Paradox's toe-to-toe bout with Sid Meier scheduled for March as Millennia gets a release date

A skull wearing a crown accumulates sand in a desert, ruined cities in the background.
(Image credit: Paradox)

Millennia, that Paradox-published Civilization-like from C-Prompt Games, has gotten its release date. It's coming March 26, giving you a shot at navigating 10,000 years of history in an orderly, hex-based manner across all sorts of ages and crises.

That also means you can pre-purchase it, if you're so inclined. Millennia's standard edition is going for $40 (£35) on Steam right now, while its whizzbang premium version is $60 (£50). Both pre-orders come with the soundtrack and, well, the base game, but if you're already all-in then the premium edition also grants you access to a couple of cosmetics and the game's first two DLCs—Ancient Worlds and Atomic Ambitions—when they hit in Q3 and Q4 this year.

You can probably guess what Atomic Ambitions has in store. It'll add a bunch of nuclear-themed goodies and hazards to play with and promises "ways to turn the planet into a fallout-filled wasteland." Ancient Worlds sounds a bit more interesting to my ear, though. That one will add a new nomadic game start option and give you a chance to play a civilisation before it's, ah, civilised, letting you relive humanity's glory days before we mucked it all up with this "permanent settlements" and "agriculture" business.

I'm interested in this one. Plenty of challengers have tried to take on Civ over the years, and pretty much all of them have fallen in the attempt. But this one has Paradox backing, and that kind of strategy pedigree is nothing to sniff at. 

When I saw Millennia at last year's Gamescom, I was a little concerned by just how much of it felt similar to every game of Civ I've played, but let's be fair: there's only so much systemic depth you can get into in a short demo on a trade show floor. With any luck, Millennia's economic systems, myriad ages, and national spirits wil properly mix the traditional Civ formula up over the course of a full game. Either that, or it'll end up another set of trunkless legs of stone stood in the big, wide desert of Civilization's challengers. Look on its works, ye mighty, and despair.

Joshua Wolens
News Writer

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Read more
A still from the Civilization 7 opening cinematic.
Civilization 7: Everything we know about the first new Civ game in nearly a decade
Cropped Civilization 7 concept art featuring Amina, Queen of Zazzau, pointing a sword menacingly.
Civilization 7 senior historian prays it'll be a 'gateway drug' into textbooks: 'I teach undergraduates in my other life, and my God, man, they don't read'
Firaxis Video Treatment YouTube Video Thumbnail
Civilization VII is almost here: Hear the big changes the developers have in store
Civilization 7 screenshot
Civilization 7's post-launch roadmap will bring the Bermuda Triangle and Mount Everest to all players in March
Digital Ben Franklin looking very perturbed on dark background
Civilization 7 early access unlock time and release date
Part of the custom-built Civilization VII PC
Journey to the Industrial Era with our custom-modded Civilization VII PC
Latest in Strategy
Paths to Power DLC
Last year's best RTS gets its first piece of DLC alongside a meaty free update
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
Civilization 7 Great Britain - Modern Civ art (via YouTube)
As Civilization 7 struggles to keep up with Civ 5 player counts, a new patch is coming tomorrow with still more UI changes and gameplay tweaks
Battle Brothers
Nearly 2 years after its last update, the excellent Battle Brothers gets 'a bucket load of fixes' and free new content
King wielding his axe against would-be assassins in Norland.
Medieval colony sim Norland is getting a 'damn big update' that completely overhauls the game's mechanics: 'We're rolling out some radical changes to the core gameplay'
Age of Empires 2
Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because 'StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea'
Latest in News
A screenshot from SaGa Frontier 2, showing one of the protagonists wandering through a quaint fantasy village
One of Square Enix' most underrated PlayStation-era JRPGs just shadow dropped on Steam
The titular character from Princess Mononoke is depicted riding the wolf goddess Moro and carrying a spear.
Studio Ghibli AI image trend floods social media, cheered on by OpenAI and denounced by critics as an insult to Hayao Miyazaki
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals director says a future patch will reduce the shooter's insatiable hunger for RAM: 'It's a very big problem'
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'