IGN: 2K Reveals Civilization Mobile Game, Moves to Calm Concern It May Impact Civilization 7

[Tekamthi]

China's mobile gaming market is humongous and it dwarfs their PC market and just about every other market really.

This is true about much of the world, not just China. I'd re-qualify this as prioritizing non-North American markets, especially with the current posturing towards conflict and trade sanctions between USA and China; certainly they're a key market outside North America nonetheless, though still dwarfed by the rest of non-NA, non-China smartphone world

Anyone able to find out what regions the soft launch is occurring in? Might be an interesting basis for further conjecture

Also curious what gives everyone the certainty that 7 has actually moved beyond the conceptualization and planning stage? I just don't see it

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

no, it doesn't...


Firaxis Games "is in active development" and "we are working with an external partner [...] to develop"

Its cleverly worded to be slightly ambiguous, but parsing it carefully suggests this mobile title is what they were referring to all along. If they had a mainline "civ 7" in the works, they coulda easily found a way to say so -- the statement's deliberate ambiguity was chosen carefully, they don't make these statements off the cuff

7 probably just a drawing board item for them right now

This game wasn't made by Firaxis.

 

[Tekamthi]

This game wasn't made by Firaxis.

Drawing this reasoning out, it's the "next iteration" language in the rather brief Firaxis quote then? I'm wondering if I missed an article along the way or something, on its own these words seem rather vague about a "civ 7". Eras & allies is an iteration of sorts, Firaxis clearly says they're actively working on it "with" the other studio, and we have proof, sorta, in this region locked play store page.

What's the case for using this cryptic language rather than just coming out and saying "civ 7 is on its way and here's this bonus mobile game til then"?

Only other explanation I can think of is it's not 7 but some other colonization/beyond earth style branch from the main series, to avoid anyone else trying to steal their thunder

 

[Haig]

Doesn't "iteration" mean the next version?

Well past years there has been several Firaxis job applications, some even mention familiarity with Civilization franchise.

Making of Civ 6 started around the release of last Civ 5 expansion, so I say time is right for a 2024 release of Civ 7.

 

[pokiehl]

Doesn't "iteration" mean the next version?

Well past years there has been several Firaxis job applications, some even mention familiarity with Civilization franchise.

Making of Civ 6 started around the release of last Civ 5 expansion, so I say time is right for a 2024 release of Civ 7.

AAA games are taking longer and longer to make. They require more staff, work hours, and money than ever before. As you noted, Civ 6 started before Civ 5 was finished. As Civ 7 will be the product of years of work (probably longer than any other game they've ever made up to this point), they've assuredly starting development of Civ 7 some time ago.

 

[Disgustipated]

To clarify, my beef against mobile games is they seem like "dumbed down" games. Correct me if I'm wrong. When I see people playing them at work (with the sound turned up annoyingly) they sound like games made for 5 year olds. That and the too small of screen, poor audio are other reasons not to play them. If the game has the complexity of Civ6 vanilla, then I might consider playing it, but otherwise mobile games are a hard pass for me.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Drawing this reasoning out, it's the "next iteration" language in the rather brief Firaxis quote then? I'm wondering if I missed an article along the way or something, on its own these words seem rather vague about a "civ 7". Eras & allies is an iteration of sorts, Firaxis clearly says they're actively working on it "with" the other studio, and we have proof, sorta, in this region locked play store page.

What's the case for using this cryptic language rather than just coming out and saying "civ 7 is on its way and here's this bonus mobile game til then"?

Only other explanation I can think of is it's not 7 but some other colonization/beyond earth style branch from the main series, to avoid anyone else trying to steal their thunder

I didn't bother to read the article in full just glanced at it but:

- Firaxis didn't make this game, they merely gave art assets as far as I know, another different studio worked on this game not to mention that this game is also a rebrand of an older game with the shiny Civ attached to it and as far as I know its' 2K that actually did this deal, not Firaxis (2K owns Firaxis so they probably forced their hand).
- No way did people like Ed Beach have any hand in this.
- I'm also fairly sure we had 1 article and it wasn't a Press Release from 2K/Firaxis but a second party covering it so they probably just assumed that this was the next iteration (this was my take away from the beginning of the article).

People are just reading too much into it.

 

[GeoGeo]

So in summary, it's a Civ-branded spin-off with no significant impact on game development at Firaxis?

The last mobile attempt at that was Revolution 2. Guess it was about time to give it another go. As far as "impact" on Civ 7, I would imagine it's another way to keep the IP active before the next mainline entry. If anything, I consider this more evidence for a 2025 Civ 7 launch.

Whoever's developing this, let's hope they settle next to resources besides just whales...

 

[Tekamthi]

The article does indeed make a heavy insinuation that 7 is coming, in progress, etc. They say

"Firaxis announced Civilization 7 earlier this year alongside news that former COO Heather Hazen had become the new studio head."

But when you check that "announced Civilization 7" bit, its another article by IGN from feb, that opens

"Firaxis didn't confirm whether or not it would be the seventh game in the mainline series or if it would be a spinoff in the vein of.Civilization: Beyond Earth."

It also didn't confirm whether it would be either of those at all -- never confirmed that they were not referring to the mobile game we now have. Just sayin, this is probably it for a while. 5 & 6 are excellent, I'm pretty sure both are still seeing steady sales; 7's a ways off yet.

Reviving my original guess (mobile game was only really my 2nd guess back in feb), if we treat BE as civ franchise canon, there was a "Great Mistake" around the year 2200. Mainline games sorta wrap up their story of humanity's history in present day/near future. There's a 100+ year gap there, yet untold... Cue the climate change & pandemic focused, present day through 2200 entry to the series up next. Maybe a civilization/x-com merger even. 4 & 5 both had standalone DLC -- 6 hasn't had its own standalone yet.

 

[martindo]

Yes, as I noted, the rewards are *thousands* of gold, rather than a few dozen that we see in previous Civ. This suggests they are aiming at players who "need" big numbers to increase their interest in a game -- add a few zeroes and they go "wow", but leave the old style Civ gold rewards and they are embarrassed to tell their friends they're playing a game where "I just received 100 gold!"

 

[martindo]

Apparently, the game was titled Conquests & Alliances earlier this year, renamed as you can see by clicking this link:

https://support.2k.com/hc/en-us/articles/19103992732051--CONQUESTS-ALLIANCES-READY-TO-START-YOUR-CONQUEST-

It takes you to Eras & Allies!

 

[martindo]

WTF: check this out. It's not enough that you pay them for a product: they will monitor your behavior inside and OUTSIDE the game!

 

[pokiehl]

WTF: check this out. It's not enough that you pay them for a product: they will monitor your behavior inside and OUTSIDE the game!

You’re not paying for a product. The game is free to play. The terms of service you quoted are bog standard for this kind of game.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

WTF: check this out. It's not enough that you pay them for a product: they will monitor your behavior inside and OUTSIDE the game!

China

 

[Tekamthi]

WTF: check this out. It's not enough that you pay them for a product: they will monitor your behavior inside and OUTSIDE the game!

i think they're talking about RMT and making hack tools etc. Like if they find you selling a bot to automate the game via a website registered in your name, but don't have any evidence of you using said bot, that will be enough to ban you in-game.. they can't disclaim their way out of regulation, at least throughout most of the Western world, so your per-jurisdiction laws concerning privacy and information still apply.

China

The Chinese government has a lot of surveillance powers, certainly.. but this doesn't necessarily extend to private game developers, in fact I think you face some heavy restrictions as a private entity over there

 

[martindo]

You’re not paying for a product. The game is free to play. The terms of service you quoted are bog standard for this kind of game.

OK, but can you play alone? If so, why all the fuss about hate speech etc? Sounds like CYA regarding multiplayer via cell phone.

 

[martindo]

i think they're talking about RMT and making hack tools etc. Like if they find you selling a bot to automate the game via a website registered in your name, but don't have any evidence of you using said bot, that will be enough to ban you in-game.. they can't disclaim their way out of regulation, at least throughout most of the Western world, so your per-jurisdiction laws concerning privacy and information still apply.


The Chinese government has a lot of surveillance powers, certainly.. but this doesn't necessarily extend to private game developers, in fact I think you face some heavy restrictions as a private entity over there

Yes, that's reasonable in terms of commerce. But how do they find out if you're doing it unless they monitor *everyone* who plays?

 

[b81a98]

The Chinese government has a lot of surveillance powers, certainly.. but this doesn't necessarily extend to private game developers, in fact I think you face some heavy restrictions as a private entity over there

Non-government-controlled Chinese game companies may collect and store players’ information and personal privacy secretly...
Even after investigating their program once, no problems were found,
They may also put data-collecting programs into the game in an update by the request of the Chinese government, and obligated to provide it to the Chinese government when needed.
They have no right to refuse.

Especially for large companies like Tencent, those management members have backgrounds in the Chinese military, they not only collect information on dissidents, also on foreign customers.
But it isn't necessary, most of the players will not notice whether they are being monitored by Tencent.
What Chinese players care about is that Tencent's unscrupulous business model has now spread to Civilization.

 

[Tekamthi]

Non-government-controlled Chinese game companies may collect and store players’ information and personal privacy secretly...

you're describing the US government lol... remember "boundless informant" and edward snowden? You're describing it to a tee.

China's not gonna let a us-affiliated company funnel domestic chinese users' data out of the country to firaxis HQ in maryland or 2k in cali -- anyway this is not what that clause is referring to, putting it in writing makes it not secret at all, they're just listing the manner in which you can lose your account, thats the only purpose of the code of conduct.

Tencent is indeed subject to chinese gov't oversight, just like firaxis/2k is by US gov't. Neither gov't needs a game company's code of conduct to enable their spying activities lol; this conspiracy theory stuff doesn't make sense. Besides nobody's getting any useful, compromising data out of these mobile game apps. The game's purpose is to drain your wallet, and this clause makes it nice and legal to terminate any account on any basis, even if the user's sunk thousands into it, no matter if its for something that happened in or out of game.

 

[Gorbles]

To clarify, my beef against mobile games is they seem like "dumbed down" games. Correct me if I'm wrong. When I see people playing them at work (with the sound turned up annoyingly) they sound like games made for 5 year olds. That and the too small of screen, poor audio are other reasons not to play them. If the game has the complexity of Civ6 vanilla, then I might consider playing it, but otherwise mobile games are a hard pass for me.

Mobile games are made to very different specifications on average compared to PC games, because the longstanding perception is that phone hardware can't measure up.

And at the high end? That's true. No phone is going to be able to compete with a £2,000 full tower setup. But phones are a lot more than they used to be, to the extent you see very well designed (and critically acclaimed) games like Monument Valley on / for mobile.

But the landscape has settled, and games that cost money upfront find that cost is a huge barrier to entry (and thus, "success" in stakeholder terms). Hence the general pivot to "F2P" or more accurately "freemium" games (which we're now also seeing come back into the PC gaming ecosystem). Low barrier to entry, psychological hooks to get players spending and keep them spending (again, increasingly common in the PC market, but the mobile market pivoted to this earlier on in its lifecycle).

But that also doesn't mean they can't look good, or play well. Sound is often hardware dependent, for example. But gameplay loops do often suffer for the freemium model, even if they start off player-friendly.