Civilization 7: Evolving Grand Strategy for Gamers

Civilization may not have been the first grand strategy video game franchise, but it is certainly one of the most enduring. Since its debut in 1991, players have been able to control a variety of nations from different eras, ranging from ancient civilizations like the Egyptians and Romans to more modern-day nations such as America. Although the graphics and nations have evolved over time, the core concept of Civilization has remained largely unchanged, and this is likely to be the case once again with the release of Civilization 7.

Developed by Firaxis, the studio behind the last two decades of the franchise, Civilization 7 is expected to follow closely in its predecessors' footsteps. However, Firaxis has taken increasingly longer breaks between Civilization releases as the years have passed, and Civilization 7 is no exception to this trend.

Civilization 7's release window continues this pattern, following in the footsteps of Civilization 6.

The original Civilization game was first released in 1991 for PC. Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley, the game's creators, took inspiration from various popular games such as Railroad Tycoon, SimCity, and Empire to develop Civilization. The game was a huge success and spawned several sequels, including Civilization 3 in 2001 and Civilization 4 in 2005.

In between the mainline releases, spinoffs such as Colonization and CivNet multiplayer expansion were also released. Civilization 5 returned to the five-year series cycle, with spinoffs like Civilization Revolution coming out before its release. Despite the varying release schedules, the Civilization franchise has remained consistently popular with gamers.

Firaxis' five-year cycle for the Civilization franchise came to an end with the release of Civilization 6 in 2016, six years after Civilization 5. It is believed that the reason for the extended gap between these two games is due to Firaxis' busy schedule. After the release of Civilization 5, Firaxis launched XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a game that brought new life to the franchise. In addition, Firaxis released several iOS games, including Civilization Revolution 2, and Civilization: Beyond Earth, a spinoff of the franchise. The release of XCOM 2 in the same year as Civilization 6 also added to Firaxis' workload.

Civilization 7 has followed a similar pattern to Civilization 6, breaking the five-year cycle that most of the franchise has had. However, the gap between Civilization 6 and Civilization 7 is even greater than its predecessor. It has been seven years since the release of Civilization 6, and by the time Civilization 7 is released, it could potentially be eight or nine years between the last two entries.

There are likely two reasons behind this extended gap. Firstly, Firaxis' release schedule, with Marvel's Midnight Suns taking up a significant amount of the team's development time over the past few years. Secondly, Civilization 6's success has only continued to grow in popularity over the years, being ported to every console and having DLCs released for the game even now. It is possible that Firaxis did not see the need for a new entry until now.

Civilization 7 is in development.