While it may not have been the first grand strategy video game franchise,Civilizationis definitely one of the genre’s most enduring entries. Debuting all the way back in 1991,Civilizationsees players control a variety of different nations from across the Earth’s history, from the ancient Egyptians to the Romans, all the way to more modern-day civilizations like America. While the graphics and playable nations have changed over the years,Civilization’s core premiseremains largely the same today, and that’s likely to be the case again with the upcomingCivilization 7.
Officially confirmed to be in development by Firaxis, the studio behind the last two decades of the franchise,Civilization 7will likely follow in its predecessors' footsteps quite closely, just asCivilization 3,4,5, and6did before it. But as the years have gone on, Firaxis has continued to take increasingly longer breaks betweenCivilizationentries, andCivilization 7only continues that trend further.
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Civilization 7 Continues a Release Window Trend From Civilization 6
ThefirstCivilizationgamewas released all the way back in 1991 for the PC. Originally designed to be Sid Meier’s own take on the rudimentary turn-based strategy seriesEmpire,which in itself debuted all the way back in 1977,Civilizationwas a big passion project for both Meier and his partner Bruce Shelley, taking a variety of mechanics and features from beloved games likeRailroad Tycoon,SimCity, andEmpireand forging them together to create their ideal game.Civilizationwas a massive hit, and the series continued to release sequels at a fairly consistent rate.
The next mainlineCivilizationgame would land in 1996, five years later, with a handful of spinoffs likeColonizationand theCivNetmultiplayer expansion coming in the years between.Civilization 3followed a similar trend, launching in 2001, five years after the previous entry, and with thespin-off gameAlpha Centauricoming in between.Civilization 4would take just four years to come out, butCivilization 5would return to the five-year series cycle, again with some spinoffs such asCivilization Revolutioncoming out between the two mainline releases.
ButCivilization’s five-year average cycle would come to an end withCivilization 6, which was released in 2016, six years afterCivilization 5. Though it hasn’t been officially stated, the reason for this greater gap betweenCiv 5andCiv 6is likely simply because Firaxis was incredibly busy. Just two years afterCivilization 5released, Firaxis launchedXCOM: Enemy Unknown, the Sci-Fi turn-based strategy gameresponsible for revitalizing the long-dormant franchise. Soon after, Firaxis released a slew of iOS games, includingCivilization Revolution 2, and in 2014, Firaxis released the Sci-Fi spinoffCivilization: Beyond Earth. And finally, in the same year asCivilization 6, Firaxis releasedXCOM 2.
All in all, Firaxis had quite a busy period betweenCivilization 5andCivilization 6, and a similar pattern emerged withCivilization 7. Much likeCiv 6,Civilization 7breaks the five-year pattern that most of the franchise has had, but to an even greater degree than its predecessor. WhereCivilization 6took six years to release after its previous entry, it’s already been seven years since then, and by the timeCivilization 7actually comes out, it could potentially be eight or even nine years between the last twoCivilizationentries.
There are probably two big reasons behind this big gap for the franchise. The first is Firaxis' release schedule, withMarvel’s Midnight Sunspresumably taking up quite a bit of the team’s development time over the past few years. The second isCivilization 6’s success. Being ported to every console, and having DLC continue to release for the game even now,Civilization 6has only continued to grow in popularity over the years, and it’s likely that Firaxis just didn’t see the need for a new entry until now.
