GameRant.com: Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 is Long Overdue

[The_J]

The website GameRant has published an article about a topic, which is very dear to us, and which I think also feels very pressing to our community: The lack of Civ7.
Max Borman from GameRant complains, as we all do, that 2022 should be the year of Civ7, and that we've not gotten anything else in between.
An exceprt from the article:

Sid Meier's Civilization is a huge franchise, so a seventh one is most likely on the way, but it feels like it should have been here by now. Civilization fans have been playing the sixth entry for close to six years without another game to bridge the gap. Recently, there have been more Civilization-like games releasing which have given fans something to turn to, but they do not compare to the classic franchise. Firaxis Games needs to confirm the creation of Civilization 7 at least, because it is long overdue.

Read the full article here: https://gamerant.com/civilization-7-new-game-overdue-latest-release-2016/

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I feel like Covid has skewed a lot of the timing, including the perception. Civ 6 was released 2 years after the last Civ 5 patch.

The last patch for Civ 6 was in April 2021, so April 2023 coudl be a potential release and annoucement could be this year (though I feel like they may favor a release of October for the Civ 7, so a release of Civ 7 in October 2023 is my bet.

But this whole covid period, has felt like ages for a lot of things (and I'm sure Covid itself has delayed some production on Civ 7 with people learning to adapt to the WFH system).

"It took about six years for Firaxis Games to release Civilization 6 after the release of Civilization 5. The six-year timeframe is almost approaching"

Sure, but Civ 6 was the first iteration to have had 3 major post-game released (discounting the DLCs before Rise and Fall). Had it not been for New Frontier Pass, we'd probably have Civ 7 by now.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

"It took about six years for Firaxis Games to release Civilization 6 after the release of Civilization 5. The six-year timeframe is almost approaching"

Sure, but Civ 6 was the first iteration to have had 3 major post-game released (discounting the DLCs before Rise and Fall). Had it not been for New Frontier Pass, we'd probably have Civ 7 by now.

That's what I keep telling people. If we get more content with every new iteration, I expect the wait time between new games to be longer.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Taking your points about COVID and NFP, I read the GameRant article as complaining most about the SILENCE. Even after the sincere and genuine "thank you" videos from the Firaxis folks who worked on Civ 6, we've heard so little in terms of announcements. Or hints. We're left looking for numerology clues (7 leaders in a Thanksgiving picture, really?) or trying to parse SEC statements or hiring job descriptions.

I'm not sure whose directions on running a business they are following, but I would prefer a statement like, "Civ fans, you're the best fans in gaming. Dealing with the pandemic has complicated our business of game development, just as it has for every other industry. We continue to work on future turn-based strategy games in our franchise that you love so much. Look for more detailed announcements as we complete our testing and get closer to release." than just pure silence.

 

[kaspergm]

I would prefer a statement like, "Civ fans, you're the best fans in gaming. Dealing with the pandemic has complicated our business of game development, just as it has for every other industry. We continue to work on future turn-based strategy games in our franchise that you love so much. Look for more detailed announcements as we complete our testing and get closer to release." than just pure silence.

Of course you would. But that does not mean that would necessarily be the best strategy from a marketing pov. They can't start the hype train too early, less they risk running out of steam.

 

[Linklite]

With LEGO Skywalker Saga, there were a ton of delays and very few announcements. It was released two years late, with two release dates and only the barest of announcements to say that it had been indefinitely delayed, hardly any footage released and nothing else. The fanbase lost all hype over it.

1. In a way, I'm glad. Companies shouldn't be.announcing things years in advance..it causes all kinds of issues when things inevitable go wrong. I haven't enjoyed SS half as much as I would because I've spent the last two years giving up on it.

2. Game companies are very tight lipped. No news means nothing.

I highly doubt they'll give up on Civ VII. Civ VI was just far too popular. I appreciate that I don't have the same enthusiasm for the franchise as others do thanks to their abysmal treatment of their customers and so I'm a little more circumspect in my opinions, but seriously, calm down and realise that this is normal. If you haven't heard anything by Sept '23, then we can start even thinking about wondering. Sep '25, to allow for COVID, is when we can start panicking. We won't get that far.

If those dates sound far away, then you can appreciate why I'm very opposed to these complaints. We're a long way from when they become valid.

 

[UWHabs]

People generally speaking are more impatient, waiting 6+ years for a new game sequel does seem like forever. You have about 40 new Marvel movies come out in those 6 years, but a game studio like Firaxis isn't Marvel and can't churn out a completely new game every year.
Also, the current marketing cycle I think generally speaking is shorter than before, for a variety of reasons. Worry about missing targets and announcing a game way before it's available and then losing the hype cycle I would guess are the main factors. Also that everything is a digital download, you don't have to cut disks, and consumers don't have to worry about their local GameStop running out of copies, changes the needs of the cycle. Arguably Firaxis would also potentially lose out more if they announced a game with a 6 or 8 month lead time with a bunch of cool features, only for a smaller studio with one of the competing games potentially able to come in and snipe the feature and idea, and be able to roll it out before civ 7 even launches.

From the studio perspective, it's hard to balance. You want to stay engaged, and yeah, I think it would be nice if their social media did a little bit more than simply posting random civ memes every couple days. I mean, I think obviously the thing that we all hoped was happening was that as the NFP was going out, they were secretly already putting the final touches on the next game, so that maybe 6 months after NFP finished, they would already have civ 7 ready to go. But while I suspect there were teams already working on civ 7 during NFP, there's still a fairly long cycle afterwards.

I do still expect civ 7 will come out within the next year. And I do think they will have a relatively short period between announcement and release. Like if they announced the new game tomorrow, I would expect a release date in November-December.

 

[Linklite]

People generally speaking are more impatient, waiting 6+ years for a new game sequel does seem like forever.

It's 1 year. Time between sequels has been quite variable and especially with COVID, it's not a good metric. What has been consistent has been the time between the final major release of a game and the release of its successor, which has always been, with a single exception, two years. NFP ended last year.

Granted, there is some sponginess to that. NFP wasn't a full expansion and was released in 2020 and was clearly not made by the primary team, so it's possible that we'll get 7 earlier than you'd expect. On the other hand, COVID could mean delays.

But we need to remember the timer only started counting a year ago.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

I don't mind, as long as it's good, and I have little reason to doubt that they will try to make it good.
I'd much rather wait an additional year for a polished product, than have what certain other AAA companies are shoving in our face.
The amount of sh*te produced by companies like Activision and EA for instance, where fun is secondary, and rather milking the customer is the prime purpose.

 

[jozef57]

The website GameRant has published an article about a topic, which is very dear to us, and which I think also feels very pressing to our community: The lack of Civ7.
Max Borman from GameRant complains, as we all do, that 2022 should be the year of Civ7, and that we've not gotten anything else in between.
An exceprt from the article:


Read the full article here: https://gamerant.com/civilization-7-new-game-overdue-latest-release-2016/

aahh BE version say BE" lol would be a nice intermediary but yes need a civ 7 badly

 

[Ordnael]

Raining on wet here...I am more interested in a final patch for CIV VI, at least fix the AI science obsession. I don't mind losing a game now and then for the AI but losing because the freakin mongols got to alpha centauri first is very little immersive. I don't think the game is unplayable or unfun but come on... mongols should run you over not soar into the heavens!

 

[Krajzen]

As much as I am miffed by the usual long silent wait, I think complaining about is somewhat entitled approach.

Creating video games takes years, and in the case of big strategy games (firaxis, paradox, CA) it can easily take 3 - 4 years from the beginning to release. Civ5 was released 3 years since second Civ4 expansion, Civ6 was released 3 years since second Civ5 expansion. Maybe Civ7 could be expected to land 3 years after second Civ6 expansion as well (GS was in 2019) but even besides New Frontier Pass lasting untill early 2021 (!) there was this, you know, little deal called GLOBAL PANDEMIC which delayed a lot of software development across the world by many months. So once you factor in
- the "baseline" 3 year gap between previous iterations
- plus new games being more complex
- plus NFP (tbh I don't think it has delayed much if anything, it was probably handled by secondary crew)
- plus Covid being easily capable of slowing and delaying development by like 6 months or more
Then 2023 is very reasonable window, and in fact thanks to NFP the gap of silence is actually shorter than usually.

As for the approach of silence until few months before release, which is baseline approach of Firaxis, I am fully on board with it. Announcing games too early in dev is bane of modern AAA studios because the earlier you so that then
the higher is a risk of early stage promises clashing with dev issues later down the line, causing delayed releases if not broken promises or broken unfinished release. The extreme result of this trend is Cyberpunk 77.

 

[shaglio]

I'm not sure whose directions on running a business they are following, but I would prefer a statement like, "Civ fans, you're the best fans in gaming. Dealing with the pandemic has complicated our business of game development, just as it has for every other industry. We continue to work on future turn-based strategy games in our franchise that you love so much. Look for more detailed announcements as we complete our testing and get closer to release." than just pure silence.

That would be nice, but also dangerous for them. Even something as simple as the last line I bolded above would lead to some people claiming, "They PROMISED us information by the END OF THE MONTH and now they FAILED TO DELIVER on that promise. What kind of company are they? Lat's grab the pitchforks and torches!" I've already seen it happen here on several occasions in regard to supposed promises relating to "modability" and the release of the DLL.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I know some things, and I know that I don't know other things. I don't pretend to be an expert in marketing, especially video game marketing. I expect that someone higher up in the corporate food chain from the Firaxis team has dictated what they can say publicly and when. They are working on future products; they can't tell us which products, which I understand.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

People generally speaking are more impatient, waiting 6+ years for a new game sequel does seem like forever. You have about 40 new Marvel movies come out in those 6 years, but a game studio like Firaxis isn't Marvel and can't churn out a completely new game every year.

Yeah, the only game studio that can do that is GameFreak churning out a new Pokémon game every one to two years.
If you really want to talk about impatience, it's been about 12 years for people waiting for George R.R. Martin to finish his next book. Either way I'm sure Civ 7 will still come out before The Winds of Winter, so honestly 6 to 7 years isn't that bad at all compared to that.

 

[Jeppetto]

To add onto the debate of delays, Diablo 4 had its Cinematic Announcement Trailer 2 YEARS AGO and is still not released So I am not surprised by lateness of Civ 7. And given their recent communication at this point I wouldn't be surprised If the first time we hear about Civ 7 it will be 95% finished.

 

[Krajzen]

To add onto the debate of delays, Diablo 4 had its Cinematic Announcement Trailer 2 YEARS AGO and is still not released So I am not surprised by lateness of Civ 7. And given their recent communication at this point I wouldn't be surprised If the first time we hear about Civ 7 it will be 95% finished.

If vastly prefer Firaxis approach over waiting for Diablo 4, Scorn, Atomic Heart, Bleak Faith: Forsaken and Darkest Dungeon 2 for YEARS since their first trailer dropped...
Thanks God I was never interested in aforementioned Cyberpunk 77, now that is a model cautionary tale of announcing the game too early and providing promises years before realising you are incapable of delivering them

 

[caketastydelish]

I don't want the game released until it's polished. There's a chance I don't buy Civ 7 even when it's released unless the reviews say the vanilla of the game is complete. Otherwise it's probably more satisfying to play old civ games with much more content.

 

[TheSpaceCowboy]

As someone who went into the office every day during the shutdowns, I'm not accepting the excuse that Firaxis' choice to let their programmers sit at home in their underwear and pretend to work has delayed the game. I know that my frustration with Firaxis won't actually make the game come out any faster. But they have lost much of the goodwill I had towards them.

 

[Evie]

Yes, clearly your impatient desire for games is more important than limiting the spread of a deadly disease.

How much more entitled can you get?