After 6 years of Civilization VI, Firaxis is developing a new main game for the franchise

It is official 

Firaxis is already developing the next installment of Civilization! The most veteran and iconic saga of turn-based strategy games. In case you didn’t know, it’s been more than 30 years since the first Sid Meier’s Civilization was released by MicroProse in September 1991. More than three decades in which the franchise has been gaining experience and consolidating itself as the absolute leader in its market. 

And although the most current installment so far, it was released on October 21, 2016. It is true that during this time it has received several expansions and other add-ons, which have allowed it to lengthen its life in the market. 

Now, if we start thinking about each of the installments, it would be best to look at the complete list of the saga:  

• Civilization: September 1991 
• Civilization II: May 1998 
• Alpha Centauri: February 1999 
• Civilization III: April 2002 
• Civilization IV: October 2005 
• Civilization V: September 2010 
• Civilization: Beyond Earth: October 2014 
• Civilization VI: October 2016 

New studio head and former COO Heather Hazen has announced in a press release that Firaxis Games is developing a new Civilization game, which many fans believe will likely be called Civilization VII. She has also said. “I am fortunate to work with some of the best developers in our industry, and we have plans to take the Civilization franchise to exciting new heights for our millions of players around the world.” 

It should be noted that Firaxis continued to support the game after launch in 2016, with expansion packs such as 2018’s Rise and Fall and 2019’s Gathering Storm, as well as DLC series such as New Frontier Pass and Leader Pass. 

Although Firaxis has confirmed that the game is in production, it is unclear what stage of development it is in, when it will be released or how aggressive the portrayal of pacifist leader Mahatma Gandhi will be this time around. 

Firaxis giving early hints 

As of mid-August 2021, the team was looking for staff with a passion for history to work on a new triple-A strategy game.  

And it was all due to noise coming from a job posting from the company, which read: “Firaxis Games is looking for a talented narrative led to join our studio in the development of our next AAA strategy title”. It is true that the team has developed other strategy games besides Civilization, such as Xcom. But here comes the icing on the cake, because the offer stated that the person to be hired must have “knowledge and passion for world history”. 

Key changes 

Firaxis announced a couple of key changes in the studio’s staff. For example, Steve Martin, the studio’s longtime director, has announced that he is leaving Firaxis after 27 years and more than 32 games published at the company. Meanwhile, Jake Solomon, creative director of the XCOM and Marvel’s Midnight Suns games, is also leaving after 23 years at Firaxis. 

On the other hand, according to the statements of the now studio head, Firaxis will also allocate part of its resources to the development of post-release content for Marvel’s Midnight Suns, which recently announced the upcoming arrival of Venom to the game.