At PAX West, in celebration of the franchise’s 35th anniversary, 2K and Firaxis Games announced new updates for Sid Meier’s Civilization VII. Coming in 2027, players can expand their empire’s story into the present day and beyond in a major free update, Arc of Tomorrow. Additionally, later in 2027, the game’s first paid expansion, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII: Earthrise, will also be released.
Arc of Tomorrow, a major free update launching in 2027, introduces the Atomic Age. Players can also sign up for a chance to playtest Arc of Tomorrow content through the Firaxis Feature Workshop during the first round of playtesting later this year.
- Atomic Age: A new, fourth Age that extends the playable timeline of history from the 1950s through the near future.
- Modern World & Visuals: Sweeping urban city architecture, updated tech and civic trees, new Triumphs, social policies, narrative events, and more.
- New Civilizations & Leaders: A new roster of period-specific civilizations, plus the return of leader Gandhi.
- Expanded Nuclear Gameplay: New offensive and defensive options and units, with a new twist on mutually assured destruction.
- New Empire Management Tools: Players can recognize the independence of their Settlements and release them as City-States, giving them new tools to address empire size and loyalty.
- Great Works of Film: Film Crews will hunt for the perfect filming location that differs depending on desired genre, and gives variable benefits depending on the quality of Film produced.
- Manufactured Goods: Follow recipes that combine specific commodities to produce brand new, powerful resources like Enriched Uranium.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VII: Earthrise is the first paid expansion for the title, themed around the historic space race and deploying missions across the solar system. Earthrise isn’t just about looking up but also protecting the Earth itself.
- Antiquity & Exploration Ages: Players chart the night sky and name the celestial bodies above before expanding their insights of the solar system and their own planet’s place within it.
- Modern Age: Launch early orbital missions around Earth and the Moon, setting the stage for additional space operations later on.
- Atomic Age: Launch missions across the solar system with the player’s own established space agency, discovering planetary features and untapped resources which feed back into their civilization’s power here on Earth.
- Environmental Adaptability: New unit abilities and technologies enable you to alter the terrain and bonuses of tiles in your empire. New civil engineering structures help you fight back against increasing Natural Disasters as global temperatures rise–and you can even reverse the warming itself. And as your empire becomes more proficient in working the land in specific biomes, your civilization will earn new gameplay advantages that enhance your abilities in those biomes.
What is coming in Update 1.5.0?
Later this month, players will experience Update 1.5.0, which brings quality-of-life updates to the game and the long-requested True Start Location: Earth map.
- Earth Map & True Start Location: This new map generates the land, features, and resources of the real world, enabling a stronger roleplaying fantasy through history. Players start their campaign in a map location representative of where their civ began in the real world, with each game spawning a different set of natural wonders in their natural locations, keeping things fresh even on a familiar map.
- Map Updates: Updated Terra Incognita and Shuffle map types with the Voronoi map generation algorithm. This will help ensure these map types are more varied and look more natural.
- Updates to Resource Generation: Map loading and generation is speedier, and resource placement should feel more varied.
- Updates to Diplomacy: Players can use Influence to stay in an alliance without joining their allies’ misguided wars.
- UI Updates: Additional updates to plot tooltips, settlement banners, game setup, and a new tile ruler to help with city planning.
For more details on Arc of Tomorrow, Earthrise, and Update 1.5.0, read the official announcement article.