The next game from the mind of veteran Civilization designer Sid Meier has been revealed. 2K and Firaxis Games have announced Sid Meier's Starships, an interstellar strategy game.
Scheduled to arrive in early 2015, the turn-based game is coming to PC, Mac, and iPad. Pricing was not announced, nor were any details about a possible Android version.
In the game, you'll control a fleet of starships as you journey through the galaxy to complete missions, protect planets and their inhabitants, and build a planetary federation.
As you trek through the stars, you'll be challenged to expand your federation's influence and reach. You'll also amass futuristic technology and take part in turn-based combat using a deep roster of customizable ships, some of which you can see in the image gallery above.
2K adds that the missions you'll take on have their own unique maps, featuring "dynamically generated tactical combat" that should boost the game's replayability.
"When designing Starships, I was intrigued by the idea of exploring the next chapter in the story of Civilization: Beyond Earth," Meier said. "What happens after we colonize our new home and eventually build starships to take to the stars? What has become of our long-lost brothers and sisters from the planet Earth?"
"My goal was to create an experience that focuses on starship design and combat within a universe filled with interstellar adventure, diplomacy, and exploration."
2K also teases that Beyond Earth and Starships will feature cross-connectivity for people who own both games. The developer isn't talking specifics, but says that this integration will "enhance and expand upon both game experiences."
Starships was developed by Meier and a small team at Firaxis. Check back later this week for an in-depth interview with Meier about his new development team, and lots more.
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Discussion
Sid Meyer wants in on that Star Citizen micro transaction 'pledge' cash cow...
Oooh, I like it. I was underwhelmed by Beyond Earth, to be honest, but this sounds promising. Still, Spring is almost here-- how can there not be real visuals to show?
I learned nothing...
After the half-hearted effort we got from Civ Beyond Earth, I have no faith in this one. From the little that we see of the actual game elements, it doesn't even look appealing. This is likely to be more rushed and less of a real game than civ beyond earth. For a new 4x game I'll be looking to Gal Civ3 and Stardrive 2.
Which is a real pity. Cause if any company that has the experience, talent and resources to make an outstanding and rich turn based game, its Firaxis (ex XCOM, civ5).
Hopefully they'll double the price for the Australian market for no reason at all like they usually do. That will save me having to play it. I really don't have the time since I'm playing non 2K games that price their products fairly.
looks pretty ordinary
I think this will be something along the lines of Sid Meier's Ace Patrol. Fairly simple and not real deep. It has to run off an iPad processor and storage, after all. The AI isn't going to be groundbreaking. He seems to get these wild hairs and whip out a little game in a short time with just a few developers.
Not trying to be a downer, this looks and feels almost exactly like Galactic Civilization III. I love the Civilization series but was really disappointed with BE. It was shallow and, once you played all the factions, formulaic...there was no polish and the game just felt rushed and uninspired. I really hope this isn't GalCiv 3 with a different name.
Everytime i see a game like this being realeased i just fell sad that its not Homeworld 3.
Totally read that wrong, thought it said "Interstellar" strategy game T_T
If only they would release it on console, however clichéd/bland/disappointing, some of us wouldn't complain...
Looks like this is right up my street and I hope it's not a money grab, I like Firaxis.. loved what they did with XCOM.... with Sid Meier behind it ... it should be good.
oh look, another cash in.
I hope the rest of Firaxis are making a sequel to XCOM: EU.
iPad huh?
"hexgrid, turnbased, iPad / mobile, 2K as publisher" and "cross connectivity between game versions" (so in other words it's "gaming as a service" / online only DRM nonsense) - well, too bad, I was looking forward to something like "Sid Meier's Pirates!" but in space.
This announcement however makes it appear pretty uninteresting and since it's also for mobile I bet it's safe to assume it'll be as accessible and casual as possible and has micropayments / paywalls / grindy progression locks and all that "good stuff".
Sounds like a safe skip, will wait for devblogs and gameplay videos but basically I have no hope for this.
On the other hand I'm enjoying "Starsector" (formerly "Starfarer") and "Wayward Terran Frontier" (even though it's extremely early in development) and in about 3 months time I'm sure "Space Pirates and Zombies 2" will be a ton of fun, just to mention a few.
So yet another Microtransaction riddled mobile game with a crappy PC port. No thanks.
Beyond Earth was a spit to the gamers soul. Sid in haste to durp a second time?
seems more fresh than Beyond Earth. bring it on!
Galactic Civilizations
I hope it is a civilization genre game in space, and not just a panzer general (or gettysburg) type with spaceships
Hells yeah!
is a nice change of pace, however personally i feel something different from turn based strategic games from sid would be even better. personally i adored civilization, can get a little long in the tooth however after days and days of game-play on the same level. Still a legend of gaming and im enjoying earth.
Some are fearing the whole iPad thing. But you have to remember that Firaxis was able to port XCOM:EU to iPad as well.
Sid Meier needs to slow down. He is releasing too many similar games way too often.
From the screenshots it looks amazingly lame, especially for a TBS in 2015. And i just can't not to notice an increase in SciFi theme games after the StarCitizen success in crowd funding. Are they trying to milk the same cow? :D
Well I have to say I'm excited, but a little sceptical if the screenshots are indicative of the final release. I noticed there are no stars, just planets. This, and the fact that it's for IPad too, make me think it will be a very limited 4X. A new genre perhaps; 4X-lite.
Very torn. I like the concept, but kind of feel like it's a slap in the face for BE players. The amount of updates released for BE is laughable. Honestly I think there only has been one major patch of note. They need to polish BE before trying to push more stuff out the door. The whole cross connectivity thing is interesting and potentially cool, but the fact that it is being released like 6 months after BE is a little disconcerting. It sounds like it should be an expansion pack for BE instead of a standalone game. I guess I have to wait to see gameplay.
hey look, a new Sid Meier game! Its called, Space Cliche, cliche cliche, of the interstellar cliche -- beyond the cliche!
lol, this now because people were bummed that Beyond Earth had no space stuff.
People will be bummed again when this is just the same thing as Beyond Earth, but in space instead and your colonizing and fighting over planets instead of landmasses.
From what I read from reviews off steam, civ beyond earth is a massive let down on an epic scale. Maybe focus on expanding on games you have already got done and can work with more, rather than make complete spinoffs....... ugh. Would be nice to have a futuristic civ game thats not entirely like galciv with just ships and planets and 2d map overviews of each world.
Sir, we heard some cry for help coming from outer space and we think we should divert all the world's researchers from their Universities, usurp all the best engineers from around the world, cut healtcare and social programs in order to develop and then send a war fleet accross the Universe, in about 50 years from now, to save some unknown civilization. - All right, blame it on Al Quaeda thought
"Guys, we need to compete with GalCiv III"
And thus, this game was born. I swear to god if it says "Tap to do _____" like Godus does, I will shoot someone, Its click....CLICK to do _______.
So is this going to be like Sid Meier's FTL or Sid Meier's Space Pirates?
@T-ESI Both XCOM and Civ 5 were weaker than Civ 4 - they have been declining steadily as they reach to appeal to a broader base.
@brunotom Patience young grasshopper - Homeworld 2 isn't even 20 years old yet....
@bbdavo55 ? I does say interstellar strategy game.
@xgalacticax You didn't play the buggy mess that was the expansion XCOM: EW?
@illage2 Nope.
@hyru99 Implying the company only has one development team working on one project at a time.
@simc1 It wasn't a cry for help, it just said a transmission.They had basically surpassed all the problems earth had and created a better society/world/etc. At that point they decided to look out towards the other colonies that had to exist. Each colony having colonized their own world for probably 500-600 years at that point. Imagine 600 years of technological advancement from today, it's unfathomable. Each world completely isolated from the others, advancing down their own path. Each world bound to look radically different, with differing focuses in technology and society.
Now, after 600 ish years of isolation, the worlds all communicate with each other. Both able to share their inventions, culture, and advancements. The amount of knowledge gained would easily surpass anything any engineer, researcher, doctor, etc were working on.
So yes, creating a connection with the distant world is priority #1. The 600~ years of knowledge to be learned trumps everything else at that point. The reason our world is how it is today is because over time each country has shared and traded culture, products, inventions, etc. This is that on a much grander scale.
@mrbojangles25 Careful, don't criticize Godus. Molyneux will cry again and that's super awkward.
@mrbojangles25 I dunno, Kevin said it was far from Gal Civ. Also it doesnt really make sense. Why would Firaxis want to compete with Gal Civ NOW? Gal Civ is like a 12 year old franchise.
@bouchart Sid Meier's Civilization of a Solar Empire
@bouchart omg...if they did Pirates in Space I would be soooooo happy.
@Relvar @T-ESI XCOM is amazing-- one of the best games ever made, if you put the Long War mod onto it.
@OldDirtyCR @simc1 living in isolation and harmony for 600 years mean they likely did nt have military budget. Getting out of their bubble and seeking for the outside world is likely to take them out of their isolationist stence and invest 25% of their budget on Military like major world nations once they play with the ''outside world and other civs out there''. The trade off between culture, trade and military spending surely advantages the former but you cannot illustrate the advantages of State entities dealing together without mentionning the desastrous military spending it still drives because of fear, incomprehension among others. Transposed to our earth real life situ tho, working on a collective project to reach out to the outside world would certainly have a short term extremely positive impact of putting all efforts together in various sectors. It would certainly create a sentiment of Unity among nations that would be benefical in multiple aspects with direct impact on citizens lives.
@MXVIII @mrbojangles25 Was referring to the new release of GalCiv. However, if Kevin says it is quite different, then I will be less critical.
Either way, we win, right?
@MXVIII @mrbojangles25 think hes talking about the new GalCiv thats in development
@mrbojangles25 @MXVIII I know you were referring to the new one, I just dont think it makes sense that Firaxis wants to compete with them now, when they had no interest in it for the past 12 years. Its not like Galciv has ever taken away their market share. I mean if you think about it, NO game competes with Civilization.