I’ll admit it, I’m honestly surprised that Firaxis Games hasn’t announced Civilization 6 yet. The game has been quietly in development for years—probably since Civ V first came out in 2010, and in earnest since Brave New World debuted in mid-2013. So, what’s the holdup? Firaxis has one big announced game this year, namely XCOM 2. It’s out on Feb. 5. After that, is the way clear for a Civ 6 announcement?
Civilization 6 Announcement: After XCOM 2?
If you think about it, it makes sense that Firaxis wouldn’t announce Civ 6 until after XCOM 2 comes out on Feb. 5. Both games are developed by totally separate teams, so it’s not an issue of development resources or anything like that. It’s just a matter of optics, and keeping attention on XCOM 2 rather than superseding it with a huge flagship game like Civilization 6.
That’s the same reason Firaxis didn’t announce Civilization 6 last year. The release of Civilization: Rising Tide, and Civilization: Beyond Earth the preceding year, naturally were more pressing matters than the yet-far-off release of Civ 6. Why distract from those fine titles with premature announcements? The same applies now, even though XCOM 2 is very different from a Civilization title.
Why should Firaxis take the chance that Civ 6 would distract from XCOM 2, which looks very exciting in its own right? Instead, the company can just announce the game a couple weeks or months from now, at its leisure, and get everyone excited all over again, after XCOM 2 has already racked up most of its initial sales. There aren’t all that many major strategy games coming out in any given year, and Firaxis isn’t Ubisoft: The company needs each of its games to count.
The Civilization 6 release date will be announced when Firaxis Games is good and ready, but I think we wouldn’t be too crazy to hope for a release date this year. The game has been in development for ages, and we don’t know very much about it, but the timing is right (and that’s what rumors point to anyway). It’s been five years, two expansion packs, and two spin-offs since Civ V came out. Civilization 6 can’t be that far away. It’s just a matter of time, and of timing.
