Civilization VI announced with trailer, building to October launch

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI has been announced by Firaxis, courtesy of a trailer that shows absolutely no gameplay footage.

On the plus side, said trailer sounds like it’s narrated by Sean Bean, and I don’t think he dies at the end of it. So that’s new.

So, what’s new in this sixth iteration of the empire builder? Well, your cities take up multiple tiles, letting you make maximum use of the local terrain. There’s a new “Active Research” system, with boosts available to speed things up, unlocked by having your units explore and develop the environment. Diplomacy changes and evolves over the course of the game, with “first contact” in the early stages of the game having far fewer options than the sort of late-game negotiations you can expect. And the one-unit-per-tile thing is being expanded upon with support units that can embed into other units (anti-tank support joining up with infantry, say) as well as similar units grouping together into Corps.

Equally interesting is the promise of additional multiplayer modes – both competitive and cooperative – which are designed to be completed in a single play session. For those of us who don’t have 20 hours available to play a full campaign in multiplayer, that sounds rather neat.

We’ll doubtless hear a lot more about Civilization VI before its 21 October launch date. You can have a look at the trailer below, as well as some screenshots culled from the Steam page, where you can pre-order the game for £49.99 if that’s the sort of thing you do. (Oh, and yes, it’s got a Steam Controller deal, as well as a Digital Deluxe version that offers “four post-launch DLC packs” as well as a soundtrack.)

Anyway, yes. Our scientists reckon that research on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI will be complete on 21 October. Screenshots and trailer below.