Meier making Civilization for Facebook

By Oli Welsh Published 22 October, 2009

Free to play, coming next year.

In a post on the Civilization fan forum, strategy guru Sid Meier has announced that he's making a version of his empire-building series Civilization for Facebook.

Civilization Network, as it's called, will launch next year and Firaxis will soon be looking for beta testers.

"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 co-operative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks," Meier said. "We're calling this project Civilization Network and the full game will be available next year on Facebook.

"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," Meier continued. "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.

"The game will offer everything you enjoy in Civ in a fully persistent environment - you can play as much as you like, whenever you like, and it’ll be free to play," Meier concluded.

That probably makes it the first massively multiplayer version of Civ, technically speaking, as well as the first for social networks.

Appropriately enough, the place to keep up with Civilization Network's development is at its Facebook fan page.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (20) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • matrim83 #1 2 years ago

    Color me interested.

  • paulf #2 2 years ago

    perfect platform for this, very interesting

  • UncleLou #3 2 years ago

    Maybe I am just paranoid, but the whole "Facebook gaming" thing that seems to be on the rise seems a little strange to me. Frankly, I prefer to stay reasonably anonymous on the internet.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #4 2 years ago

    That's it, it's official. I'll never get any work done ever again.

  • DugBriderider #5 2 years ago

    This is good news, it will be a bugger to execute but anything that opens Civ up to a larger audience gets my vote.

  • Ged42 #6 2 years ago

    oh crap, there goes my chance of getting any work done for the next couple of years.


    one... more... turn

  • Retroid #7 2 years ago

    ....

    Damn. That's the first thing to make me slightly interested in Facebook.

  • Toothball #8 2 years ago

    Luckily I'm immune to Facebook and Civ. I did show this to someone at work, who wept quietly as he walked away.

  • Fubdub #9 2 years ago

    All this is just an excuse not to work on Civ5 :(

  • andromeda #10 2 years ago

    i just left facebook. It's the simgle most liberating thing I've ever done!
    Just wish I could get a refund on the time wasted.

  • sneetch #11 2 years ago

    "The game will offer everything you enjoy in Civ in a fully persistent environment - you can play as much as you like, whenever you like, and it’ll be free to play," Meier concluded.

    Sorry Sid, did I just hear you mumble "... with... ya know... micro-transactions" into your chest? ;)

    Probably - and not necessarily a bad thing, I have no problems paying for stuff - but so long as you can't buy nukes while everyone else is researching Code of Laws or Pottery this could be great! This could be a lot like old text based Empire, presumably one turn a day and a lot of vicious backstabbery. I'm definitely interested in this.

  • cairbre1977 #12 2 years ago

    I just hope its more pc civ then console civ. The only reason I am worries is because he does mention the console version which is really like civ for mongs.

    Still if its like one of the pc versions this could be the next big thing for civ and sid.

    Fingers crossed its not a dumbed down version.

  • AphoticCosmos #13 2 years ago

    That's a very interesting idea, I think I might actually play it.

  • faux_carnation #14 2 years ago

    It's going to be awful watered-down crap.

  • cairbre1977 #15 2 years ago

    It could be a watered down version but lets hope its not. It has the potential to be amazing and it just depends on sid's target market.

    I think he would be foolish to ignore the pc faithful and opt to go for a new audience that may abandon the game after playing it once or twice. If he wants a community based around this game then a more, for want of a better term. 'hardcore' audience should be the target. Those who have played Civ for many years and know what its all about.

  • bratmandu #16 2 years ago

    Interesting, never played any games on FB - I kept getting stupid mafia wars requests from friends with too much time, which pissed me off no end. Don't these people have to work?

    Anyway, enough Eurogamer comments - back to work.

  • Spekingur #17 2 years ago

    Awesomeness. Perhaps this might someday connect with the next Civ-game (Civ5) - such as allowing you to take your turn in a multiplayer game or something.

  • Discalceaterabbit #18 2 years ago

    I think Ive just cum.

  • r4z0rbl4d3 #19 2 years ago

    Wow, just when I finally deleted most of my games on Facebook because of the addiction, along comes Sid and ruins everything! And I love it! :p

  • SteelPriest #20 2 years ago

    omg!