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

[Laurana Kanan]

I don't really see the cancellation having much more than a negligible impact on the marketing only. I certainly don't see it affecting an announcement or release schedule. If the assumption is correct that the next Civ game reveal is imminent, surely the announcement, marketing, and release schedule have all been fairly nailed down already.

For context, by the time of E3 in 2016 we'd already had an announcement with trailer, three first looks, and a community Q&A stream in the intervening month and a half. All E3 did for the broader community outside the event was to provide a couple walkthroughs of the game. Something that could just as easily be done w/o a connection to a particular event. Though SGF would be a viable alternative.

 

[Haig]

I think announcement is on last week of April or sometime in May.

 

[pokiehl]

I think announcement is on last week of April or sometime in May.

I like this optimism!

 

[queenpea]

((BRACING MYSELF)) for some expected foolery on the CivGame Twitter feed tomorrow as it's April 1...

 

[Nikolai II]

I think announcement is on last week of April or sometime in May.

Optimism, I approve. I doubt it though. It seems to me the semi announcement was more of a "we have to say something" after the personell changes?

 

[AntSou]

Optimism, I approve. I doubt it though. It seems to me the semi announcement was more of a "we have to say something" after the personell changes?

That doesn't explain them mentioning it again in the livestreams, twice. Firaxis being Firaxis, they'd have kept absolutely silent about it.

 

[Manol0]

All I wish for CIV VII is to keep fantasy concept and fantasy elements in general out of it. The experiment of a fantasy CIV (Beyond earth) title didnt work in the past afaik. My biggest fear is to see for example a Warhammer Civilization title.

 

[Takhisis]

My biggest fear is to see for example a Warhammer Civilization title.

Clearly that should be an expansion in the form of a DLC with incorporated DRM that costs only a measly 70 non-Zimbabwean dollars.

 

[Naokaukodem]

Warhammer Civilization title.

That already exists if i'm correct, got given free on Epic a couple weeks ago.

 

[Nikolai II]

All I wish for CIV VII is to keep fantasy concept and fantasy elements in general out of it. The experiment of a fantasy CIV (Beyond earth) title didnt work in the past afaik. My biggest fear is to see for example a Warhammer Civilization title.

BE is scifi, not fantasy.

 

[Manol0]

BE is scifi, not fantasy.

Well I call this fantasy

 

[legalizefreedom]

To each their own I guess. I would love a fantasy or scifi civ. It's the real life stuff that turns me off. While civ isn't as in-your-face with real life elements as say, Call of Duty, it's still not the most interesting setting IMO.

 

[Krajzen]

To each their own I guess. I would love a fantasy or scifi civ. It's the real life stuff that turns me off. While civ isn't as in-your-face with real life elements as say, Call of Duty, it's still not the most interesting setting IMO.

I'm somewhat confused. The entire purpose of Civ series is to be based around history, it's essentially a historical strategy game*. It's literally the entire purpose and scope of the series and nothing more, and for this reason the majority of players explicitly very much do not want many non - historical elements there - as there are separate games devoted to them (I'm all for great fantasy games btw). What exactly brings you to play Civ if you don't like its fundamental genre, scope and themes? Expecting Civ not being historical is to me like expecting Elden Ring to be realistic and down to earth, or for CoD games to feature pacifist way of playing, it's just knocking to the wrong door.

* - (yeah yeah I know, to be exactly precise I should say it's merely historically inspired game, whatever, you know what I mean, by such strict criteria there are almost no historical games at all, nor could they ever be. Personally I am a fan of using simple categories for video game genres such as historical, sci fi, fantasy etc instead of academic disputes splitting hairs about the concept of realism and whatnot)

 

[Pistol90]

Just normal civ sequel, historical turn-based game

Already it is too much waiting from Civ6, and if this next chapter is not normal civ game, that would mean more than decade without new normal civ game.

 

[vorlon_mi]

To each their own I guess. I would love a fantasy or scifi civ. It's the real life stuff that turns me off. While civ isn't as in-your-face with real life elements as say, Call of Duty, it's still not the most interesting setting IMO.

I think what we're talking about is abstraction/simplification vs. physics and movement.

In a first-person shooter (like Call of Duty), one needs to worry about ammo, about visibility, about moving over terrain and around obstacles. For me, that's less fun. I don't have the reflexes any more to respond to monsters or snipers or tanks maneuvering around me in real time.

The entire Civ franchise (included BE) has to simplify some aspects to give us a simulation of a whole society. We have yields (production, gold/energy, culture, science, faith) that are abstractions of how a society works. Military unit A attacks military unit B according to abstract rules; the game gives us combat modifiers and bonuses. It matters less if that unit is a submarine (or really a group of submarines), a knight (or a group of knights), an alien wolf beetle, a squad of orc infantry, or a levitating tank. Building an empire composed of "cities" that are simplifications is fun for me. I don't know -- or want to know -- what happens in the streets of the simplified cities when the city is bombarded by catapult/trebuchet/artillery or overrun by an army of spearmen or tanks.

I agree; the real-life elements of a tactical simulation turn me off. I prefer the abstraction that we've seen all through the Civ franchise. I'm still getting used to the specifics of Old World, where it matters what your daughter thinks and what religion is adopted by the dominant family in that city over there.

 

[Nikolai II]

Well I call this fantasy

It's the definition of sci fi settling of a new world with alien flora and fauna?

 

[blackbutterfly]

I predict a card based combat system for Civ next.
Like from Marvel's Midnight Suns:

TBH if I were Firaxis I would implement this in a Civ offshoot like BE2 to test it out before incorporating it into the next Civ.
Civ VII.

 

[pokiehl]

I don’t see any reason to think that. Civ has never incorporated XCOM gameplay mechanics.

I also think that, if they’re being at all sensitive to the common critique that Civ 6 is too “gamey”, then a card-based combat system for Civ 7 is very unlikely.

 

[blackbutterfly]

I don’t see any reason to think that. Civ has never incorporated XCOM gameplay mechanics.

XCOM Squad in Civ V?

Never say never

 

[pokiehl]

XCOM Squad in Civ V?

Never say never

Yeah that's a unit, not a gameplay mechanic. I actually wish the XCOM Squad had made a comeback in Civ 6, but alas.