Announcing Civilization Network for Facebook!

[RedRalph]

What confuses me is the business thinking behind this. This project can't be much of a money-spinner: at any rate surely there is no way no how it could make the same kind of money CivV would. So why do this, from a financial POV?

 

[toft]

This is what every business man would do to milk the franchise, and what every diehard fan would avoid like the plague. I hope it crashes and burns.

 

[RedRalph]

This is what every business man would do to milk the franchise, and what every diehard fan would avoid like the plague. I hope it crashes and burns.

But how is it going to make Firaxis any money?

 

[bigdog5994]

But how is it going to make Firaxis any money?

like other posters have said it might bring in new fans that didnt even know about Civ

 

[toft]

But how is it going to make Firaxis any money?

Theres a lot of browser games funded by small purchases for upgrades/skins - some even give a clear advantage over other players not using money.

 

[RedRalph]

like other posters have said it might bring in new fans that didnt even know about Civ

Theres a lot of browser games funded by small purchases for upgrades/skins - some even give a clear advantage over other players not using money.

It still makes non sense unless they are doing it in tandem with a product that will actually wring some money out of new fans, ie. civV. and don't foget this probably costs a fair bit to develop - money that could have been spent on CivV.

I'm not saying this wont be fun, I'll almost definitely give it a go myself, but I'm baffled by it.

 

[MqsTout]

What a waste of resources -- including manhours and talent. This is even worse than EA dumping Soren on some stupid web-based mini-games project.

 

[Sherlock]

like other posters have said it might bring in new fans that didnt even know about Civ

Yes, but when your entire last four games can be bought on steam for twenty bucks, who cares about new fans?

They need new, full-price product to sell.

CIV 5.

Alpha Centauri II.

SOMETHING.

This reminds me of Tilted Mill, the great company that made Caesar, Pharoah, Children of the Nile. They'll never do another 'full-scale' game again. They're done. They're doing crappy little download games. Is this the future of Firaxis?

 

[Copperwater]

I've been thinking, this may possibly be a prelude for Civ V. If put on Facebook, EVERYONE will have access to a Civ game. It will spread like wild fire. And Firaxis is going to PERFECT this before releasing it, because it will have the chance to either recruit more fans or deter them. People who have never heard of Civ will get invites, which will open up the Civ market. And the more customers Firaxis gets mean the more the demand for a new game (not to mention $).
Civ V may already be in its testing stages, but they may not announce it until the market explodes like I'm predicting.

I'm guessing the whole thing is to promote the Civilization franchise to Facebook users as well as to test mulitplayer features.

Multiplayer has always been Civ's Achilles' heel. Facebook can give instantaneous feedbacks to whatever Firaxis is trying to achieve in multiplayer. I'm predicting a new direction in mulitplayer for Civ5.

As for promotion of the franchise, I think this is to increase its fanbase. Since Two-Take's less-than-impressive financial performance for the past year, it's unimaginable but likely that they would give Civ the axe (look at just what happen to Age of Empires!).

With potentially billions of fans (thanks to Facebook!), I doubt Take-Two would want to axe Civ lest they anger us all.

I support this idea of Civ in Facebook. It breathes fresh air into the franchise. We don't want Civ to be like Koei's Romance of the 3 Kingdoms; it has become quite stale...

 

[Howei]

facebook

come on Firaxis - make something serious. Make CIV5!!!

 

[CorSaiR]

suck.

 

[arhancsm]

Really? This is what they are coming up with. I understand social media is a big thing now; but to be honest most of the games on facebook are lame. Do they want to be a brand extension with the other lame games on facebook?

Sounds like they did a lot of focus groups on this and decided not to listen to anyone. The CEO lacks vision of this company; its sad

 

[LegioCorvus]

There is a lot of chicken little in this thread.

 

[bigdog5994]

It still makes non sense unless they are doing it in tandem with a product that will actually wring some money out of new fans, ie. civV. and don't foget this probably costs a fair bit to develop - money that could have been spent on CivV.

I'm not saying this wont be fun, I'll almost definitely give it a go myself, but I'm baffled by it.

this is what im hoping for

 

[Lay_Lay]

Of course, the main goals of the project include:
- Reaching a new market segment, in this case one with a much larger potential than its current market
- Building goodwill and brand loyalty with the new market segment

For all we know, Facebook will pay Firaxis a fee - lump sum or per player. But I think deep down we all know that they are not finished making games we will enjoy, even we, that tiny minority group of Fanatics who are crazy about our CIV.

 

[bonafide11]

I've said for a while that it will be a long time before we see Civ 5. It will happen eventually, but it won't be anytime soon. Probably at least 5 years or so down the road. I think Sid feels, perhaps rightly so, that there has not been a large enough technology upgrade since Civ 4 to justify making a new one. If they made a new one, it would just be adding more stuff to the game instead of making a new game.

The Civ Network just proves that Firaxis is exploring new avenues to make the game until computers are updated enough to justify a new Civ. The tech just isn't there right now.

 

[gsfgf]

For all you FB peeps, I found a FB group that's called Civ Fanatics Central and lists this site as it's webpage. We should all join so we can play fb civ against each other.

Btw, it's great to have the civ bug again. I've been too busy for full games, but the nature of a fb app must mean that we'll be able to play multiplayer without having to dedicate hours at a time. You'll be able to sorta play it in the background like that farmville game.

Woohoo! I'm so pumped about this. Gonna go play a GOTM.

 

[Vortilex]

They stole my sig!

 

[BaronVonHungste]

I think that this is a great idea and can't wait to see it start. A lot of people hang out on the social networks and this can help bring Civ to them. The PC game takes a lot of time and energy and is awesome, but there's something to be said for being able to hook your friends in. There is always time for the core game later on. Monopoly Streets turned out to be too simple and buggy and the Twitter games don't have the depth that Civilization brings. Hopefully it's something where you can take over the world block by block or street by street, but I can't wait for a more complicated real life rpg.

I agree. Civilization Network will bring the Civilization series to the mainstream where many friends IRL will probably give it a shot b/c it's on Facebook. Btw, Facebook is a great way to find and keep in touch with friends that you haven't seen in a while or moved away. Hopefully the translation and implementation will be successful.

 

[Thoughtful Thug]

I agree with BaronVonHungste. This will enable more people to be exposed of this great brand, and the very fact that if successful, we will surely have more future titles and more players to buy them. Facebook is a great start.

I wonder if any other notable pc oriented games is doing this? Like Halo Network for Facebook as an example.

Anyway I hope the game will be Civilization 3 Conquest or something like that. Not alot of people in Facebook I assume have a rig that meet heavy system requirements.