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Sid Meier Announces 'Civilization Network' For Facebook
by Kris Graft
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October 21, 2009
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Civilization creator Sid Meier said this week that he and his 2K-owned studio, Firaxis, are working on a project dubbed "Civilization Network," a rendition of the strategy game for Facebook, due in 2010.
The announcement comes after the most recent franchise entry, Civilization Revolution, a turn-based strategy game that appeared on consoles and handhelds that streamlined the traditional PC-derived hardcore Civilization experience.
"I wanted to let you know we’ll soon be looking for beta testers to help us develop a unique new way to play Civilization," wrote Meier on the CivFanatics.com forum on Wednesday. "Ever since we finished Civilization Revolution last year, I’ve been looking at ways of expanding the Civ gameplay experience to include solo, competitive and cooperative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks."
By creating a game for the social network Facebook, Meier and Firaxis are tapping into an audience that boasts 300 million accounts. It would be the first time that Firaxis enters the social gaming space, which is dominated by companies such as Zynga (Farmville), PlayFish (Pet Society), and Playdom (Sorority Life).
Like typical Facebook games, Civilization Network will be free-to-play, although Meier did not reveal any monetization methods, which may or may not include virtual item buys and advertising.
The full game is due to launch next year, preceded by a closed beta coming "soon." Firaxis has already set up a Facebook page for the game at www.Facebook.com/civnetwork.
Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis, gave more details about the upcoming game: "Civilization Network will allow you to join together with your friends to create the world’s most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization."
"You can coordinate your strategy to win great battles, share your technology to jump ahead of your rivals, lobby your family and friends to form your own government and win vital elections, manage and grow your cities to maximize production and happiness, spy on your enemies, and work with your friends to create the great Wonders of the World."
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Also, if you can get the monetization scheme right, this is a really good way to go. Millions of potential users all just a couple clicks from your game, and already grouped with their friends (i.e. the people who keep them interested).
In particular, it seems to me that the distributed nature of FaceBook makes it a natural target for updated versions of turn-based strategy games. Of course I'm also looking forward to original games there, but it's probably natural to grow the new market by refreshing older TBS games into the new distributed/asynchronous FaceBook format.
Firaxis could wind up doing very well for itself by quickly jumping on the opportunity to take a widely-recognized property into a new environment for which their turn-based game is a good fit. For that matter, if Stardock wanted to expand its market beyond the PC, their upcoming remake of Master of Magic might similarly give them a foot in the door for FaceBook games.
Meanwhile, I have dreams of making the first intelligent science-fiction game of galactic exploration and trading and conquest on FaceBook.
So who owns the rights to Master of Orion...? ;)
I was very impressed by Civilization Revolutions. After playing Civilization I to IV for way more hours than I'm proud of, I was very doubtful about a lightweight version for consoles. It ended up being the most enjoyable Civ game so far. Not the best version of the game (Civ IV still is), but one where all aspects of gameplay where really fun and simple.
I can easily understand his wish to try something new again with this game. I'll definitively give it a try. But a short one you know. Just..one..more...turn... ;)
I really been itching for a new Civilization with more features and bigger maps! (BTW bring back the 'build your castle' feature!)