Firaxis announced Civilization VII at Summer Game Fest this morning with a cinematic trailer that recalled the art style of the well-liked Civ V. This was followed by a quick check-in from series creator Sid Meier, who revealed that the game was coming next year and that it would arrive day-and-date for PC and consoles.
That’s the first time time a Civilization game will launch on both platforms simultaneously. There’s a conclusion we can draw from that: The Civ series has historically not been the kind of game that works well on a console. Civilization VI changed that when it moved across halfway through its life cycle, looking for ways to map its wide ranging controls to a pad. It worked fine, but it wasn’t perfect. The only reason Firaxis got away with console ports was because Civ 6 was a more accessible version of the game by design. That makes me think that Civilization VII could be an even more accessible game, if a console release is in the picture from launch.
That’s great news for new players, and potentially unhappy news for the old heads who long for the crunchy, more complex Civs of old. One wonders how you get a new Civilization game off the ground in 2024 and how you get it to be profitable. From a purely business standpoint, greater accessibility would seem to be a wise first step.
We’ll find out more about Civilization VII next year, by the sounds.
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