While it may not have been the first grand strategy video game franchise, Civilization is definitely one of the genre's most enduring entries. Debuting all the way back in 1991, Civilization sees players control a variety of different nations from across the Earth's history, from the ancient Egyptians to the Romans, all the way to more modern-day civilizations like America. While the graphics and playable nations have changed over the years, Civilization's core premise remains largely the same today, and that's likely to be the case again with the upcoming Civilization 7.

Officially confirmed to be in development by Firaxis, the studio behind the last two decades of the franchise, Civilization 7 will likely follow in its predecessors' footsteps quite closely, just as Civilization 3, 4, 5, and 6 did before it. But as the years have gone on, Firaxis has continued to take increasingly longer breaks between Civilization entries, and Civilization 7 only continues that trend further.

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Civilization 7 Continues a Release Window Trend From Civilization 6

settlement in Civilization VI

The first Civilization game was released all the way back in 1991 for the PC. Originally designed to be Sid Meier's own take on the rudimentary turn-based strategy series Empire, which in itself debuted all the way back in 1977, Civilization was a big passion project for both Meier and his partner Bruce Shelley, taking a variety of mechanics and features from beloved games like Railroad Tycoon, SimCity, and Empire and forging them together to create their ideal game. Civilization was a massive hit, and the series continued to release sequels at a fairly consistent rate.

The next mainline Civilization game would land in 1996, five years later, with a handful of spinoffs like Colonization and the CivNet multiplayer expansion coming in the years between. Civilization 3 followed a similar trend, launching in 2001, five years after the previous entry, and with the spin-off game Alpha Centauri coming in between. Civilization 4 would take just four years to come out, but Civilization 5 would return to the five-year series cycle, again with some spinoffs such as Civilization Revolution coming out between the two mainline releases.

But Civilization's five-year average cycle would come to an end with Civilization 6, which was released in 2016, six years after Civilization 5. Though it hasn't been officially stated, the reason for this greater gap between Civ 5 and Civ 6 is likely simply because Firaxis was incredibly busy. Just two years after Civilization 5 released, Firaxis launched XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the Sci-Fi turn-based strategy game responsible for revitalizing the long-dormant franchise. Soon after, Firaxis released a slew of iOS games, including Civilization Revolution 2, and in 2014, Firaxis released the Sci-Fi spinoff Civilization: Beyond Earth. And finally, in the same year as Civilization 6, Firaxis released XCOM 2.

All in all, Firaxis had quite a busy period between Civilization 5 and Civilization 6, and a similar pattern emerged with Civilization 7. Much like Civ 6, Civilization 7 breaks the five-year pattern that most of the franchise has had, but to an even greater degree than its predecessor. Where Civilization 6 took six years to release after its previous entry, it's already been seven years since then, and by the time Civilization 7 actually comes out, it could potentially be eight or even nine years between the last two Civilization entries.

There are probably two big reasons behind this big gap for the franchise. The first is Firaxis' release schedule, with Marvel's Midnight Suns presumably taking up quite a bit of the team's development time over the past few years. The second is Civilization 6's success. Being ported to every console, and having DLC continue to release for the game even now, Civilization 6 has only continued to grow in popularity over the years, and it's likely that Firaxis just didn't see the need for a new entry until now.

Civilization 7 is in development.

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