There are many issues in the gaming space today that players are frankly very tired of. However, the one that many are furious about more than ever, even more than microtransactions in certain cases, is the fact that some developers refuse to make a “complete game” at launch and, instead, cut out chunks of the formerly mainline content to sell off as DLC. We can point to many games in recent times that highlight this fact, and despite fan outcry, it continues to happen. Civilization VII is the next game in the line to apparently use this tactic, and gamers are responding accordingly.
The whole thing started with a live stream by the team at Firaxis, which was later translated into a massive dev diary. In the live stream, the team highlighted the many “paths to victory” that one can take throughout the game and how you can use certain tactics and strategies to get your civilization to where it needs to be. Rather basic at first, right?
Then, as you can see in the image above, they dropped the post-launch roadmap for gamers to take a look at, and it’s full of paid DLC and free updates. While that’s not inherently bad, when you look at what some of the paid DLC is, you can see why some fans are upset. For example, the paid DLC features new leaders, civilizations, and natural wonders. Again, not inherently bad at first, except one of those DLC civilizations is Great Britain, which you would’ve expected to be in the game at launch due to its importance in history. In fact, both they and Carthage have been “standard civs” in the original games. Thus, taking them out to be DLC seems like a money play and nothing more.
This was brought up multiple times in a Reddit thread about the dev diary. They noted that Firaxis has been doing this since the 4th entry, and gamers have complained every time to no avail. Just as important, many are calling out this continued practice and saying that Firaxis refuses to “release a complete game,” so they’ll either not get it or get it later when it’s a lot cheaper.
It’s important to note that there are free updates for players to enjoy, including special “events” featuring natural wonders and more, but you have to wonder if this DLC tactic will hurt Civilization VII due to how players are tired of developers and publishers fleecing them for as much money as possible.
