpeton’s enormous catfish. North Dakota could therefore become one of ATS’s more memorable states for unusual roadside attractions.

The bigger map picture is particularly interesting. South Dakota already opens the area between Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota. North Dakota starts directly above it and takes the ATS world further along the northern border of the United States. At the same time, Fargo and the eastern part of the state move the map closer to Minnesota again. Neither Minnesota nor a Canadian expansion is automatically announced by this – but the long-term movement towards the north and east is becoming increasingly clear.

After years in which American Truck Simulator primarily expanded from the West towards the centre of the United States, SCS is now filling the Northern Plains increasingly quickly. North Dakota is no longer merely a logical guess on the map, but an officially produced DLC with its first confirmed cities, roads, industries and landmarks.

The biggest unanswered question is the release date. SCS has shown that work has begun, but it has announced neither a release year nor an order relative to its other active map projects. For now, that means adding it to our wishlists, examining the first screenshots closely and waiting to see how densely SCS recreates this sparsely populated state at American Truck Simulator’s scale.