Player stats, sales, and reception speculation thread

[Aquila SPQR]

Holy moly, no wonder they are trying to figure out a positive spin on things. That’s an incredible nose dive. I suppose if they’d managed to keep their players and their reviews positive they wouldn’t have to be explaining how the metric doesn’t actually matter if you think about it from a certain perspective, even though other studios celebrate it when lots of people play their games.

Fortunately civ is nowhere near as bad shape. They at least are still talking about how to get more players instead of explaining why it doesn’t matter that there aren’t any.

It can be compared to Victoria 3 which also had huge number of players at release but then it nose-dived, never recovered and is considered a flop. Recently it overtook Civ VII

I don't think Civ VII will recover. And, to be honest, I kinda like that idea. At first I was incredibly hyped for Civ VII, but first official infos about civ switching, separate eras, detached leaders and this ugly city sprawl killed all hype. Literally. I couldn't believe what they did to my beloved Civ. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought so and that player count proves there's something seriously wrong with Civ VII. Bad decisions shouldn't be rewarded, but punished. Rewarding bad decisions leads to even more bad decisions.

My other favorite game series is Europa Universalis. We're close to the release of EUV now. And God, I can't stress enough how happy I am that EU devs took a completely different approach. For more than a year now we had weekly dev diaries describing various mechanics, flavour for different countries and showcasing world map so that people could give feedback (and this feedback is then implemented). And just as almost all Civ VII features look awful to me - almost all EUV features look amazing. That's how you properly develop a game for fans, Firaxis. Not by sudden introduction of drastic changes no one asked for and asking way too much money for an unfinished game.

 

[VGT]

My other favorite game series is Europa Universalis. We're close to the release of EUV now. And God, I can't stress enough how happy I am that EU devs took a completely different approach. For more than a year now we had weekly dev diaries describing various mechanics, flavour for different countries and showcasing world map so that people could give feedback (and this feedback is then implemented). And just as almost all Civ VII features look awful to me - almost all EUV features look amazing. That's how you properly develop a game for fans, Firaxis. Not by sudden introduction of drastic changes no one asked for and asking way too much money for an unfinished game.

Thanks for that info. I'm actually not closely following it. I know only that it's developed. But it's good to know and I might try to look into EU5 closer. I tried EU4 couple times and game was quite difficult to sink into as new player. It never "clicked" for me and it keeps waiting near the top of my backlog of games i would like to start loving. But interesting thing happen in other Paradox game where CK2 was also something I tried and in similar vein - I liked the idea but technically it didn't work for me very well, but CK3 was much more beginner player friendly. I think it might have been the case that Paradox learned a bit how to make their games more approachable, because for example I loved how UI was handled there. And now I'm wondering if EU5 will give me the same chance to like this game. Or maybe it's just the case of starting with a game close to its release which happen to me with CK3 but not EU4 - anyway still gives me a chance.

 

[Aquila SPQR]

Thanks for that info. I'm actually not closely following it. I know only that it's developed. But it's good to know and I might try to look into EU5 closer. I tried EU4 couple times and game was quite difficult to sink into as new player. It never "clicked" for me and it keeps waiting near the top of my backlog of games i would like to start loving. But interesting thing happen in other Paradox game where CK2 was also something I tried and didn't work for me very well, but CK3 was much more beginner player friendly. I think it might have been the case that Paradox learned a bit how to make their games more approachable, because for example I loved how UI was handled there. And now I'm wondering if EU5 will give me the same chance to like this game.

Come, join our merry band!

EUV forum

 

[Xur]

I don't think modding would have changed anything. Modding will always come up with a sub-optimal solution because it often goes back to the lack of AI handling said feature. I hated civ6 and tried to mod out the tediousness - there are some things mods can't fix. Sure, it could maybe have fixed the UI - but I would have bought the game with a bad UI. The features keeping me from buying the game are (ranked):
1. Civ swaps
2. The disconnected leaders and non-leaders
3. The era system and too few eras
I've seen a lot of other things I don't like, but not enough for me to not buy it. I hate the city sprawl, but I could perhaps tolerate that if everything else was great. But these 3 are non-starters for me even if a mod somehow fixed it - I wont go through what I did with civ6 again.

 

[Kev1916]

Well, that vertical drop surely looks impressive.

View attachment 734244

Another point is the game referred to , is in early access , something the current developer of the new “civ” game perhaps should have thought about .

 

[stealth_nsk]

Another point is the game referred to , is in early access , something the current developer of the new “civ” game perhaps should have thought about .

That's an interesting topic to discuss. On one hand, Civ7 clearly was released without many planned features and early access usually helps smoothing this situation. On the other hand, early access is often done when the gaming company is new in this area and want to research how users react. When you release 7th game of the franchise, using early access could produce negativity itself.

 

[Kwami]

Well, that vertical drop surely looks impressive.

View attachment 734244

It looks just like the vertical drops for Victoria 3 and Age of Wonders 4. You know, the obvious drop that happens right after release.

 

[Dreadnought]

For redemption stories: No Man's Sky recovered from its nadir of ~1000 concurrent players on steam to ~15000 we see today (obviously with many ups and downs along the way). Cyberpunk went from its low of ~10000 to ~30000 we see today.

The former was almost legendary in its failure of a release, and the latter was especially hyped before failing to reach expectations. Not a perfect comparison to Civ7, but one that works about as best as it can. With this in mind, it's reasonable to assume that, if all goes right, Civ7 could eventually challenge Civ6's current player count of ~30000. That would be a far cry from Civ6's ~100,000 in 2024, but it would at least be salvaged from total failure.

 

[Aquila SPQR]

It looks just like the vertical drops for Victoria 3 and Age of Wonders 4. You know, the obvious drop that happens right after release.

Yeah, and look what happened later to those other games. Stagnation at low numbers.

 

[Leucarum]

I'm looking forward to EU5, and if Civ7 doesn't manage to right the boat I could see it becoming my go-to game, but I don't find the two games scratch the same itch for me. The pick up and play blank slate of Civ is very different to the historically rigid, slow gameplay of EU. As much as I could see it taking up more of my playtime, I can't see it replacing Civ, even if the nosedive continues - they're very different games.

I do wish that Firaxis could consider an early access model or at least a much greater degree of community involvement earlier in the development process. It would have been more clear what the more alienating features of Civ7 were if they had done so. Paradox learned the hard way through Imperator Rome I suspect. The irony is that Imperator ended up an amazing game, after the devs took what they'd learned from watching the community play/complain. Even though it got cancelled, I still play it from time to time. Civ7 has the name recognition behind it that if the devs are willing to listen I hope it can summon enough momentum to turn the nosedive into an U-Turn.

And I hope they do it via a lot of optional game settings/modes so the community that does enjoy it as it is now gets to still carry on doing so. That seems far easier for a Civ game to pull of than for a paradox game.

 

[Kyriakos]

It can be compared to Victoria 3 which also had huge number of players at release but then it nose-dived, never recovered and is considered a flop. Recently it overtook Civ VII

This is brutal. Vic3 (at least back when I played it) was nothing short of a terrible game and (apart from gfx) a clear downgrade of Vic2.

To paraphrase George Orwell:
The gamers looked from Civ to Vic, and from Vic to Civ, and from Civ to Vic again; but already it was impossible to say which was which

All that said, while I don't care at all about Vic3, I wish that Civ7 does a lot better, because I have played (almost) every Civ game since Civ1 (Civ5 and Civ7 are the only ones I didn't play).

 

[Leucarum]

This is brutal. Vic3 (at least back when I played it) was nothing short of a terrible game and (apart from gfx) a clear downgrade of Vic2.

To paraphrase George Orwell:
The gamers looked from Civ to Vic, and from Vic to Civ, and from Civ to Vic again; but already it was impossible to say which was which

All that said, while I don't care at all about Vic3, I wish that Civ7 does a lot better, because I have played (almost) every Civ game since Civ1 (Civ5 and Civ7 are the only ones I didn't play).

I like Victoria 3. I don't understand it, but I like it! Paradox seem to be still releasing DLC and it's improved a lot since launch, so I don't know that it's such a depressing comparison either...

 

[Kyriakos]

I like Victoria 3. I don't understand it, but I like it! Paradox seem to be still releasing DLC and it's improved a lot since launch, so I don't know that it's such a depressing comparison either...

I am looking forward to EUV, which appears to be changing all the right things for the target audience (let's face it, OCD micro-macro addicts).
It helps that the game is primarily a Byzantine Empire border beauty pageant.

 

[itix]

Player count is one metric, sales are another. Seems Civ 7 is not strong on sales either, anymore. Recently, Gamalytic estimation has been around 3k / 7 days. It is not good.

 

[Leucarum]

I am looking forward to EUV, which appears to be changing all the right things for the target audience (let's face it, OCD micro-macro addicts).

That UI though! I'm excited for EU5, but the UI looks like it'll make launch Civ7 look downright clean and accessible.

It helps that the game is primarily a Byzantine Empire border beauty pageant.

Would now be the wrong time to say I want to play Venice for my first game?

 

[Kyriakos]

Would now be the wrong time to say I want to play Venice for my first game?

Of course not!
It wouldn't be the wrong time now - it would always be that

 

[Core Imposter]

Says something that I tuned in for my daily dose of Civ gloom and doom and everyone is talking about Paradox.

 

[Leucarum]

Says something that I tuned in for my daily dose of Civ gloom and doom and everyone is talking about Paradox.

You were expecting civfanatics to stay on topic?

 

[Nikolai II]

I like Victoria 3. I don't understand it, but I like it! Paradox seem to be still releasing DLC and it's improved a lot since launch, so I don't know that it's such a depressing comparison either...

Me too. I really like that game. Not Paradox's best, but a decent plus game, indeed.

I am looking forward to EUV, which appears to be changing all the right things for the target audience (let's face it, OCD micro-macro addicts).
It helps that the game is primarily a Byzantine Empire border beauty pageant.

Oh yes please. That game looks so good and promising! I started playing Paradox games with EU1 back in 2001, and no EU game has surpassed EU2 for me. EU3 was flawed, EU4 was....boring? And too complex without being as managable as their other GSGs. CK2, CK3, Stellaris all are complex, but managable. I have serious hope EU5 will recapture the magic.

 

[Kyriakos]

Me too. I really like that game. Not Paradox's best, but a decent plus game, indeed.

Oh yes please. That game looks so good and promising! I started playing Paradox games with EU1 back in 2001, and no EU game has surpassed EU2 for me. EU3 was flawed, EU4 was....boring? And too complex without being as managable as their other GSGs. CK2, CK3, Stellaris all are complex, but managable. I have serious hope EU5 will recapture the magic.

Eu2 had better music (later removed), but Eu3 was overall an improvement imo
Played too little Eu4; probably it was better than Eu3 but can't say.