Civilization: Beyond Earth Coming to Mac and Linux This Holiday

The latest Sid Meier game, Civilization: Beyond Earth, launches later this week exclusively for PC. Mac and Linux players won't get to play right out of the gate, but Aspyr Media announced today that Beyond Earth will be available for those platforms through Steam and on Apple's Mac App Store sometime "this holiday season."

Mac and Linux players can preorder a Steam code for Beyond Earth today through Aspyr's GameAgent.com. Preordering will net you the Exoplanets Map Pack as a free bonus.

According to Aspyr, a prolific developer of Mac games, the Mac and Linux versions of Beyond Earth will "retain the same features and gameplay as the Windows PC version, while also offering cross-platform multiplayer via Steam."

You can follow Aspyr's progress on the Mac and Linux versions of Beyond Earth through a special "Dev Diary" series at blog.gameagent.com.

This is not the first time Aspyr Media has teamed up with Firaxis Games and 2K to bring a Sid Meier game to Mac. The developer was also behind the Mac versions of Civilization III, IV , and V.

For more on Beyond Earth, be sure to watch the game's impressive intro cinematic (above), and then check out our previous coverage of the upcoming strategy game. Just yesterday, 2K announced that the Windows PC version is now available to pre-load, and that you can play Civilization V for free until October 23.