News about Take-Two CEO Says Civilization 7 On Track Despite Slow Start

Six months have passed since the challenging launch of Civilization 7, which currently has fewer concurrent players on Steam than both Civilization 6 and the 15-year-old Civilization 5. However, Take-Two's CEO indicates that the game is still projected to meet the company's initial, internal lifetime expectations.

Civilization 7's debut on Steam was difficult, and player counts on Valve's platform have remained a struggle since its February release. User reviews on Steam are categorized as 'Mixed.' While Steam performance is not the whole story—the strategy title also launched on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch (with a Nintendo Switch 2 version and a VR edition recently arriving)—the core Civilization audience is on PC, where Civ 7 is evidently facing challenges.

In an IGN interview discussing Take-Two's strong financial results for the latest quarter, CEO Strauss Zelnick acknowledged the game's "slow start." He maintained, however, that the company's internal projections for the "lifetime value" of Civ 7 align with their original expectations.

"It's definitely improving," Zelnick said regarding Civ 7 (Take-Two has not yet announced specific sales figures).

"The key point is that Civilization has always been a slow burn—a title with remarkable staying power. I'm generally not a proponent of the 'long tail' theory in entertainment, but Civ is a prime example of it. Our current projections for the title's lifetime value are very consistent with what we initially anticipated.

"So, while we started slowly and have implemented changes—with more updates on the way—we're seeing steadily improving player engagement and feel very positive about the title's future. We believe it will ultimately earn its place as a successful and respected entry in the Civilization franchise."

Rank every Civilization Game

At launch, players pointed to issues with the user interface, a perceived lack of map variety, and a feeling that the game was missing features expected from the series. Additionally, some veteran fans were unsettled by the significant mechanical changes introduced by developer Firaxis.

A complete Civilization 7 campaign spans three distinct Ages: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern. Upon completing an Age, all players and AI opponents simultaneously undergo an Age Transition. This transition involves three key actions: selecting a new civilization from the upcoming Age to lead your empire, choosing which Legacies to carry forward, and witnessing the evolution of the game world.

This multi-era system is a first for the franchise and has split player opinion. Since launch, Firaxis has released several major updates, the most recent being Patch 1.2.3, which specifically improved the Age Transition mechanics.

The pressing question now is whether Firaxis can shift the current 'Mixed' sentiment on Steam and convince more players to transition from earlier Civ titles to this latest installment.

Our full interview with Strauss Zelnick covers more ground, including his perspective on controversial Borderlands developer Randy Pitchford and his response to recent reports about the troubled development of BioShock 4.