Civilization VII is set for a major update that finally let players stay as one civ through all Ages, as the boss of parent company Take-Two has admitted: “we got it wrong.”
Civilization VII is over a year old now, and has fewer players on Steam than both Civilization VI and the 15-year-old Civilization V. When Civilization VII launched, players highlighted issues with the user interface, a lack of map variety, and a lack of features they’d come to expect from the franchise. But some veteran Civ fans also didn’t get on well with the dramatic changes developer Firaxis made to the game.
At launch, a full campaign in Civilization VII was one that went through all three Ages: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern. Once the Age is completed, all players (and any AI opponents) experience an Age Transition simultaneously. During an Age Transition, three things happen: you select a new civilization from the new Age to represent your empire, you choose which Legacies you want to retain in the new Age, and the game world evolves. The Civilization games had never had such a system, and it proved divisive.
While Firaxis launched a number of key updates in a bid to turn sentiment around, and Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick indicated to IGN that he was confident Civilization VII would eventually prove to be a successful project, developer Firaxis suffered layoffs in September, and the game is still stuck on a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam — its core platform.
Speaking to Game File now, Zelnick took responsibility for Civilization VII’s struggles.
“Every time there’s a new Civ, the team at Firaxis thinks about: ‘How do we push the envelope far enough that it makes sense to buy this new game? And how do we preserve what people love enough so that they’re not disaffected?’ And we got it wrong with Civ VII, but it wasn’t for want of trying. And again, I take responsibility for it,” he said.
“So we’ve made a bunch of fixes. We’ll continue to make fixes. The game is a really good game. And it’s certainly a profitable enterprise for us. But this is one where I think what we tried to do was a bridge too far, from the consumer’s perspective.”
Zelnick’s comments arrive alongside the announcement of the biggest update to Civilization VII yet, dubbed Test of Time. Patch 1.4.0, due out May 19 and free for all players, makes major changes, chief among the the option to stay as one civ from Antiquity all the way to the Modern Age.
“You'll still have the option to switch during Age Transitions, but if you want to stay as one civ, you now have the tools — like the new Syncretism and Affirmation mechanics — to make that journey viable and deep,” Firaxis explained.
There’s more to the update, including a reworked Victories system, a new challenge and reward system called Triumphs that replaces Legacy Paths, a new Fractal Continent map, a new Commerce screen, a revamped Advisor Council, updated map generation, new Narrative Events, and a free new leader.
The question now is, will Test of Time turn Civilization VII sentiment around and, crucially for Take-Two and Firaxis, draw in more players? And what does this all mean for the inevitable Civilization VIII?
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
