At PAX West, 2K and Firaxis Games sketched the next stretch of Sid Meier’s Civilization VII for the franchise’s 35th anniversary. Per the 2K Newsroom announcement, owners will get a major free update called Arc of Tomorrow in 2027, while a separate paid first expansion, Earthrise, is planned later in 2027. Those are not the same product and they do not share a locked same-day 2027 street date in first-party copy.
Arc of Tomorrow introduces a new fourth Age—the Atomic Age—spanning roughly the 1950s through the 2050s. First-party language uses Age, not “Act.” The free update is described as automatic for base-game owners on release, with period-specific gameplay, buildings, units, visuals, music, civilizations, leaders, expanded nuclear options, empire-management tools, Great Works of Film, Manufactured Goods, and more. Firaxis also says Feature Workshop playtesting for Arc content is planned to begin later this year. No calendar day inside 2027 is locked for Arc of Tomorrow.
Earthrise is the paid expansion lane. 2K frames it around the historic space race and solar-system missions, plus Earth stewardship and environmental adaptability across the full campaign. Exact Earthrise timing inside 2027 remains TBD—“later in 2027” in Newsroom language—with more feature detail promised in coming months. Do not merge Earthrise’s paid scope into the free Arc package, and do not invent a shared launch day for both 2027 items.
Separate from both 2027 beats, Update 1.5.0 is due later this month—September 2026, no day locked here. 1.5.0 is a quality-of-life package highlighted by the long-requested True Start Location: Earth map, plus Voronoi updates for Terra Incognita and Shuffle, resource-generation tweaks, diplomacy Influence changes for alliances, and UI polish. 1.5.0 is not Arc of Tomorrow.
Anniversary storefronts are active while the roadmap lands. Free Play Week runs from September 3 at 10:00 a.m. PT through September 10 at 10:00 a.m. PT—1:00 p.m. ET on both ends for U.S. East Coast clocks. A 50% offer on Standard and Settler’s editions runs through September 17 at 10:00 a.m. PT (1:00 p.m. ET). Keep those Eastern conversions when clocks matter for U.S. readers.
For adjacent PC-ecosystem coverage already live on RCG News, see Chosen’s SteamDB acquisition note. Primary outbound for this draft remains 2K Newsroom; Firaxis’s 35th-anniversary post adds creative-director color but does not override the Newsroom split between free Arc, paid Earthrise, and this month’s 1.5.0.
