Civilization 7 is the most-anticipated strategy game of 2025

The world is watching whenever a genre-defining series continues

Firaxis / 2K Games

Sid Meier’s Civilization is the turn-based strategy game series – it’s so intrinsically linked to the genre that it’s become one of its defining examples. We can argue about the reasons for why it has become so popular as long as it takes to complete a match on marathon speed or we can save ourselves the breath and simply agree on there being many factors, for there undoubtedly are. What’s so interesting about the franchise is that despite this genre-defining position it’s not afraid of evolving over time.

Take other series with a similar standing – Call of Duty for FPS or Age of Empires for RTS. Sure, they made minor changes along the way, clad themselves in different time periods, but strip that away and you realize that things haven’t deviated all too much. Though Civilization’s core as your archetypical turn-based 4X strategy game has remained intact, its iterations made impactful and at times radical changes to the exact formula. Civilization 7 is no different. In fact, it’s going to be one of the most drastic evolutions in the series’ history, breaking paradigms that went untouched since its conception.

A cozy Spanish town on a peninsula. Oh, is that a river you can sail your boats through? / Firaxis / 2K Games / Take-Two Interactive

Change, as we know all too well from the time we live in, comes with uncertainty. That makes it uncomfortable. It takes, shall we say, some testicular fortitude to take a juggernaut such as this franchise and make adjustments to its very core, especially in this economical situation. Firaxis, we shouldn’t forget, suffered quite a bit from Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ lack of performance. You’d think that the suits at 2K Games and Take-Two Interactive would have urged them to play it safe whenever they were not too busy pre-ordering yachts from the projected revenue of GTA 6. But that would sell Firaxis a bit short: There has not been a single historical Civilization entry – and we do emphasize historical, because Beyond Earth… well, exists – that has not been a banger by the end of its life.

Firaxis is quite incapable of missing when it comes to the mainline games. Yes, there is always the group of grumps that can’t deal with the changes made for the new iteration. You’ll find those for any entry – and that’s fine: They can still play the Civ game they prefer. Yes, some layers of complexity and content will always be lost in the transition to the next title, as it’s bloody difficult to pack as much stuff into a new game as the previous one with years of post-launch support under its belt had access to at the end of its lifecycle. One can always wait for more content before jumping in.

Despite all those complicating factors – the naysayers, the ignorant, and the developers’ own ambition to mix things up – Civilization games are always fun. There will be so much to explore and discover, so many new rules and systems to learn and exploit – that, to us, is the true beauty of a brand-new strategy game. You go further and further to test the limits until you end up breaking through and having to find new limits to probe. 

The visuals of battle are making a bit step forward in Civ 7. / Firaxis / 2K Games / Take-Two Interactive

Civilization never was an accurate simulation of history, but this process resembles… well, not history, perhaps, but human nature – and we can all agree on that being the crucial element for shaping our history. Every time you start a match of Civilization, you get to be one of the painters standing before the grand canvas of that history – only you get to use three colors this time, the canvas is expanding after the first third of the painting is filled, and you can use the same brush with all colors instead of with a single predetermined one.

So many new possibilities, so much new ground to tread – what’s not to be excited about?

Old World, Humankind, Millennia, Ara: History Untold – the list of competitors bringing something fresh to the genre has grown in recent years and their success has been mixed. It’s only right for Civilization to pick up the bow and, hopefully, hit the mark immediately to deliver the next defining turn-based strategy game.

We can’t wait to build something we believe in.

Civilization 7 is set to be released on February 11, 2025, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.