Make History: ‘Sid Meier’s Civilization VII’ Comes to VR and MR This Spring
The Sid Meier’s Civilization series has been allowing players to shape the course of history for more than 30 years. With Civilization VII, 2K and Firaxis Games are bringing the franchise to immersive and mixed reality for the first time, giving Civilization and deep strategy fans a new way to experience developing their societies, forging alliances, and fighting other nations to reach the pinnacle of human achievement.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VII - VR—developed by PlaySide Studios in collaboration with Firaxis Games and published by 2K—brings the content of the PC and console flatscreen version of Civilization VII exclusively to Meta Quest 3 and 3S from a whole new perspective with unique features for both virtual and mixed reality. Civilization VII - VR leverages the classic, top-down view of Civ, putting you at the War Table, a board game-like construction where the world is laid out before you and has come to life. You’ll be able to peer down from high above the War Table to strategize your moves or lean all the way in to appreciate the finer details of your scouts, cities, armies, and Wonders. Watch your empire grow from your own museum looking out onto a vista personalized to your leader, or toggle to mixed reality at any time and the War Table will adapt to its placement in your physical space.
The War Table’s appearance in both VR and MR isn’t the only immersive element added to Civilization VII - VR. As in other Civ titles, you take on the role of a world leader and face off against other leaders and important figures from history, each with their own abilities, personalities, agendas, and ideas about how to be an effective leader. Diplomacy and interaction is a huge part of Civ, and in Civilization VII - VR, you have the opportunity to have these diplomatic meetings face-to-face. The other leaders present in your game surround the War Table as they take their turns, allowing you to see their actions and reactions as you make your moves, create alliances, and wage war through the Ages. You’ll also be able to revisit your own history and achievements in The Archives, a space where the heights of your civilization are captured as dioramas you can see anytime you like in virtual reality. Default games have also been set to faster speeds compared to the default PC version of the game so you can play through an entire Age during a single headset session, though the pace can be set to different levels based on your preferences.
Civilization VII - VR supports a single-player mode, as well as both co-op and competitive multiplayer modes for you and up to three other Quest 3 or 3S players.* You can fill games with AI-controlled opponents to take on with your friends, or face off against human opponents to see whose civilization can withstand the test of time—and whose will crumble into dust and memory. You’ll see your friends and opponents in VR and MR as their chosen world leader around the War Table, allowing you to go even further in creating your own version of history.
If you’re not familiar with the turn-based Civilization games, they’re commonly referred to as 4X strategy games, where you “explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate.” Your goal is to raise your empire from Antiquity to the Modern Age, seizing territory to found cities and build towns for your people, and raising armies to defend yourself—or to conquer. The game is about more than routing your enemies, though, as you can potentially win without firing a single arrow or bullet by pursuing culture, science, religion, and trade. You’ve got to keep your people happy and healthy while advancing your empire, which you can do by exploring the world and being the first to discover Wonders or to create cultural feats, making scientific advancements, sweeping the world as an economic superpower, defeating and annexing other civilizations, or any combination of them all. Civilization games have an engaging learning curve and are rewarding to master—there’s always something new to try, a strategy to refine, or a different way to play the game.
Civilization VII shakes up the existing Civ formula in a number of new ways. Now, you’ll lead your empire through distinct Ages of human history. Each Age is its own rich, nuanced journey, with unique playable civilizations, available resources, explorable land, and even entire gameplay systems, creating a deep, historically immersive strategy experience. And your world leader is no longer dependent on the civilization you choose to run—you can combine leaders from throughout history with different peoples and nations. That gives you the ability to create unique combinations and rewrite history as you see fit. A number of elements have also been streamlined, like building improvements and growing settlements, so you can focus on the more exciting business of capturing new territory, building potential alliances, establishing a religion, and growing an economy.
Civilization VII - VR brings the true Civ experience to VR and MR, complete with everything fans expect from Firaxis’s beloved series, adding a new dimension to strategy gaming on Quest. Sid Meier’s Civilization VII - VR is coming to Meta Quest 3 and 3S in Spring 2025, and you can wishlist it now on the Meta Horizon Store.
