Civilization 7 Developer Firaxis is Facing Lay-Offs

Developer Firaxis has seemingly been going through some financial troubles. The Civilization 7 developer seems to have been hit by lay-offs. While no official announcement or statement has come from the studio itself, former developers who worked on projects like Civilization 7 and Marvel’s Midnight Suns have confirmed that they have been laid off through posts on LinkedIn.

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.