Parallel development of Civ6 and Civ7?

[Tomice]

In the "winter update" speculation thread, many forumites mentioned how the games industry shifted towards ongoing long-term game development ("games as a service"). It is believed that civ6 might have a third expansion for the first time due to this.

This brought me to this thought:
Is it imaginable that we get Civ7 at some point and Civ6 continues to be developed?

Studios like Paradox (Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, Imperator: Rome) and Creative Assembly (Total War) already have this kind of parallel development (admittedly, their games only cover a part of history and a part of the world).

Is it possible that Civ7 won't be an evolution of Civ6, but makes some radical design changes (e.g. returning to stacked armies in the tradition of Civ4)? And that Civ6 continues to be developed to please the 1UPT crowd?
I could imagine a large interest in a "Remaster" of Civ4, taking some of the best aspects of Civ5/6 (hexes!) but otherwise representing a fundamentally different playstyle than Civ6.

 

[Pistol]

I dont belive. I think will pretty much remain same for next 20 years

 

[Lord Yanaek]

Paradox is still an exception in the industry, being famous (or infamous depending who you ask) for very long game support and lots of expansions.
I don't have any magical crystal ball of course but i doubt Civ6 will still be developed after Firaxis starts working on Civ7. It's not just a matter of releasing new expansions, there's also the issue of the ageing game engine and the necessity to rewrite (possibly large) chunks of code. The issue is very visible currently with Stellaris (Paradox space 4x) whose engine is really showing it's limits as they keep adding new stuff to compute and they are constantly trying to optimize the engine without being able to really reduce the late game lag (game can become unplayable on large galaxies towards the end).

 

[SephiBBZ]

Civ 7 is for 2025 approximately.

They need to put the game in the good centuary.

You know like divisions bronze/silver/gold/plat/diamond

 

[Isengardtom]

It’s an interesting thought. But I think they need to balance these things carefully. It’s risky to invest in too much development staff I think. concentrating on multiple big projects at the same time can make you lose focus

that being said, I think it’s logical to assume some continuing development on VI, especially with it bring multi platform now

 

[Tomice]

There is of course also the possibility of another spin-off before Civ7 appears, but what should it be?
Beyond Earth is merely 5 years old and wasn't overly popular, so no reason to assume they'll create a sequel anytime soon.
Colonization, Railroads! and Pirates! don't scream for a sequel either.

The only spin-off I could imagine would be a "Fantasy Civ", but that's 100x more risky than having two versions of "normal" Civ with different gameplay principles.

Actually, a civ version focused on realism/immersion/simulation would probably be way more popular, especially after the rather "gamey" approach to Civ6 (both in graphics and gameplay) and especially if civ6 still receives support or even expansions.

Having a different focus/approach would also save them from having a bazillion "Civ6+expansions is still better" threads all over the internet for 2-3 years.

 

[Victoria]

My guess is VII is already conceptuallyunderway but perhaps is now in suspension to a degree awaiting how Humankind is welcomed in the marketplace. Personally I would be trying to polish VI up to see how it goes competitively vs Humankind at release before dedicating too much energy to a design that may in some way not be advantageous to pursue.

 

[Tomice]

My guess is VII is already conceptuallyunderway but perhaps is now in suspension to a degree awaiting how Humankind is welcomed in the marketplace. Personally I would be trying to polish VI up to see how it goes competitively vs Humankind at release before dedicating too much energy to a design that may in some way not be advantageous to pursue.

I had similar thoughts, though I'm unsure whether humankind will have enough budget and polish to qualify as a competitor (haven't played endless legend, so I simply can't judge the studio).

But since they are the only real competitor, it might be wise to first see what they are up to.

 

[criZp]

Sega is no small publisher, so if they are serious about getting a piece of the civ cake I'm sure they will put decent money into the first entry to make a good first impression.

 

[The googles do nothing]

This brought me to this thought:
Is it imaginable that we get Civ7 at some point and Civ6 continues to be developed?

Civ 6 might get ported to more platforms while Civ 7 is out. I don't follow console so I'm not sure which ones are left. The new apple tv pucks have games would be one place.

It could be that the requirements to run Civ7 are so high that a large number of people can run it and the support Civ 6 until the market grows for 7. That would be a strange way to sell a game.

My crazy idea is to make a deal with google to have Civ 7 on Stadia and have google do the AI. Without having worry about out spec-ing the market they could really make something amazing.

 

[criZp]

Stadia might as well be dead already. It does not support mods either, and Firaxis clearly doesn't care about the AI.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I can make an Absolutely Certain Prediction of the future developments: They will do whatever they think will make the most money, because first, last, and always game development and sale is a For Profit Business. Everything else, in the end, comes a Distant Second.

Reference the 'polish' of Humankind: Not only does Sega have some Deep Pockets, but Amplitude's previous games, Endless Space 2 and Endless Legend are both quite polished, well-done, and both are still receiving Updates even as (presumably) most of their resources are going into Humankind development. The Games2Gether website that supports them, although having nothing like the numbers of CivFanatics, is still quite active for both of the earlier games, so Interest Continues. They also have a "Humankind Speculation" section, although I find that there is just about as much posting here as there - again, a bigger Pool of speculators to draw on.

Another Pretty Durned Certain Prediction: Whatever else Humankind does, it has focused attention on Graphic Possibilities. Even if as a playable game it does a spectacular Face Plant (which I devoutly hope does not happen) the mass of commentary on the simply fantastic graphics of the game will force the Civ Franchise to do some serious re-thinking of their graphics. I haven't been able to play a game of Civ VI for almost two months now, because it just looks mediocre and downright bland in comparison to what I now know can be done. I don't think I will be alone in that attitude.

Finally, look at the Longer View. IF Humankind is a success, and proves that there is room for more than one Historical (or Semi-Historical, to be accurate) 4X commercial game, Another absolutely Guaranteed Prediction is that there will be more such 4X games designed and marketed. Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Business, and in this business and any other, if it succeeds, it will be Imitated and 'copied'.

 

[criZp]

Are you writing from a phone or what is up with all the capitalizing of random mid-sentence letters?

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Emphasis. Been translating a lot of messages from Field Marshal von Kluge, commander of the German 4th Army in October 1941, for a book, and that gentleman like to underline words at semi-random throughout his official messages. It gets contagious, but I find Capitalization not quite as annoying. . . .

 

[UWHabs]

Generally speaking, you don't want to cannibalize your own market, and since civ 6 and civ 7 will presumably be targeting the same players, I wouldn't foresee them wanting to split the dev team into 2.

Now that being said, I very much expect that civ 7 is already either in development already, or if not, it's definitely in the planning stages. If their history is any concern, then civ 7 will have a new Lead, someone who is already with the team and who had a heavy influence on the expansions, meaning it's very likely going to be Anton's game. I could definitely see them wanting to shorten the time between games if they do want to "parallelize" the development, meaning we could see a civ 6 XP come out this Winter, and then civ 7 announced next year for a 2021 or 2022 release. Of course, whether they do any work into a new colonization/BE/etc... spinoff game is another matter. Given how much work they've put into the WorldBuilder and how elaborate they can create scenarios, it wouldn't surprise me if they could crank out some sort of unique alternate game without a ton of dev work, but whether any work on that would affect timelines for 7 is another matter.

And also, I doubt that civ 7 is "on hold" waiting for their rival. If anything it might speed up development there, so that they can get the new version of civ out before too long. If Humankind comes out to positive reviews, and civ7 is still 3+ years away, that's potentially trouble for the civ franchise. I mean, 7 will still sell very well, but if people have mostly switched over to Humankind because it's the "newer" toy on the block and does things in a unique way, they might be slower to switch back.

 

[Victoria]

that gentleman like to underline words at semi-random throughout his official messages

There was quite a bit of paranoia going around not helped by the Abwehr, not sure all the underlining was by gentlemen.

I find Capitalization

Messages with lots of caps are a hotbed of double meanings as I understand it. Fascinated by the work you are doing, have you considered the duality of these messages? I know Kluge was very loyal but not fanatical. You must have some good insights into his personality.

it's very likely going to be Anton's game.

He has been suspiciously absent of late.

I doubt that civ 7 is "on hold"

Hold/suspension is too harder word but I think too much commitment to a given path has risks when there was s a serious contender which will be producing some hard stats only a few months into the future.

 

[cvb]

Messages with lots of caps are a hotbed of double meanings as I understand it.

Depends on what you are used to. It certainly can help to quicker grasp the Sentence'structure, if you capitalize the Nouns. But of course you can also generate a lot of double Meanings by explicitly not following the standard Rules.

[Anton] has been suspiciously absent of late.

He is busy with Rise&Fall(2).

.

 

[Fluphen Azine]

My guess is VII is already conceptuallyunderway but perhaps is now in suspension to a degree awaiting how Humankind is welcomed in the marketplace. Personally I would be trying to polish VI up to see how it goes competitively vs Humankind at release before dedicating too much energy to a design that may in some way not be advantageous to pursue.

Do you plan on buying and playing Humankind?
I suppose we will need to register to a new forum for Humankind Strategies?
Personally, I don't think Humankind will be able to match up against the Civ Franchise.

 

[MrRadar]

I think it is slightly more imaginable that they will try a spin-off first, like Beyond Earth 2 or whatever it will be called.

At his point, I really don't want Civ 7, not yet, not for a while. Civ6 seems to have solid foundations to accommodate another expansion or two, some new or returning civs, some alternate leaders, it also needs further polishing (UI is still in alpha stage) and balancing and teaching the AI to use boats and planes, etc.

 

[Victoria]

Do you plan on buying and playing Humankind?

I plan on considering it. I really do not like canned VC and Humankind approaches this in the same way I approach civ.
Do I need software to be my judge, perhaps not. I think bottom line will be GUI usability and speed of game.