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Saturday, February 21, 2026
Civilization 7 failed the test of time
Civilization 7 was released just over a year ago. Although Firaxis claimed that they had great sales on consoles, the success of Civ 7 with its core audience on PC wasn't great. Player numbers peaked at only half the level of Civ 6, and a few months later even Civ 5 had more daily users than 7. A number of updates and DLCs didn't change much there. Some of the core features that distinguished Civ 7 from Civ 6, like the game having three eras, with some kind of reset between them, and players having to switch to a new civilization in a new era, were not very popular. So now Firaxis announced for "Spring 2026" the Test of Time update, which basically backpedals on these core features: You will now be able to play a civilization through all ages, and the whole reset between ages, and victory conditions for each age will be massively toned down. Civ 7 after the next update will resemble Civ 6 a lot more than before.
Now whether a game is officially in early access or not, we have become used to games changing a lot during at least their first few years. And of course there are always people who love the new content being added, the bugs being fixed, and the balance being improved; while others always kind of like some unbalanced features, and are complaining about them being removed. But I would argue that these changes to Civilization VII are something different. This isn't just added content and balance improvement. It is an admission of failure, that a core concept for the game was unpopular, and an attempt to change that core concept without completely breaking the game.
From the previews it appears as if these changes will massively change how Civilization 7 is played. Most players at least somewhat oriented their gameplay to the era victory conditions and legacy paths. By moving the goalposts, Firaxis is fundamentally changing the way that most players will play this game, even if large parts of Civ 7 will still look like before. Civilization 7 is dead, long live Civilization 7.5!
- posted by Tobold @ 10:44 AM Permanent Link
Comments:
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This situation is tough because on one hand I want devs to experiment and try new things because innovation is important but on the other when you radically change the core gameplay of a long standing franchise you're bound to upset a lot of people.
Civ is a game where waiting a year or two before buying the newest one is always the right move and 7 looks to be a perfect example of that.
On an unrelated note have you seen that new Star Trek game Tobold? I saw about an hour of gameplay and thought it looked pretty interesting. Its kind of like Xcom or Fallout Shelter base building with resource management wrapped in a Star Trek skin.
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Civ is a game where waiting a year or two before buying the newest one is always the right move and 7 looks to be a perfect example of that.
On an unrelated note have you seen that new Star Trek game Tobold? I saw about an hour of gameplay and thought it looked pretty interesting. Its kind of like Xcom or Fallout Shelter base building with resource management wrapped in a Star Trek skin.
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