Civilization 7's Earthrise expansion will let you explore the solar system

Civilization 7 developer Firaxis Games has revealed the game is getting its first paid expansion and it’ll see you heading into space. Dubbed Earthrise, it’s set to arrive in 2027, a good two years or so after the original game launched.

The announcement came as part of Civilization’s 35th anniversary celebrations. We’re so old and decrepit we can remember when the first game came out and, here we are, with this 4x strategy game’s 7th main entry about to get even bigger.

However, if you’re pondering the best design for your planet killer, we’ll stop you there. Rather than having you abandon our planet to colonize deep space, Earthrise’s exploration will serve as a means to strengthen and advance your Earth-based civilization.

Earthrise will also see you dealing with global warming. “When natural disasters intensify with rising global temperatures, you’ll have the tools to withstand them—or reverse the warming itself,” Earthrise’s blurb explains.

On top of that there’ll be new units and new technologies to bolster your growing empire, including ones that let you alter the terrain. Plus, you’ll get to play as new civilizations, with new leaders to boot. If you’re a Civilization fan, you should be jumping for joy, right?

Not exactly. The snag is that Civilization 7’s base game has not been all that well received and is currently rated ‘Mixed’ on Steam, compared to the previous entry which is Very Positive. The replies to Firaxis’s Earthrise announcement tweet include “You should probably fix the base game before adding additional content on top of it,” “Expansion announced before the game is even in a finished state” and other similar sentiments. Ouch.

The good news is that Firaxis will be giving Civilization 7 a major free update. Dubbed “Arc of Tomorrow”, it’ll add a new Atomic Age, new empire management tools, new tools to enhance diplomacy and new civilizations and leaders, to name a few of the features.

Both the free update and the expansion will be arriving in 2027. In the meantime, you can play Civilization 7 for free on Steam, up until September 10th. The whole franchise, Civilization 7 included, is also heavily discounted on Steam.