Official announcement: Hot off the presses. Next Civ game in development!!!!!!!

[InsidiousMage]

Are we supposed to be surprised that he doesn't even have an advanced copy considering for all we know they just started developing the game?

The quote of the from press release says "in development," not "started development" so I think it safe to say they've been working on it for a while probably.

"I'm thrilled to have this opportunity to carry on the studio's storied legacy, beginning with the announcement that Firaxis is in development on the next iteration of the legendary Civilization franchise,"

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

There's no way that they just started. The overwhelming majority of the Civilization team isn't working on the latest DLC and surely they've been doing something in all the time since Gathering Storm.

Yeah, working on Midnight Suns.

The quote of the from press release says "in development," not "started development" so I think it safe to say they've been working on it for a while probably.

Yeah, I looked it up and apparently development could have started as early as August 2021.

 

[queenpea]

Yeah, working on Midnight Suns.

Yeah, I looked it up and apparently development could have started as early as August 2021.

Where did you see August 2021?

 

[Kwami]

Yeah, working on Midnight Suns.

The X-COM team made Midnight Suns. It's a different group of people.

 

[InsidiousMage]

Yeah, working on Midnight Suns.

Firaxis as two development teams and the X-Com team was the one that actually worked on Midnight Suns, not the Civilization team.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Where did you see August 2021?

Just news articles considering that's when Firaxis was posting new jobs, but I'd also take that with a grain of salt.

The X-COM team made Midnight Suns. It's a different group of people.

Okay. Still nothing indicates to me that they have been working on it since 2019. It seems like 2021 might have been the earliest which was after all the NFP content was released, if you believe the articles..

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

There are some units that crossover, like the art team. I suspect some of the lower level programmers do too. Most of the QA is outsourced to 2K.

But each franchise has a core group of devs dedicated to it, and they generally don't stray from their own projects.

So, the producers have probably been working towards Civ 7 since the release of GS. Part of them did NFP with Anton Strenger. Some are doing LP. But work towards 7 has probably been ongoing throughout.

Now, the other programmers and the art team that switch between franchises have probably only recently begun doing Civ 7 work, since MMS came out a few months ago. Some of them are still working on MMS patches and DLCs.

But I would guess that the feature designs have been roughed in, the civ roster has been selected, and the civ abilities have been laid out in a rough way, and first pass art is probably trickling in.

 

[InsidiousMage]

Okay. Still nothing indicates to me that they have been working on it since 2019. It seems like 2021 might have been the earliest which was after all the NFP content was released.

The development cycle of games nowadays is so incredibly long that Firaxis almost certain started development on the next Civ game before Civ6 even finished, probably in between R&F and GS. You don't just have people sitting around doing nothing, they have to work on something and as development on Civ6 wound down more and more people started working on Civ7. Firaxis themselves said that both NFP and the LP aren't being done by the full team so what would the rest of the team be working on? The next Civ game.

Here is a tweet by Jason Schreier that makes the point is a pretty blunt way.

 

[pokiehl]

The development cycle of games nowadays is so incredibly long that Firaxis almost certain started development on the next Civ game before Civ6 even finished, probably in between R&F and GS. You don't just have people sitting around doing nothing, they have to work on something and as development on Civ6 wound down more and more people started working on Civ7. Firaxis themselves said that both NFP and the LP aren't being done by the full team so what would the rest of the team be working on? The next Civ game.

Here is a tweet by Jason Schreier that makes the point is a pretty blunt way.

I posted the same tweet here a while ago and agree with you. Case in point: some of the Lua script files for Civ 6 are internally dated to as far back as 2013. I have no doubt development started long before that too.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

The development cycle of games nowadays is so incredibly long that Firaxis almost certain started development on the next Civ game before Civ6 even finished, probably in between R&F and GS. You don't just have people sitting around doing nothing, they have to work on something and as development on Civ6 wound down more and more people started working on Civ7. Firaxis themselves said that both NFP and the LP aren't being done by the full team so what would the rest of the team be working on? The next Civ game.

Considering Civ 6 is still in development I'm not disagreeing on the fact that development on Civ 7 started in the middle of Civ 6 cycle. Then again, I just looked up articles saying when it could have started, but I also said it's all speculation which I should clarify. I can definitely see them starting after GS, considering that was supposed to be the original end of Civ 6 content.

 

[j51]

I've been wondering for a while now if the Leader Pass is a way of hinting that these fan favorite/highly requested leaders aren't going to be in Civ VII (at least for a long while) so we're gonna give them to you now in VI as a treat.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

I've been wondering for a while now if the Leader Pass is a way of hinting that these fan favorite/highly requested leaders aren't going to be in Civ VII (at least for a long while) so we're gonna give them to you now in VI as a treat.

I'd be surprised if Elizabeth stopped appearing in every Civ iteration, but then again, it's taken them about 6 to 7 years to add her.

 

[j51]

I'd be surprised if Elizabeth stopped appearing in every Civ iteration, but then again, it's taken them about 6 to 7 years to add her.

Yeah she's definitely the biggest counterpoint to my theory.

 

[queenpea]

I've been wondering for a while now if the Leader Pass is a way of hinting that these fan favorite/highly requested leaders aren't going to be in Civ VII (at least for a long while) so we're gonna give them to you now in VI as a treat.

Oh, poor Nader Shah, we hardly knew ye.

 

[InsidiousMage]

I can definitely see them starting after GS, considering that was supposed to be the original end of Civ 6 content.

If GS was the original planned end point then they would have had to start development on Civ7 before R&F was released. Again, development take a long time nowadays so they've been, at least, working on the broad strokes of the next game for a while now. I didn't bookmark the post but one of the Paradox devs pointed out that they were actively developing Crusader Kings 3 before they even released the last DLC for CK2. Firaxis has almost certainly been working on the next Civ 7 game for a while now and they haven't then there is probably some internal issues they are having. I would be kind of shocked if Civ7 isn't released by the holiday season this year given how long its been since Civ6 launched.

 

[The_goggles_do_nothing]

I would think they want you tubers to make content about the Leader Pass right now because they are still making money on civ6, simple as that.

 

[Gedemon]

Just news articles considering that's when Firaxis was posting new jobs, but I'd also take that with a grain of salt.

Okay. Still nothing indicates to me that they have been working on it since 2019. It seems like 2021 might have been the earliest which was after all the NFP content was released, if you believe the articles..

2021 + 6, that would mean a release date in 2027 or 2028.

I share the opinion that development on civ7 have started before the end of the civ6 "main" phase of development (and IMO before the second expansion was released)

 

[Naokaukodem]

On the topic of civilizations to include : just make the 200+ actual countries of the world for more appeal, and the past ones too (how many ?). With just unique city names. Well, that would involve not having unique leaders, which hasn't been made even in Civ1, so be a major revolution for the series, like 1UPT or hexes in Civ5 and 6. I don't think the meta game would suffer too much from this, after all who gives a heck of schyzophrenic annoying leaders saying bullcrap all the day long ? The only issue would be with gandhi nuke memes, but I'm sure people here could remind him and still make jokes about India behavior in the game. After all the series has a past. I know, there's more than gandhi, you folks love to describe how sneaky Napoleon in Civ5 is, or Shaka a warmonger. But as said, that's just a forum and the meta game will probably not suffer from it, and it's just a forum, it's a forum and i'm sure you will continue to try to recognize who is the leader of which civ here, so no worries.

Ah, I know it's an unpopular idea... but, enemy leader heads appart, Civ2 had only names as uniques, names of the inhabitants, adjectives, etc. not to forget the most important in my eyes : city names. I don't know if we could add more uniques beside cooking special abilities, but cheap to make uniques would come in handy. I'm not expecting any idea from you though, I'm more enclined to think that when it comes to ideas (especially other's) it's pretty much the desert over here. (and I'm the same for other's suggestions )

But, as a last pledge for my idea, I would just tell that there could still leader heads in the form of generic 2D or even 3D models generated by an AI. Would be cool if devs could give a form to the style of them too. Pixar, Disney, or Firaxis. I don't know if every civilization would have the same leader each time, but different (supposing lh are generated through internet or something, unless they are generated preemptively by devs and include them in the final product, what wuold be best ?) each time if generated with a procedure be them the same real life leaders or all kinds of leaders the AI could find.

***

On the topic of release date, I would assume that they have started the developement quite a while ago, (or at least in not in starting phase anymore), but there is still work to do, IF the declaration is accurate. So release date in 2024 or 2025. If the declaration is not accurate and just vague, then it could be 2023 indeed.

 

[pokiehl]

But, as a last pledge for my idea, I would just tell that there could still leader heads in the form of generic 2D or even 3D models generated by an AI.

Like it or not, Civ is a franchise built around immortal leader personalities. That’s not going way. And there’s no way they’re going to decrease the production value of Civ 7. It’s a AAA flagship title.

 

[Thormodr]

You know what else has been winning formula? Steadily adding more civs from more regions of the world, as every civ game sells more copies than the former one and as the addition of, for example, Brazil, or Indonesia, or Vietnam makes for a great advertisement of the game in those countries.

More civs is good, yeah. More European civs + more non-European civs is good.

Doesn't hurt to "advertise" in those countries, for sure.