Player stats, sales, and reception speculation thread

[Ornen]

as for Civ 7, I think there's three broad paths that are plausible from here:

• Stay the course - I don't think this is very likely at this point
• Civ 7 2.0 reboot, similar to what No Man's Sky (and other games) have done
• Cut losses & buckle up for Civ 8

within those, there are a couple subquestions.

• should they follow through on Civ 7's vision, elaborating on era-to-era gameplay?
• or should they take a more conservative approach, playing the hits & trying to make the 'best civ ever' instead of trying so hard to make civ 'new'?
• should they keep the current team size & business model? (probably not viable after C7, which really needed AAA impact with big DLC sales to sustain the team & vision)
• or should the scale back the team, cut the budget in half and try to deliver a great game with a smaller team?

people keep talking about Clair Obscura in this thread but IMO the most significant difference between that and, say, Civ 7 (or the new Dragon Age, for a closer comparison) is team size. CO has an intentionally limited scale & production cost. smaller teams can be more nimble and deliver on their vision more effectively, without the same need to satisfy budget/sales/exec expectation.

(fwiw if you want a CO comp in the 4x space, Old World is your game)

Civ 7 business proposition was all about delivering a AAA product with a loyal long-term playerbase that you can then milk for civ DLCs at $8 per civ. that made a larger team and budget viable. a large team & budget can be good, but can also be counterproductive to making a quality product.

 

[Ornen]

honestly, anything could be on the table at this point. one point that gets lost in the discussion: Firaxis last two games were Midnight Suns & Chimera Squad, neither of which were big hits (to put it generously). Firaxis's last successful release was Gathering Storm in 2019, or Civ 6 in 2016, if we don't count expansions.

there's a lot we don't know, especially with Firaxis & 2K being pretty tight-lipped... but anything could be on the table.

 

[Core Imposter]

Why can't they make the crisis, ages, and civ switching optional? Why can't they make the UI and pedia world class? Why can't they extend the game into post modern times?

Doesn't it seem certain that the development team will see a massive shake up and isn't that necessary?

If there is to be a Civ7 why does Firaxis have to be the studio to do it? Will Firaxis survive at all?

 

[MutilationWave]

Why can't they make the crisis, ages, and civ switching optional? Why can't they make the UI and pedia world class? Why can't they extend the game into post modern times?

Time+moneyx3

 

[AD1730]

or should the scale back the team, cut the budget in half and try to deliver a great game with a smaller team?

I think virtually every AAA title would benefit from this. These productions have grown so large that it is nearly impossible to work with the level of coordination needed, not to mention make a profit with all the expenses. Starfield is perhaps the best example of a AAA title collapsing under the weight of development bloat, with little cohesion in its various systems.

 

[Gorbles]

Why can't they make the crisis, ages, and civ switching optional?

Aren't Crises already optional?

The other two seem a lot more integrated into the design. It's kinda like asking "why didn't they make 1UPT optional" (apologies for once again raising the Doom Topic).

EDIT

Crises do, indeed, seem optional, but I've never tested the setting:

 

[CliffCo]

Aren't Crises already optional?

The other two seem a lot more integrated into the design. It's kinda like asking "why didn't they make 1UPT optional" (apologies for once again raising the Doom Topic).

EDIT

Crises do, indeed, seem optional, but I've never tested the setting:

View attachment 730964

I started playing with crisis turned off a while back and I find the game much more enjoyable.

 

[Gorbles]

I started playing with crisis turned off a while back and I find the game much more enjoyable.

I like the concept, but they have issues in both presentation / signposting and effect on an in-progress game.

 

[MutilationWave]

I started playing with crisis turned off a while back and I find the game much more enjoyable.

As much as I dislike the way crises are done (except barbarian is pretty good), I refuse to turn them off because I can't stand to make the game any easier.

I wish they would let us turn them off individually. I'd be cool with scrambling to fight the barbarians at the the end of every age. But 90% of the time I get the happiness crisis at the end of antiquity and exploration.

 

[Tuvok694]

I started playing with crisis turned off a while back and I find the game much more enjoyable.

Oh yes! I turned them off after about five games after release, and I will never turn them on again (except they get a completely new design).
Today I accidentally forgot to turn them off, playing as Hatshepsut/Egypt. Had quite a successful antiquity age but at about 93% three of my seven cities just revolted and joined my neighbours. Wonders, districts, resources, all just gone in a moment without any chance to get them back. How on earth is this supposed to be a fun feature??

 

[GeneralZift]

I was proud to have the League of Extraordinary Honayehs. 1% of players have it. You play Iroquois during the conquest of the New World scenario and instead conquer Europe. So much fun.

This sounds pretty cool actually, that one's going to be my next goal

 

[MutilationWave]

This sounds pretty cool actually, that one's going to be my next goal

That's Civ 5- good luck it's very fun, and not easy.

 

[King of Prussia]

As much as I dislike the way crises are done (except barbarian is pretty good), I refuse to turn them off because I can't stand to make the game any easier.

I wish they would let us turn them off individually. I'd be cool with scrambling to fight the barbarians at the the end of every age. But 90% of the time I get the happiness crisis at the end of antiquity and exploration.

Barbarian is the only crisis in any age that i somewhat enjoy. Overall crisis narratives are pretty weak which hurts the age system. The other ones are just slot some card and thats it. All you care about is which one penalizes you the least. Very little strategy involved imo.

I turned them off as they werent enjoyable.

 

[Leucarum]

If crises weren't optional I would be in the doomer category for Civ7 - they are an awkward mix of not seriously challenging the player, while being at just the right level to be irritating, and sometimes messing up the AI for no useful reason.

 

[MutilationWave]

If crises weren't optional I would be in the doomer category for Civ7 - they are an awkward mix of not seriously challenging the player, while being at just the right level to be irritating, and sometimes messing up the AI for no useful reason.

Happiness crisis can ruin your game if you're running over the settlement limit and didn't get lucky with dyes (and now llamas). What's silly to me is that the antiquity happiness crisis is much more difficult than the exploration one.

 

[Leucarum]

Happiness crisis can ruin your game if you're running over the settlement limit and didn't get lucky with dyes (and now llamas). What's silly to me is that the antiquity happiness crisis is much more difficult than the exploration one.

Every patch I've tried crises again, and maybe it's down to my playstyle but I've never had that be an issue.

 

[MutilationWave]

Every patch I've tried crises again, and maybe it's down to my playstyle but I've never had that be an issue.

I think it used to be worse. Or maybe I've just become a better player. I used to always be on the edge of losing cities , and had to wait until the last turn to capture/raze my last two or three.

I'm three over settlement limit in the exploration happiness crisis right now and it's no big deal. I'm playing Mongols, so no happiness bonuses. I don't think I have any happiness policies slotted. Yet this is the most happiness I've had in a game yet. If I had a city go negative I've got many dyes, pearls, and a couple llamas to fix it. I have a town at 60 happiness and another at 55. I've never seen close to that.

Edit- I think I know that's up. This is my first 1.2 game and I have like five cocoa on homelands. It isn't showing up on resources screen (neither is tea for that matter) but I think the effect is working.

Edit 2- just realized furs aren't showing up either but they are working. Anyone else seeing this?

 

[user746383]

The current game feels like it should have been an interesting alternative mode (the way we had barbarian clans and fall from heaven) instead of the main game I think. It wouldn’t have prevented people from loving and playing them, if they were good.

 

[stealth_nsk]

as for Civ 7, I think there's three broad paths that are plausible from here:

• Stay the course - I don't think this is very likely at this point
• Civ 7 2.0 reboot, similar to what No Man's Sky (and other games) have done
• Cut losses & buckle up for Civ 8

It's funny, how views are differ. In my book, option 1 has 95% probability, option 2 has nearly zero and option 3 has remaining 5%.

Civ7 is not as a disaster as you could paint if you look at negative signals only, ignoring context (there were a lot of discussions here about how the data could be read).

Based on what we saw, Civ7 had some solid sales (although possibly lower than expected). And the only way to pay for the development cost for most successful and unsuccessful games is to sell downloadable content, which always has much better price/cost ratio than core game.

I really don't believe Civ7 situation is that bad that the combination of June patch, summer sales and DLC release will not be able to pay for this patch/DLC and more. So I totally see Civ7 support and content to come for some time and at least one big expansion is very likely.

 

[NickTheGreek!]

"Cut losses & buckle up for Civ 8" i think would be a major reputation and player trust hit for Firaxis. If they just abandon the game, i at least would have zero interest for a CIV8.