During a panel discussion at PAX West, Earthrise, the first major expansion pack for Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, was announced. We’ll tell you what we know so far here.
There was a larger panel surrounding Sid Meier’s Civilization VII at PAX West, with several announcements made. First up, there’s the next big free update, Arc of Tomorrow, which will introduce the atomic age in the strategic epic next year in 2027, stretching from the 1950s to the 2050s.
This era is characterized by city architecture, updated technology and civilization trees, as well as new victories, socio-politics, narrative events, and more. There will also be new civilizations and leaders, including the return of Gandhi. Core gameplay is expanded with new offensive and defensive options and units.
Even more important than this extensive update is the release of “Earthrise” – the first major add-on content for Civilization VII that will be paid. The focus here is on the space race and (orbital) missions throughout the solar system.
This add-on, due to be released in 2027, is not only looking upwards, but also towards the Earth itself, which requires special protection when it comes to environmental issues. Units and technologies have new abilities that allow you to change the terrain and realm rewards in your empire. New engineered structures aim to help combat growing natural disasters associated with rising global temperatures and could even reverse global warming itself.
In the short term, a 1.5.0 update is planned for release in September, which will bring further quality of life improvements and introduce real starting locations on the world map. Real-world lands, properties, and resources are generated here to further flesh out the role-playing elements. The patch also includes map updates for the Terra Incognita and Shuffle map types, resource generation updates, diplomacy updates, and UI updates.
