Civilization VII: Multiplayer is cut in half to five players

Firaxis said in an interview with ComputerBase that the parallel release of Civilization VII on last-gen consoles and even the Nintendo Switch does not in any way affect the graphics and content of the PC version. However, there are still two major limitations compared to Civilization VI, namely the multiplayer.

Civilization VII is also primarily a PC game.

On February 11, Civilization VII will be released simultaneously for every platform imaginable: Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series with improved performance. PC veterans and enthusiasts are faced with the issue of limitations and compromises that come with broad platform support. ComputerBase passed it on to creative director Ed Beach in a conversation with developer Firaxis.

Beach says he can imagine where these concerns come from, but with Civilization VII they are unfounded. Graphically, the title looks much better than its predecessor Civ VI currently offers, and above all, it was offered at launch. The new game is based on further development of the engine that was previously used, but it already works on all platforms. Beach points to the console ports of Civilization VI. The only difference with Civ VII is that all of these platforms are supported at launch.

The new graphics have been developed for PC and console. The desktop version of the game is a reference, and so to speak, the original version of the game. Given our first hands-on experiences with Civilization VII, the editorial team can pretty much confirm this: at no point did it give the impression that the graphics, the user interface, or other parts of the game were optimized for the smallest link in the chain. of supported platforms. Although the new Civ does away with many of the micromanagement mechanics of its predecessor, which would certainly benefit from console control, this seems coherent and reasonable in the overall concept of the new global strategy game.

Reductions in graphics, map size and number of players.

The graphics on the consoles will be downgraded to the PC version, Beach explains; last-gen models and the Switch are particularly affected. There’s scope for things like level of detail, individual levels of detail, visibility, or zoom level. The Nintendo Switch, on the other hand, is so limited by its hardware that this won’t be enough; there will also be content restrictions here. Even the standard card size is unlikely to be possible on the Switch; only smaller cards will fit into the memory. And in multiplayer, only four players will be able to participate in each game.

This seems like a radical reduction, but on PC, the limit is hardly higher: in the first two eras of Antiquity and Discovery, multiplayer games are limited to five players. In the modern era there can be eight, and on Switch there are at least six. Why the distinction? The developers don’t want to delve into it yet. In Civilization VI, twelve players are possible in each game, but in reality, games with more than eight participants sooner or later become unstable. And this is still a step backwards. In addition, with Civ VII there will be no Hot Mode for multiplayer games on a single device.

Cross-play, save and progress

Firaxis points out the advantages: Civilization VII supports cross-play, and with a 2K Games account, cross-saves and cross-progression are possible. The only limitation here is that players on Switch obviously can’t participate in large multiplayer rounds on PC, and PC saves can’t be continued on large maps on Switch.