Summary

  • Civilization 7 might face tough competition from Ara: History Untold, a promising 4X historical strategy game, but remains confident due to its market reach.
  • Civilization 6's success on multiple platforms, including consoles, has shown that a multi-platform approach can be lucrative, suggesting that Civilization 7 may follow suit.
  • Ara: History Untold may have some appealing new strategy features, but because Ara is an Xbox exclusive, Civ 7 may beat it in terms of platforms where it's available.

Announced back in February 2023 via a simple press release from parent company Take-Two Interactive, Civilization 7 is officially on its way. It's already been eight years since the last mainline Civilization entry, and while Firaxis has done an excellent job of keeping Civ 6 updated and full of new content over the last near-decade, it's definitely time for something new and more modern.

But it isn't clear waters for Civilization 7. The usual king of the 4X historical strategy game market, Civilization 7 might find itself in direct competition with Ara: History Untold, a promising new 4X historical strategy title being developed by Oxide Games, which currently contains quite a few former Firaxis developers. Far from a rip-off or quick cash-grab, Ara: History Untold promises a lot of bold new features for the genre, some of which could really make the next Civilization feel outdated from the get-go, but there's one sizable marketing advantage that Civilization 7 might have over it.

Cropped art for Civilization 6's Leader Pass
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Civilization 7 Could Reach a Larger Market Than Ara: History Untold

Firaxis Discovered The Benefit of Going Multi-Platform With Civilization 6

The vast majority of the Civilization franchise has been PC-only, with a few notable exceptions. All the way back in 1999, Activision created a PlayStation port of Civilization 2, which worked surprisingly well on the older console. It would take another nine years before the next Civilization title landed on consoles, and that was the highly underrated cult-classic Civilization Revolution, a streamlined entry designed specifically to target the console market. But aside from that, every other Civilization game has stayed as a PC exclusive. That is until Civilization 6 came along.

Released in 2016, Civilization 6 performed very well upon its debut, shipping an impressive one million units within just its first month. Civilization 6 actually ended up being one of Take-Two's highest-grossing games of that year, which put the publisher's sights on the franchise in a way like never before. To capitalize on the initial success of Civilization 6, Firaxis ported the game over to the Nintendo Switch in 2018, and following its presumed success on the handheld, Firaxis released an Xbox and PlayStation port just a year later.

Allegedly, Civilization 6's lifetime sales as of 2023 are now 11 million copies, though the original source of this information seems a little unclear. Regardless of its official sales figures, it seems like a safe bet to assume that Civilization 6 coming to consoles will have been a pretty lucrative venture for Firaxis and Take-Two, with the game and all of its subsequent DLC being able to reach three new markets. Presumably, Civilization 6's gradual decision to go multi-platform proved to be a net positive for all parties involved, and if that's true, then it seems likely that Take-Two will want Civilization 7 to release on multiple platforms as soon as possible.

Civilization 7's Multi-Platform Approach Might Give It The Edge Over Ara: History Untold

Ara: History Untold looks as though it's shaping up to be a really impressive 4X strategy title, and thanks to its general gameplay structure and penchant for history, it's pitting itself directly against the Civilization franchise. It may have the edge in the end thanks to intriguing new features such as simultaneous turns and a novel Prestige scoring system.

But there's one big marketing element that might give Civilization 7 the edge over Ara: History Untold, and that's the latter's platform exclusivity. A game that's being published by Xbox Game Studios, Ara: History Untold will be releasing only on PC at launch. While Ara will be part of PC Game Pass on day one, it's still only targeting one market, albeit the one that's most associated with the 4X strategy genre.

But even if Ara: History Untold does come to consoles at some point in the near future, it would likely be exclusive to Xbox consoles. This could give Civilization 7 a sizable head start, so long as it is released on all platforms from the get-go. Of course, this is also assuming that Xbox's current exclusivity plans don't change, which is looking increasingly likely by the day.