It’s been over a week since Sid Meier’s Civilization VII – VR (2025) launched on Quest 3, and although developer PlaySide Studios has issued a performance update following its April 9th release, players are still struggling with poor performance and crashes of the $60 VR port.

Developed by PlaySide Studios in partnership with original developer Firaxis Games, Civilization VII – VR brought the sprawling real-time strategy game to VR for the first time, including both solo and online multiplayer matches with other Quest 3 and 3S players.

Things didn’t go off without a hitch though when the game launched earlier this month, with many users initially reporting persistent stuttering issues when using the game’s war table both in virtual and mixed reality modes.

An update released on April 11th was aimed at fixing “some of the performance issues,” the studio said in a reply to a Horizon Store user review, although the game is still apparently not out of the woods just yet.

Some of the most recent user reviews mention continued issues with stuttering when playing in VR mode, although there are also now numerous reports of the game crashing both during gameplay and upon startup.

“We’re aware that some players are experiencing crashing with Civilization VII – VR and we’re currently investigating,” the studio said on Monday via its official Discord (invite link).

While Firaxis suggests contacting support, the tide of complaints hasn’t come to an end, garnering the Civ VII Quest 3 port an accumulative user rating of [2.8/5] on the Horizon Store. Worryingly, the game has only managed to attract around 200 user reviews at the time of this writing.

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Firaxis says in a Discord news announcement it’s going to release more info “ASAP,” however with no update log available, or public roadmap of issues currently being fixed, there’s no telling what to expect and when. That said, it’s difficult to tell whether it’s entirely a VR-specific issue at this point.

Civilization VII has similarly received ‘Mixed’ user reviews of the non-VR version via Steam, some which stem from initial performance issues, and others based on expectations incumbent upon its $70 price tag. Others, such as PC Gamer’s Nick Evanson, found the non-VR’s late game too CPU intensive for many PC rigs shortly after it was released.

We’ve reached out to developer PlaySide Studios for comment on this issue, and will update as soon as we hear back.

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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.
  • CURTROCK

    Yet another supposed AAA vr game releasing in an unfinished state. Top tier price. Oof! :(

    • Octogod

      This comment is what Meta is banking on.

      All titles released on Quest for the first five years had built-in QA testing. This process took weeks and forced developers to fix issues within their titles before launch. If they didn't, they wouldn't launch. It ensured quality.

      In late 2024 Meta removed this requirement without warning, allowing any App Lab or store title into the store without ANY QA TESTING.

      So, all of this is because there are no rules. Games can not even hit frame rate. They can not be possible to complete. Their entire levels can unload before your eyes.

      Should the developers be blamed? Yes. But did Meta guarantee that the quality of their store will be as low as possible? Absolutely.

  • pixxelpusher

    Seems to be the common theme with almost all games released on Quest these days, which doesn't give much confidence for future releases. Wasn't like that in the past, games were released and they ran just fine. Devs need to lift their game.

  • I got it day one… didn't really experience any stutters that I'd call "bad," but I will admit I am not really chuffed about stuff like that in games so I'm not the one to ask.

    I was more disappointed with the direction Civ has gone. The last one I played was 5 which I consider the best of the series. I didn't like this one's implementation of "ages" that end and level all players up at to the next age at once, but only after leveraging HUGE punishments on the player for no reason, like plagues and civil unrest that you can't do a single thing about.

    I guess after this many games they feel a need to try and reinvent Civilization, but I don't like ANY of the changes they've made. Very limited troop types is another thing I didn't care for either.

    Played about 3 days and lost interest. My wrist got sore from having to point my right hand at my left for 90% of the game's controls, too. It gets hard on the tendons to point your hand that way and then pull the trigger a million times.

  • Teddy

    Bought it, tried it, returned it. Quite frankly they should have redone Civilization Revolution for VR. Even back then they knew the full game had to be pared down for iPAD and Xbox. Why on earth did they think a 'full' Civ game would be ideal for VR? With Civilization Revolution a full game lasted somewhere between 4-8 hours maybe a third of a Civ 7 game. Also the decision to introduce block graphics with zoom out and limiting table/map view for a strategy game in VR. They were too 'locked in' to providing the experience of "world leaders around the table" and sacrificed core gameplay. Stupid design decision.