Firaxis Games has started work on the next installment of their popular strategy franchise.
Isometric view of a landmass with forests, cities, towns, and people. Boundaries between cities are shown.

Some great news for strategy fans today as 2K and Firaxis Games announced that they are working on the next installment of the Sid Meier's Civilization franchise. This announcement comes alongside word that Chief Operating Officer Heather Hazen has been promoted to Studio Head at Firaxis.

Hazen has 22 years of experience but joined Firaxis Games in 2020. Prior to working at Firaxis Games, she was an executive producer on a little game called Fortnite at Epic Games. Hazen also helped bring games like Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled to the world while working at PopCap Games.

"I'm thrilled to have this opportunity to carry on the studio's storied legacy, beginning with the announcement that Firaxis is in development on the next iteration of the legendary Civilization franchise," said Hazen. "I’m lucky to be working with some of the best developers in our industry, and we have plans to take the Civilization franchise to exciting new heights for our millions of players around the world. In addition, we will continue to support Marvel’s Midnight Suns with post-launch content, and explore new creative projects for our teams.”
Hazen is taking over for Steve Martin, whom is parting ways from Firaxis as Studio Head after being with the company for more than 25 years.

When it comes to the new Civilization game, Ed Beach will once again serve as creative director on the project. Beach has been working with the Civilization franchise for over 15 years and was a lead designer for Civilization VI.

Given today's news, it seems like the next Civilization game is still quite a ways away. As such, no images, video, nor release date were provided. A title wasn't even revealed but it could be a safe bet to say it will be called Sid Meier's Civilization VII.