Sadly, Take Two didn’t announce Civilization 6 at E3 2015, as certain foolish people thought it would. Instead, the company’s focus—at least on the PC side—was on Rising Tide, the upcoming expansion to the standalone Civilization: Beyond Earth. That game is coming out this fall, but fear not—Civilization 6 won’t be long behind.

The Civilization 6 Release Date, Rising Tide, And Take Two

Civilization games may not have particularly pretty graphics, but they’re still very comprehensive, huge-scope, triple-A PC games. They take a long time to develop. Civ IV came out in 2005, Civ V in 2010. It’s hardly surprising that Civ VI isn’t out yet. There’s a lot going on beneath the hood of these games, and as one of the only triple-A strategy games left these days, the series has a lot riding on it with each installment.

That’s less true for the spinoffs, Beyond Earth and now Rising Tide. Those are both based on the Civilization V engine, but here’s the key: They aren’t developed by the main Civilization team. The team who made Brave New World, the last ‘real’ Civ V expansion, hasn’t been spotted in some time, nor has its lead designer, Ed Beach. They’re all working on an unannounced project at Firaxis. Jake Solomon is working on XCOM 2. And a different team is making the sci-fi spinoffs.

Honestly, that’s really all you need to know: Firaxis is getting the most mileage it can out of the Civ V engine (which is admirable, I think—we’ve wanted a new Alpha Centauri for years, and Beyond Earth doesn’t reach those heights but is still a reasonably good time). But it’s also working on Civilization 6. With Rising Tide coming out this fall, it’s reasonable that we won’t see Civilization 6 in 2015. But next year, it’s nearly a sure thing. They’ve been working on it for years. We don’t know a whit about it, but it’s long underway and obviously coming. Chances are it’ll be announced early next year, not long after Rising Tide comes out, and then we can really start to get our hopes up.

I’d rather see a Civilization 6 release date this year, but on the other hand, it’s great that Firaxis is getting more time. The company feels more robust than ever. The XCOM revival has really changed the developer, which has long felt like a pony with one very good trick. Now it’s got a lot more going on. But Civilization VI will be the main attraction, and one of the biggest PC gaming releases of 2016.