‘Civilization VII’ is Getting a Surprise VR Version for Quest 3 Soon

By
Scott Hayden
-
19

Sid Meier’s Civilization VII is coming to PC and console on February 11th, but now developer Firaxis and publisher 2K Games say a version of the game is also releasing on Quest this Spring.

The Quest exclusive game is said to be “a distinct version of the game made exclusively for Meta Quest 3 and 3S,” letting you build your own civilization from a first-person perspective and tower above the map in both VR and MR modes.

Developed by PlaySide Studios and published by 2K, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII – VR promises to bring both solo and online multiplayer matches, which supports up to three other Quest 3 and 3S players.

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Image courtesy Firaxis Games, PlaySide Studios, 2K Games
Image courtesy Firaxis Games, PlaySide Studios, 2K Games
Image courtesy Firaxis Games, PlaySide Studios, 2K Games

It’s also is slated to bring the series’ cast of world leaders to life, putting them face to face with the player as they react whenever you forge alliances or declare war.

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There’s no definite release date yet, just the Spring 2025 launch window stated by 2K during the game’s unveiling at the Civ World Summit event this weekend.

In the meantime, you can wishlist Sid Meier’s Civilization VII – VR over on the Horizon Store for Quest 3 and Quest 3S.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Nevets

    This is not a "surprise"… It's been known about since Monday when Upload VR reported it.

  • Rihards Laškovs

    The worst thing VR has to offer is the graphics.

  • 石雨濛

    This style of game is terrible for the neck. Demeo has the exact same problem – it is simply more comfortable to play on a flat screen.

    Just because you can make a game in VR doesn't mean you should. Any tabletop experience that has you looking down at a table for more than 10 minutes is simply harmful for humans and should really be banned.

  • Holy crap! YES! I had SO much fun playing Civ V on 3D Vision, adding 3D/VR to a game like this is really, really fun, more than you'd ever think if you haven't tried it. This is really awesome news! Day 1 purchase for me!

  • sfmike

    Are white men allowed to play video games in ads anymore now?

    • Nevets

      Do you have a problem with non-white people featuring in popular discourse?

      • ApocalypseShadow

        Seems obvious he does. Maybe he'd rather a white male playing Civ the game in an ad, where he commits genocide, steals land and resources from other civilizations, all in the name of "progress." Wait.. That happened in real civilization. (I like good white people by the way)

        Stupid political question not needed on a game site, gets a serious, political answer. I don't know how that popped into his head looking at the trailer. He could have just said, "I might get this game." Or, "I'm going to pass on this one and just play the latest flat version. Nope. He went there.

    • Eddy

      Very weird this is what came to mind

  • Xron

    Seems interesting, hope it won't have many bugs, then it might be a hit for civ series lovers.

  • Andrew Jakobs

    Shame they're not also releasing it on SteamVR. But sure the Quest 2 is out of luck, probably due to the slower soc.

    • Also because it's 2025 …. lol

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    TL;DR: Civilization VII VR is a port paid for by Meta to showcase Mixed Reality, created by one of their contract studios that also builds Worlds experiences for them.

    For those interested why this is a Quest 3/3S only release: the reason is money. I am pretty sure that Meta paid for this port that doesn't come from Firaxis Games, the studio behind Civilization VII. Instead it was created by Australian PlaySide Studios, who have had a "work-for-hire" contract with Meta for many years that regularly gets extended and expanded.

    PlaySide reports these contracts in their quarterlies, the current 18 months extension still runs till 2025-12. They make about USD 18mn a year from contract game development, and list Horizon Worlds on their games page ("PlaySide is helping to build the Metaverse, working on some of Horizon World's most popular experiences across multiple genres, from social experiences to gaming.") It's pretty safe to assume that Meta paid Firaxis for the license and then gave the job of porting it to Quest to one of their contract studios, which explains why there are no SteamVR or PSVR2 releases.

    But why isn't it coming to Quest 2? This is a tabletop game, which aren't particular demanding titles. And Civilization VII will be released on the Nintendo Switch too, running on an Nvidia Tegra X1 that is much weaker than the Quest 2's XR2 Gen 1. In benchmarks of the Qualcomm SD865 that XR2 Gen 1 is based on, it offers ~4x/~2.5x the CPU/GPU performance. The X1's on release in 2015 above average performance GPU was why Nintendo picked it, but for sim games like Civ is usually even more important in, and of course loses to a much newer SoC build on a much improved process (7nm vs 20nm).

    The Quest 2 SoC easily beating the Switch multiple times over hints that performance wasn't the real reason to limit it to Quest 3/3S, when Quest 2 still has a way larger install base. This would allow for way more sales, which is usually a pressing issue for VR developers in a tiny market. So what is the reason?

    Mixed Reality is. Remember how many people here regularly complain that MR is mostly a gimmick and that there are no serious MR games out for Quest? Well, Meta is going to show you. In the trailer, there are scenes with historical figures (or everything showing gameplay plus hands/controllers) that are in VR, but it mostly focuses on playing Civ VII in your living room with passthrough. And since passthrough is still pretty much barely usable crap on Quest 2 and they still want to sell people on the idea and push them towards Quest 3/3S, they probably never even considered creating a version for their 2020 HMD still treasured by many players, even though this technically should have been possible.

    Of course they will lose out on a lot of sales by dismissing PCVR, PSVR2 and most of the Quest player base, and the franchise license won't be cheap either. But hey, this is Meta, where lighting piles of money on fire is fine, because it's not about the money, it's about sending a message. So what are a few millions extra, given to the nice Aussie studio that also helps them build up Horizon Worlds. Who knows, maybe they'll also have them create a (licensed) version of Civ VII inside of Horizon Worlds. It would be a nice fit that even Quest 2 owners might then be able to play, or SteamVR or PSVR2 users thanks to the Horizon Worlds versions for mobile phones and web that Meta CTO Bosworth just declared a main MRL priority for 2025, so clearly this would be a win-win for all.

    Next year is going to be the most critical year in my 8 years at Reality Labs. […] And Horizon Worlds on mobile absolutely has to break out for our long term plans to have a chance. […] This year likely determines whether this entire effort will go down as the work of visionaries or a legendary misadventure.

    A couple of years down the line Firaxis Games will release Civilization VIII, where you'll again be able to play through different historical scenarios to watch the outcome, then including some where the Meta visionaries led Horizon Worlds to a cross-platform triumph that ushered in the first days of the metaverse, or alternatively decided that going with smartglasses using AI powered by Meta's vast data centers was a more viable approach for world domination.

  • ApocalypseShadow

    Yes.

  • It was Nvidia's attempt at bringing true 3D to gaming, during the time when 3D movies were all the rage. It required a special 120hz monitor and active shutter glasses. Unfortunately they didn't push it very hard, so only a few games came out officially supporting it, including Civ 5 and Metro 2033. However, there was a huge push of it by fans, much like VR, with programmers giving games like ROTT 2013, Oblivion and Skyrim full support for it.

    It was amazing with Civ V, like looking down at a tiny living world. I would pull the monitor right up to my face, put my keyboard in my lap, and it was not too far away from VR in some ways.

    You must be very young if you don't remember it, this was only 15 or so years ago.

  • ZarathustraDK

    I haven't played Civ in decades, but wont this be a significantly watered down version if it's gonna run standalone? IIRC lategame on the pc-versions could really suck up some compute if enough AI's were present and the entire map uncovered.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      They might limit the map size to prevent this. The Switch version of Civ VII is already out, limited to rather small maps with the promise of larger ones becoming possible later. The first tests showed that performance indeed goes down significantly with longer gameplay/larger maps, so even though the Quest 3/3S is significantly faster than a Switch, it most likely won't allow for the same complexity as the PC/PS5 version.

  • Nevets

    I'm not going to take offence at your comment to me, because I can see that you're coming from a place of pain.

  • simon cox

    #ewww

  • vancleefmustache

    Just to make clear, this is not a Civilization VII port. This is someone putting together a sandbox map with some buildings and people and added lite Civilization like inspired game play using Horizon World build tools and then having Meta licensing out the name "Civilization 7" to this. Hey, at least you will be able to play this while staring at your bathroom wall when using the toilet.