The announcement of Civilization 6 came hot on the heels of the biggest strategy release of the first half of 2016: Stellaris, the new grand strategy game “on a galactic scale” from Paradox Development Studio. Paradox is famous for its complex, esoteric strategy games, exemplified by Europa Universalis. Civilization, on the other hand, is a major mainstream game series. But guess what? Even truly hardcore strategy gamers should be excited about Civilization 6.

Civilization 6 Will Have Something For Everyone

Civilization V was the most mainstream Civilization game yet—and also the most successful. The game traded away a lot of Civilization IV’s complexity in order to make the game more approachable. It wasn’t exactly dumbed down; it just wasn’t quite as complicated. And a lot of gamers who had been very, very serious about Civ IV eventually moved on from Civ V in search of meatier strategy experiences. Take note that Paradox’s last three games—Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis IV and Stellaris—have all been among the company’s biggest successes.

But Civilization still has a lot to offer. Firaxis made Civ V more complex and balanced over the course of the game’s two expansions, and Civ VI is going to build on that—while cleaning house. The lead designer of Civ VI, Ed Beach, fixed Civ V and will be able to express his vision much more forcefully with Civ VI. While the game will surely remain accessible to all, we can bet that a lot of Civ IV’s strategy depth will return. Civ 6 should, with luck, be both an accessible and fun game for newcomers and a serious strategic experience for us nerds out there.

But guess what? Strategy gamers should be excited about Civilization 6 even if they have no intentions of ever playing it. The Civilization series is the flagship of the strategy genre. This has two important effects. First, it’s where newcomers discover strategy games. Everyone is a newbie sometime, and most serious strategy gamers—those who play EUIV on Iron Man mode, for instance—probably got their start in the Civ series. This will continue to be true. Civ VI will bring a new influx of strategy gamers into the fold, and some will move onto the really hardcore, complicated stuff, expanding the size of that subgenre as well.

Moreover, even now, Civilization can still be a pioneer in the genre. Its major concepts will become instantly recognizable, and Firaxis has the funding and scale to introduce major innovations. It’s like the Nintendo of strategy game companies—Firaxis’s innovations can leave a long shadow. We don’t know what those will be yet. But Civ IV still influences games like Endless Legend even today. And with any luck, that will continue with Civ 6. And hopefully even us hardcore folks can find a lot to like.