Rejoice wandering emperors, for Civilization 7 will be Steam Deck verified at launch

A quick one: Firaxis have confirmed that Civilization 7 will be Steam Deck verified at launch. It’s a pleasant surprise, given that 2016’s Civ 6 is still only listed as “playable” on Valve’s oversized Switch. I like this news about as much as I’m terrified to realise that Civ 7 is just under a month away. I do not need that much strategy game, this early in the year. But hey, at least I’ll be able to play the new 4X in bed as Sid Meier intended.

Admittedly, I don’t currently own a Steam Deck – James, ever the fickle lord of hardware, took back the one I was borrowing last year. I’ll get that guy. But I’ve been playing a lot of 4Xs in bed, as it happens. I’ve just discovered that Amplitude‘s brilliant Endless Legend runs comfortably on my Dell work laptop. Current activities: trying to find a new location for my roving beetle city that has both a strategic resource and a luxury resource within easy building distance.

There are no giant beetles in Civ 7, but the two games do share a campaign structure in the shape of age-based progression. Every time your civilisation enters a new age, you get to pick from a pool of epoch-making options determined by your prior accomplishments. When playing multiplayer, you have the option of confining the proceedings to a single age. It sounds like quite a significant refresh of the whole caveman-to-spaceman concept. Also significant: in a first for Civ, you can choose your leader separately from your civilisation.

Civ 7 is one of our most anticipated games of 2025. “It looks very pretty, and it has some very intriguing ideas (navigable rivers and commander units), and also Gwendoline Christie,” summarised Ollie. It’s out 11th February and you can read more on Steam.