April Fool's: 2K buys Paradox, Millennia is the "next civ game in development"

[The_J]

Breaking news!
According to latest news, as reported by Kotaku, PCGames, and others, 2K has announced that it is buying Paradox Games, and that the next part of the Civ series is actually the just released Millennia.
The articles say that 2K has been actively looking into expanding their portfolio (as also shown last week's purchase of Gearbox), and given that many people who play Civ also play the grand strategy games from Paradox, this is surely a welcome addition.
Regarding Civ7, internal sources said the following: "We finally started work on Civ VII in 2023, despite not being really satisfied with the ideas we had for it. Then in February we tried the Millennia demo, and realized it was way better than what we had internally. So we made some inquiries, and are now pleased to announce that we have bought Paradox Interactive!". The original "Civ7" team is said to now be working on Millennia DLCs. At least one article mentioned that the highest priority DLC was for customizable GDR skins (most likely part of the Atomic Ambitions DLC), as they would be especially noteworthy on Millennia's combat screen. The GDR has been a favourite of the civ community for years, so the sales of this DLC are expected to be considerable.
Sid Meier himself is said to be particularly fond of the alternative ages. This would allow further alternative choices, like generating an actually flat earth in the Millennia universe. Flat earths have been for a long time well represented in Civ, ignoring all issues with map projections. The devs hope that an in-world flat earth will finally satisfy people who have been critical onf the grid-based movement, which does not scale well with the latitude on a globe, but does not cause issues on a flat earth.
Among the more usual details are that beloved leaders like Gandhi and Napoleon will be reintroduced into the now leaderless Millennia game, and that new civs like the Maya, Poland or Australia will be available as future DLCs.


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Personal opinion:
When the "next part of the civ series" was announced last year, lots of speculations popped up if it would be Civ7, Civ:BE2 or another spinoff. If we now look at it, it seems they planned to buy another game from the beginning, no? This allowed them to be flexible, as actually nobody ever said "Civ7". And that Firaxis is now working on Millennia DLCs... I think that also fits. They worked a lot on small items, like the NFP, or the recent monthly challenges. I think it is better this way, they have now a lot of experience with bite-sized content, and should expand on that.

Sources:
- https://www.kotaku.com/2024/03/2K-buys-paradox-millennia-civ7/
- https://www.pcgamer.com/Firaxis-Paradox-merger/
- https://en.ign.com/civilization-7/979615/news/millennia-next-civ


NOTE: This thread will probably later be moved to the Millennia subforum.


EDIT: Attention, April Fools' joke .

 

[Kyriakos]

I hear it also bought Microsoft and Google.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

This tells us several things:

1. Millennia being "way better than what (they) had internally" is a ghastly indicator of the lack of imagination and competence in the Firaxis team. That they couldn't come up with anything better than Millennia given all the examples of what works and what doesn't from multiple renditions of Civ, Humankind, Old World, et al indicates a level of incapability only matched by Congress.
Well, okay, not That Bad, but Lord, Not Good.

2. This also indicates, bet on it, that any Firaxis development team is either already or soon will be cut to the Bone. Millennia needs no animated leaders, no detailed graphics, no detailed units - everybody who used to work on such things, or on game development in general, can now be let go. Bottom Line: cheap games at premium prices.

3. We will now be 'gifted' with several years of Millennia DLCs and add-ons, based on a game with serious basic deficiencies even compared with Civ VI. Those deficiencies will not be addressed, because the Development Team required to adequately address them will be missing.

4. Moving this Thread to Millennia Sub-Forum is not the only change to CivFanatics: Millennia must now go to the top of the Thread/Forum list, with Civ VI among the 'old' Civ and non-Civ games represented on the Forum. You could change the name of the Forum to MillenniaFanatics, but that might be mistaken for MillennialFanatics and leave out entire age groups - including me.

 

[Kanados]

This tells us one thing. Happy April fools day!

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

"2K buys Paradox" nearly gave me a heart attack. What a way to start the month!

Is it bad I wonder if a buyout would leash PDX into better quality control?

 

[vorlon_mi]

Super nerdy April Fool! Well done!

"generating an actual flat earth" Hilarious!

 

[<Nexus>]

"generating an actual flat earth" Hilarious!

Yeah, that part was starting to make me angry, as "This ISN'T what we want! "
...than I started thinking: "Hey! Isn't today the first of April?! " ->

Most believable (and most cruel) April's fool's joke ever!

 

[The_J]

4. Moving this Thread to Millennia Sub-Forum is not the only change to CivFanatics: Millennia must now go to the top of the Thread/Forum list, with Civ VI among the 'old' Civ and non-Civ games represented on the Forum. You could change the name of the Forum to MillenniaFanatics, but that might be mistaken for MillennialFanatics and leave out entire age groups - including me.

For this matter, please check this thread: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/should-we-re-name-us-to-millennia-fanatics.688885/

 

[Xandinho]

Guys, this is certainly an April Fool's joke.
OMG, I really hope it is.

 

[blackbutterfly]

A better April Fool's is Forbes rated Civ VI #1 strategy game
https://www.forbes.com/sites/technology/article/strategy-games/?sh=7fba45a768fc

The no.1 strategy game is Marvel's Midnight Suns!

 

[Core Imposter]

I am still playing Civ IV because, why not?

 

[Bandenere]

This game was sunken by bad reviews on DAY1. I doubt there is anything interesting here. I wonder why this game was so pumped up.

 

[Quintillus]

^The main criticism was the quality of the graphics, followed by multiplayer. This could be just what Millennia needs, the talented art folks at Firaxis could spiff things up quickly, Firaxis has lots of multiplayer experience, and I can say from experience that the core gameplay is fun. There's even a possibility that it could reach Civ IV levels of refinement now.

Still a surprise, I would've thought Firaxis would stick with their existing franchise. But it does explain the absence of Civ VII news that I've been noting in various threads for a few months now.

 

[twansalem]

Check today's date everyone! Got me for a second though. And if you still think it is real and not an April Fool's joke, click on the links. They're all dead links.

 

[Core Imposter]

oh lawd

 

[Broken_Erika]

Considering that all 3 articles seem to have disappeared, and the current date....

 

[Miserable Old Git]

Errr.... it's 1st April. April Fool. perhaps?

 

[pokiehl]

Nothing gets past you guys!

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

^The main criticism was the quality of the graphics, followed by multiplayer.

For real: from the playthroughs I've watched, the core gameplay seems solid. The only consistent complaint is the CtP-style battle window which, given it amounts to a dolled-up after-action report, is really just a cosmetic fumble.

 

[pokiehl]

For real: from the playthroughs I've watched, the core gameplay seems solid. The only consistent complaint is the CtP-style battle window which, given it amounts to a dolled-up after-action report, is really just a cosmetic fumble.

There’s actually a lot of criticism of the gameplay itself. Check out IGN’s 5/10 review, for example.