All Articles: Civilization VI

Steam’s Top Sellers for 2018 include PUBG, GTA5, Rocket League, more

Posted on January 1, 2019 by John Scalzo

After more than a decade of dominance as the most-popular digital storefront for the PC, Steam was challenged on all sides in 2018 from both established players (GOG, Origin, and the Humble Store), as well as shiny upstarts (Discord and the Epic Games Store). But Valve’s online shop still sold a lot of games this year, and they recently shared their Top Sellers of 2018 with the public. But instead of ranking the games, Steam chose to split the list up into four tiers “as measured by gross revenue this year.”

As you might have guessed, you’ll find plenty of heavy hitters among the 12 games featured in the Platinum tier. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was slightly overshadowed this year by other “Battle Royale” shooters, but it made the cut, as did new releases like Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and Monster Hunter: World, and perennial favorites such as Grand Theft Auto V, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Rocket League…

Steam’s Top Sellers of 2018 – Platinum Tier

  • Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
  • Civilization VI
  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
  • Dota 2
  • The Elder Scrolls Online
  • Far Cry 5
  • Grand Theft Auto V
  • Monster Hunter: World
  • PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
  • Rocket League
  • Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
  • Warframe

Steam partitioned off the next 12 games as the Gold tier, and followed that up with 16 more games in the Silver tier. The remaining 60 games were included in the Bronze tier.

There’s plenty of recognizable titles at every level, including Ark: Survival Evolved in Gold; Subnautica, Final Fantasy XV, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider all in Silver; and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Dark Souls Remastered, and Nier: Automata in Bronze.

All the titles from Steam’s Top Sellers of 2018 can be seen on… you guessed it… Steam.

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New Retail Releases: Fallout 76, Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee/Pikachu, Hitman 2, More

Posted on November 12, 2018 by John Scalzo

Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong, thanks to this week’s brand new retail game releases…

Fallout fans will be able to return to The Wasteland in an entirely new way this week as Bethesda will add multiplayer gameplay to the franchise for the first time in Fallout 76 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Xbox One owners interested in upgrading to an Xbox One X will also be able to opt for an Xbox One X 1TB + Fallout 76 Bundle.

Pokemon fans will be able to experience a familiar locale in a new way this week as well with Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee! and Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu! for the Switch. The two games will revisit the Kanto region, and players will need to use a throwing motion with a Joy-Con (or the optional Poke Ball Plus controller) to catch Pokemon in the wild. Two special console bundles (a Switch + Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee! + Poke Ball Plus Bundle and a Switch + Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu! + Poke Ball Plus Bundle) will also be available.

More familiar settings can be found this week in Activision’s Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which collects the first three games in the series on the PS4 and Xbox One. It’ll be joined on store shelves by a pair of new-to-the-Switch games, including SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, a compilation of SNK’s pre-NeoGeo offerings, and the console debut of 2K’s Civilization VI.

New adventures (and targets) await Agent 47 this week as developer IO Interactive has ditched the episodic structure for the assassin’s newest game, Hitman 2, which will launch for the PS4 and Xbox One (and on the PC as a download-only title).

The Golf Club 2019 Featuring PGA Tour (PS4, Xbox One), a golf simulation from HB Studios, and Trailblazers (PS4, Switch), a futuristic racer from Supergonk, will make their way to retail shelves everywhere after first appearing as digital titles earlier this year. And Epic’s Fortnite: Deep Freeze Bundle will give fans the chance to obtain the Deep Freeze Costume Set and 1,000 V-Bucks for the free-to-play Battle Royale shooter.

Finally this week, DICE and Electronic Arts will deliver Battlefield V: Deluxe Edition to the franchise’s on the PS4 and Xbox One a few days ahead of the launch of the Standard Edition.

A complete look at this week’s new retail releases can be found after the break. (more…)

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Civilization VI’s Rise and Fall expansion will be released on February 8

Posted on November 28, 2017 by John Scalzo

2K Games and Firaxis have announced that Civilization VI‘s first expansion, Rise and Fall, will be released on February 8, 2018. As you might expect, the upcoming add-on will bring a number of new features to Firaxis’s strategy game:

Civilization VI: Rise and Fall Features

  • Great Ages: As your civilization ebbs and flows, and you reach milestone Historic Moments, you will experience Dark Ages or Golden Ages, each providing specific challenges or bonuses based on your actions in-game. Rise triumphantly from a Dark Age, and your next Golden Age will be even stronger – a Heroic Age.
  • Loyalty: Cities now have individual Loyalty to your leadership – let it fall too low, and face the consequences of low yields, revolts, and the potential to lose your city to another civilization, or its own independence. But one civilization’s loss can be your gain as you inspire Loyalty among cities throughout the map and further expand your borders.
  • Governors: Recruit, appoint, and upgrade powerful characters with unique specialization bonuses and promotion trees to customize your cities, and reinforce Loyalty.
  • Enhanced Alliances: An enhanced alliances system allows players to form different types of alliances and build bonuses over time.
  • Emergencies: When a civilization grows too powerful, other civilizations can join a pact against the threatening civilization and earn rewards, or penalties, when the Emergency ends.
  • Review your civilization’s history at any time with the new Timeline feature, a visual journey through the Historic Moments that you encountered on your path to victory.
  • New Leaders and Civs: Nine leaders and eight new civilizations are introduced. Each brings unique bonuses and gameplay, as well as a total of eight unique units, two unique buildings, four unique improvements, and two unique districts.
  • New Global Content: Eight new world wonders, seven natural wonders, four new units, two new tile improvements, two new districts, fourteen new buildings, and three new resources have been added.
  • Improved Gameplay Systems: The Government system has been enhanced with new Policies and additional improvements have been made to existing systems.

The first trailer for Civilization VI: Rise and Fall has been embedded above.

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Top 100 Best Sellers on Steam in 2016 include Dark Souls III, Civ 6, No Man’s Sky, and more

Posted on January 2, 2017 by John Scalzo

A day after revealing the winners of the first-ever Steam Awards, Valve is back with a breakdown of the “Top 100 Best Sellers of 2016” on Steam.

The list is unnumbered, but Valve has broken it down into four tiers… Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Based on total gross revenue (not copies sold) for 2016, the games in the Platinum tier include Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Civilization VI, XCOM 2, Total War: Warhammer, Fallout 4, Grand Theft Auto V, Tom Clancy’s The Division, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, No Man’s Sky, Dark Souls III, Rocket League, and DOTA 2.

Most of 2016’s biggest releases made the cut, including Doom (Gold), Watch Dogs 2 (Silver), Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (Silver), and Dishonored 2 (Bronze).

The complete list can be found at Valve’s SteamPowered.com storefront.

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Overwatch wins Game of the Year at 2016 Game Awards

Posted on December 2, 2016 by John Scalzo

gameawards-statueThe 2016 Game Awards were filled with surprises, but I’m sure no one was shocked when Blizzard’s Overwatch walked away with the most statuettes last night, including the coveted “Game of the Year” prize. The popular online shooter also won the “Best Multiplayer” award, as well as the fan-voted “Best eSports Game” award. And Blizzard was honored for their development work on Overwatch with the “Best Game Direction” award.

Naughty Dog and id Software also had a good night with two wins apiece. The familial tale at the center of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End won “Best Narrative” and Nolan North won “Best Performance” for his final turn as Nathan Drake. Meanwhile, Doom blasted its way into the spotlight with wins in the “Best Music/Sound Design” and the “Best Action Game” categories.

Playdead’s Inside (“Best Art Direction” and “Best Independent Game”) and Pokemon Go (“Best Mobile/Handheld Game” and “Best Family Game”) also earned multiple awards last night at the Game Awards.

Congratulations to all the nominees, and the full list of winners can be found after the break. (more…)

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EA, 2K dominate October’s best-selling games list as Battlefield 1, Mafa III lead the way

Posted on November 18, 2016 by John Scalzo

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More games get released in October than any other month (though November is probably close), so it shouldn’t be surprising that megapublishers like Electronic Arts and 2K Games nearly ran the table with the NPD Group’s monthly best-sellers report.

EA’s Battlefield 1 took the top spot, and the publisher placed three other games in the top ten including FIFA 17 (#4), Titanfall 2 (#9), and Madden NFL 17 (#10). 2K Games had an equally strong month, thanks to Mafia III making gamers an offer they couldn’t refuse (and the #2 spot on the list). It was followed by NBA 2K17 (#5), WWE 2K17 (#7), and Civilization VI (#8).

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, NPD’s Sam Naji said that overall industry revenues were up 6% in October 2016, though hardware and accessories aren’t selling as well as they did a year ago.

The full Top 10 from October 2016 can be found after the break. (more…)

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New Retail Releases: Battlefield 1, Civilization VI, Skylanders Imaginators, More

Posted on October 16, 2016 by John Scalzo

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While the Call of Duty franchise continues to push further and further into the future, EA and DICE are taking the Battlefield franchise back to The Great War for Battlefield 1. The shooter will be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One this week, and Microsoft is even offering a special Xbox One S + Battlefield 1 Bundle in two sizes… 500 GB and 1 TB.

Firaxis Games and 2K will return with a different sort of trip through time this week with Civilization VI. The strategy game will be released for the PC, and it’ll once again ask players to battle it out with famous world leaders and grow their civilization.

Skylanders fans will get the chance to try out a new entry in the franchise, as Activision will bring Skylanders Imaginators to the PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One this week. For the first time, players will be able to design their own Skylanders characters with the brand new Imaginators system.

In what has become a regular occurrence in the New Retail Releases report, another batch of games will get the re-release treatment this week. WB Games will swoop down to save the day in Batman: Return to Arkham, a PS4 and Xbox One compilation featuring Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. The publisher will also package together Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 in Lego Harry Potter Collection, exclusively for the PS4. WayForward will give 3DS owners another chance to pick up Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, this time in a new Retail Edition. Finally, Harmonix will release the Rivals expansion for Rock Band 4 this week, and launch a special Rock Band 4 + Rivals Expansion pack for the PS4 and Xbox One.

A complete look at this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)

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Zelda: Breath of the Wild named E3 2016’s “Best of Show” by Game Critics Awards

Posted on July 5, 2016 by John Scalzo

thelegendofzeldabreathofthewild-header

The Game Critics Awards has handed out their annual “Best of E3” honors for this year’s show, and unsurprisingly, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was named “Best of Show.” The massive open-air game also took home awards for “Best Console Game” and “Best Action/Adventure Game.”

Even though Battlefield 1 secured the most nominations, only one other game was able to collect more than a single award, and that was Civilization VI, which was named “Best PC Game” and “Best Strategy Game.” This year’s “Special Commendation for Graphics” went to Sony’s God of War reboot.

All told, 13 games (and the PlayStation VR headset, which won for “Best Hardware”) were honored this year by the Game Critics Awards. The full list of winners can be found after the break. (more…)

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