One such post comes from former writer at Firaxis, Emma Kidwell, who confirmed that she was among those that have lost their jobs at the studio. In her LinkedIn post, Kidwell wrote about having worked at Firaxis for almost 5 years, and having worked on the last two major titles to have come out from the studio.

“Hi everyone! I was affected by the layoffs at Firaxis, and am open to full time writing work at your studio,” wrote Kidwell on LinkedIn. “I’m an incredibly adaptable writer who wrote on Civilization VII and Marvel’s Midnight Suns during my (nearly) 5 years at the studio, and I encourage you to keep an eye out for my former colleagues who were also laid off.”

While Firaxis itself is yet to make any statement, publisher 2K Games has confirmed that the studio has been hit by lay-offs, according to Rock Paper Shotgun. In its statement, the publisher said that the lay-offs happened in order to help restructure the studio and further optimise its processes for development.

“We can confirm there was a staff reduction today at Firaxis Games, as the studio restructures and optimizes its development process for adaptability, collaboration, and creativity,” said a spokesperson for 2K, according to RPS.

Civilization 7 was released on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch back in February. Since then, Firaxis has confirmed that it has been working on fixing various issues plaguing the turn-based strategy title. Shortly after release, the studio spoke about taking player feedback into account as it worked on updates for the game.

Some of the changes being worked on include making the title’s UI “more intuitive,” along with bringing in “improved map readability” and “fixing areas of polish like formatting”, among other things. The studio is also working on “ongoing AI balance and improvement, adjustment to diplomacy and crises, plus additional bug fixes”.

The first update released for Civilization 7 brought with it a host of bug fixes, but also had the added effect of disabling cross-platform multiplayer between the PC and console versions of the game.

In the meantime, Firaxis has also confirmed that it was working on post-launch content for Civilization 7. The title is slated to get paid DLC, which have been referred to by the studio as “Collections”. These DLC releases will bring with them new playable civilizations, leaders, and Wonders. March saw the release of the first of these, with a Collection dubbed Crossroads of the World.

The second DLC, the Right to Rule Collection, was released back in July, and introduced Genghis Khan as one of the new playable leaders to Civilization 7, along with the Assyria civilization, and a host of cosmetic items.

“We’re launching four titles with Nintendo Switch 2, and that’s I think a bigger array of releases than we’ve ever offered before with a new Nintendo platform,” said Zelnick. “Historically, being a third party in the Nintendo business has been a bit challenging. I think Nintendo has been very forthcoming in addressing that. And we’re stepping up too, because we have great optimism for the platform.”

He also spoke about how Take-Two will be supporting the console with its own games, while also maintaining that the publisher might not bring every one of its titles to the Switch 2. Rather, the company plans to look at it on a game-by-game basis.

“In terms of what we would bring to any platform, we address it on a case-by-case basis, we obviously want to be where the consumers are,” he continued. “But we would not necessarily bring every title to every platform. There are also great catalog opportunities as well.”

Some of the games that Take-Two Interactive has confirmed will be coming to the Switch 2 include Civilization 7, Borderlands 4, and games in the NBA 2K and WWE 2K franchises. While Civilization 7 will be a launch-day title for the console, Borderlands 4 will be available on the system alongside its release on other platforms on September 12. However, neither of the confirmed sports games have Switch 2 release dates so far. There is also no confirmation about whether Take-Two’s biggest upcoming game – Grand Theft Auto 6 – might make its way on to Nintendo’s console.

While GTA 6 got delayed to May 26, 2026, industry analysis firm DFC Intelligence has referred to the Switch 2 launch as being the most important console launch ever. This comes down to the fact that there is a vacuum left behind for the rest of the year in the wake of GTA 6’s delay into 2026, which is also expected to impact console hardware sales for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Nintendo, for its part, had revealed during its recent earnings call that it expects to sell 15 million units of the Switch 2 over the fiscal year. While in line with the company’s expectations of the original Switch from back in 2017, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa also clarified that its relatively modest sales forecast stems from the fact that the new console is priced higher than its predecessor was.

“Since the Switch 2 is priced higher than the original Switch, we recognize that there will be considerable hurdles in achieving the console’s widespread adoption in the early stages,” he said.

Several major third-party multiplatform games that have been previously elsewhere were officially announced for the Switch 2. That includes the likes of Split Fiction, Star Wars Outlaws, Civilization 7, Hogwarts Legacy, Wild Hearts, Two Point Museum, and Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. Separately, Sega also announced Sonic X Shadow Generations for the upcoming Nintendo console. 

Split Fiction, Civilization 7, Hogwarts Legacy, and Kunitsu-Gami will be available for the Switch 2 on launch day, which is June 5, while Wild Hearts will arrive later that month, on July 25. Meanwhile, Two Point Museum, Sonic X Shadow Generations, and Star Wars Outlaws will all launch before the end of 2025. 

That isn’t the extent of confirmed third-party support for the Switch 2 either. Several major games have been confirmed, including Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade, Hitman: World of Assassination and Project 007, Borderlands 4, Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, and others.  

If topping the PlayStation and Xbox charts wasn’t enough, it was also the best-selling PC title, with over half of total dollar sales coming from Steam. With over eight million copies sold in three days, the action RPG is Capcom’s fastest-selling game in history and seems on track to top Monster Hunter World’s record.

Other notable successes for the month include Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 in second place, whose launch month sales are over five times higher than its predecessor. Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 and PGA Tour 2K25 took third and fourth place, while Avowed and Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii occupied seventh and eighth.

Some of the more notable bug fixes include Epic and Marathon Age games being shorter than expected and numerous problems with naval combat. If you found your naval units using the wrong Combat Strength Values or not consistently moving to attacked tiles after disposing of enemies, these should be fixed.

Unfortunately, cross-platform play between PC and consoles has been temporarily switched off since Firaxis wants to “expedite” updates for the former. While this won’t affect PC-only and console-only matchmaking, it is another wrinkle for the 4X strategy title’s troubled launch.

Check out the full patch notes below. Civilization 7 will be available today for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch. Head here for more details on its post-launch roadmap.

1.0.1 Patch 2 – February 10, 2025

Patch Notes

Gameplay

Windows PC/Mac/Linux/Steam Deck

• Fixed an issue causing Ages in Epic and Marathon speed games to be shorter than intended.
• City States will now turn into Friendly Independent Powers on Age Transition instead of disappearing completely. They will also now start with more units in Exploration and Modern Ages.
• Fixed inconsistencies with Naval Combat.
• Naval Units will use the correct Combat Strength values when attacking another Naval Unit in all instances.
• Naval Units will properly take reciprocal damage after attacking another Naval Unit.
• Naval Units will more consistently move into the attacked tile after defeating another Naval Unit.
• Completing the final milestone of a Legacy Path no longer adds Age Progress in the Modern Age to ensure you have more time to complete a Victory.
• Towns will now switch their focus back to Growing town automatically if they are no longer eligible for their chosen Focus (for example, if their population decreases) until they are eligible again.
• Future Civic is now repeatable in all Ages. The cost of Future Tech and Future Civic will now increase more when repeated.
• Fixed an issue after too many bonuses to Growth where Food needed for the next growth event became negative.
• Improvements to Rail Networks aimed at increasing the reliability of Settlements connecting to the Rail Network over water by building Ports. This should apply as long as the Capital either has a Port or is connected by rail to a settlement with a Port.
• Made improvements to the Loyalty Crisis in the Antiquity Age, including giving the ability to purchase Villas in towns during this crisis, giving another way to manage the happiness of your settlements.

A note about cross-play multiplayer: To expedite updates to the PC experience, we will sometimes deploy patches to PC at a different cadence than we do on consoles – including today’s Patch 1.0.1. As a result, cross-play between PC players and console players is temporarily disabled. This will have no impact on console players attempting cross-platform play with other console players, nor on PC-to-PC multiplayer.

AI

Windows PC/Mac/Linux/Steam Deck

• AI will now offer high-value Cities less often during Peace Deals.
• In Modern, AI will now declare war less often at the start of the age.
• In Modern, AI will now consider Ideology more before Declaring War or offering Peace.
• Other Leaders now have a decreased desire for war if neither party has an Ideology.
• Other Leaders now have an increased desire for war with players of Opposing ideologies.
• Other Leaders now have a decreased desire for Peace with players of opposing Ideologies.

Camera

Windows PC/Mac/Linux/Steam Deck

• Fixed an issue on native-resolutions where the camera would focus on the lower end of the map when clicking on the minimap.

UI

Windows PC/Mac/Linux/Steam Deck

• Replaced the Simplified Chinese font with the font used in Civilization VI while we work on additional improvements for future patches.
• Fixed an issue where the Settlement menu fails to open when clicking on a non-player’s Settlement Banner in gameplay.
• Fixed an issue where yield icons fail to populate on the now available buildings when converting a town to city.
• Fixed an issue where some text was cut off on the Global Yields Breakdown screen.
• Added a notification for completed Espionage actions, so that you can more easily check the results of their Espionage actions.
• City projects no longer appear to be purchasable.
• Your current religion is now displayed first in the belief picker tabs.
• Fixed an issue where a District’s health bar would remain on-screen after being fully healed.
• Fixed an issue where Leaders fail to have a portrait when the relationship has changed during gameplay.
• Improved the alignment of leader names and portraits on the Age Summary, when viewing the Overview screen of the Victories Rankings.
• Fixed an issue where the background color remains the default color when the user changes it in the Player Customize tab.
• Improved the spacing between Civ descriptions, unique units and building icons on loading screen.

“So with Civ 7 it’s available on console and PC and Switch right away,” said Zelnick, referring to the recent multi-platform release of Civilization 7. “With regard to others in our lineup, we don’t always go across all platforms simultaneously. Historically, Rockstar has started with some platforms and then historically moved to other platforms.”

Zelnick is referring to the tradition of Rockstar’s titles not coming to all consoles on the same day. GTA 4, 5, and Red Dead Redemption 2, for instance, got their PC releases well after the original console versions launch. Even the seminal Red Dead Redemption only managed to make its way on to PC last year.

He did, however, point out that PC is an important platform for Take-Two as a whole, with most games in the publisher’s line-up coming to the platform along with their console releases.

“We have seen PC become a much more and more important part of what used to be a console business, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that trend continue,” he said. “Of course, there will be a new console generation.”

Zelnick also said that he expects the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto 6 to be a big enough event that fans of the franchise that are still sticking to either their old consoles or PCs will want to get their hands on a PS5, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S in order to play.

“When you have a big title in the market and we have many of them coming, historically that has sold consoles,” Zelnick said.

“And I think that will happen this year. I don’t think tariffs are going to be our friend, but I think there will be a meaningful uptick in console sales in calendar 25 because of the release schedule, not just coming from us, but coming from others. So I’m not concerned about that [console sales falling]. I think the trend that you’d want to focus on is this increasing share of the market that is reflected in PC.”

Reports of console sales being down came about last months thanks to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella revealing that both the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S sold less hardware in 2024 than they did back in 2023. Check out our report for more details.

Despite this confidence in Grand Theft Auto 6‘s success, Zelnick has previously stated that Take-Two won’t get arrogant about it. During its earnings call, the company stated that it is well aware of competitors from the rest of the gaming industry not being asleep.

As for GTA 6, there is currently no confirmed release date aside from a Fall 2025 release window. It is being developed for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Firaxis has detailed some of those upcoming changes in an update, explaining that it is currently prioritizing three main areas that need changes and fixes. Chief among them is fixing the UI, a “top priority” for the studio. Firaxis says it’s looking to make UI interactions “more intuitive, improving map readability, fixing areas of polish like formatting, and more.”

Multiple community-requested features are also incoming, including hot seat multiplayer, customizable names for cities and religions, Teams and full player counts in multiplayer, more map types, and more. Finally, the third main priority is quality-of-life fixes such as “UI adjustments, ongoing AI balance and improvement, adjustments to diplomacy and crises, plus additional bug fixes.”

Firaxis says work on the next patch is well underway, and it will also share further details (including a development roadmap) on upcoming fixes and changes soon. Meanwhile, Civilization 7 has plenty of additional content in the works, both paid and free, for which the developer also recently shared a roadmap. Check it out through here.

Civilization 7 is available in advanced access for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC, and launches globally on February 11.

For starters, as you would expect, Civilization 7 will indeed get paid DLC. Dubbed “Collections”, these paid DLC drops will bring new civilizations, leaders, and Wonders. The first, Crossroads of the World, will release in two waves across March.

The first wave adds two new civilizations, Great Britain and Carthage, and a new leader, Ada Lovelace. Three weeks onward, wave 2 will add another couple of civilizations in the form of Bulgaria and Nepal as well as another leader, Simón Bolívar.

The next paid Collections drop, Right to Rule, will be released sometime in Q2/Q3 (April-September) and adds two new leaders and four new civilizations and natural wonders apiece.

Beyond that, Firaxis and 2K are also promising “improvements elevating [the] game in a wide variety of areas”, as well as plenty of events and challenges. For instance, March has two updates planned that will collectively add new natural wonders (Mount Everest, Bermuda Triangle) and new events.

Civilization 7 is due out for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on February 11. Deluxe and Founders Edition owners will get early access starting February 6. A Day 0 patch will also go live on the same day.

Civilization 7 is out on February 11th for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Though the core premise still focuses on controlling a real-world civilization and progressing through various eras in 4X fashion, there’s a new Ages system. Matches consist of three Ages – Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern – with progress carrying over from one to the next.

Of course, players can opt to experience a single Age instead of all three in succession. Firaxis has also confirmed cross-play, with up to five players in Antiquity and Exploration Ages while eight players can partake in the Modern Age. The title will also support the DualSense’s haptic feedback on PS5. Stay tuned for updates and check out the PC requirements here.

We’ve struck gold! ⛏️#Civ7 has officially gone gold – we’re ready to hit shelves on February 11. pic.twitter.com/zhSM5QLvmL

— Sid Meier’s Civilization VII (@CivGame) January 20, 2025

However, the accompanying PlayStation Blog article offers more substance on the console version. Firaxis revealed that each platform has separate graphics renderers, thus ensuring the title’s optimization on PS5 and PS4. The UI has also seen some changes with a radial menu that lets you jump to the most frequently used systems.

PS5 players can also leverage the DualSense’s Haptic Feedback, which reacts in numerous situations like starting your turn, taking damage, and declaring war. Even founding a new city results in a “hammer-like thud”, but if it’s too much, you can turn it off.

There’s also cross-platform multiplayer for up to five players in the Antiquity and Exploration Ages and up to eight in the Modern Age. You can play through all three in a match or select a single Age. Head here for more details on the Ages system.

Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 launches on February 11th, 2025, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.