Firaxis Games and 2K Games stymied the blow of losing both Jake Solomon and Steve Martin by announcing that the next Civilization game is already in development.
Former COO Heather Hazen, who will now be the head of Firaxis, revealed the studio's upcoming project but she refused to confirm if it will be Civilization VII or if it's another spin-off.
Firaxis released Civilization 6 in 2016, so a new installment is desperately needed after the studio experimented with XCOM: Chimera Squad and Marvel's Midnight Suns, which was actually quite a surprise.
Most likely, Firaxis' next Civilization game is part of Take-Two Interactive's massive release pipeline through 2025/2026.
As for Solomon, the former XCOM franchise creative director (and Marvel's Midnight Suns) thanked Firaxis for the 23 years he spent with the company. He reassured fans that he won't be retiring from the video game industry, saying that his "brain is on fire with a new dream" and that it's "time to go chase it."