X-Com 2 and BE x-pack announced before CiVI

[civvver]

Well whenever civ6 comes out you can be pretty assured that it won't be good until at least one major balance patch. I mean civ4 was a little more immune, but even that didn't go from good to great until BTS xpac, and civ5 needed a TON of work- patches, expansions. And these days it seems games in general get released with more bugs, gameplay and balance issues than ever before.

 

[Ajidica]

IIRC, Civ4 was unique in that they got the game running and testable several months before they had to ship; giving them a large window to do balancing. Most Civ games didn't have that large window.
Although I remember how bad the Civ4 memory issues were on release. Late game turns took so long I started reading National Geographic magazines while I was waiting for the turns to process it took so long.