Civilization VII Is Getting a Fourth Age: Nukes, Gandhi and a Space Race in 2027
Firaxis has laid out Civ VII's next chapter: a free Atomic Age update called Arc of Tomorrow and the game's first paid expansion, Earthrise. Add June's Test of Time overhaul and it's the biggest rethink of a Civilization game after launch in years.
Every Civilization game ends with the same question: what happens after the Modern Age? In Civilization VII, the answer until now has been "the game ends". In 2027 that changes.
On September 5, 2026, publisher 2K and developer Firaxis Games announced Arc of Tomorrow, a major free update coming in 2027 that adds a fourth Age, the Atomic Age, stretching from the 1950s into the near future. They also revealed Earthrise, Civilization VII's first paid expansion, about the space race. Both arrive in 2027, with no exact dates yet.
The Atomic Age, for free
Civ VII splits history into Ages, and so far there have been three: Antiquity, Exploration and Modern. Arc of Tomorrow adds a fourth, and Firaxis is filling it with familiar late-game toys and some new ideas:
- Nuclear gameplay, with new offensive and defensive options
- Modern city architecture and visuals, plus updated tech and civic trees, social policies, Triumphs and narrative events
- New civilizations and leaders tied to the period, including the return of Gandhi
- The ability to release settlements as City-States, a tool for managing an empire that has grown too big to stay loyal
- Film Crews that scout locations, with bonuses depending on the quality of the film
- Manufactured Goods, which combine commodities into new resources such as Enriched Uranium
Players can sign up to playtest it through the Firaxis Feature Workshop, with the first round planned for later in 2026.
Earthrise: the space race, as an expansion
Earthrise reaches across every Age. In Antiquity and Exploration, players map the night sky and name celestial bodies. The Modern Age brings early orbital missions around the Earth and the Moon. In the Atomic Age, missions spread across the solar system and send resources back home. There is also an environmental strand: terrain-altering units and technologies, civil engineering against natural disasters and options to reverse global warming. Price and date haven't been announced; Firaxis says more details will come "in the coming months".
The road here: Test of Time
The roadmap makes more sense with June's update in mind. Civ VII launched on February 10, 2025, and its most divisive idea was the mandatory civilization swap between Ages. On June 11, 2026, the free Test of Time update, which Firaxis compared to a traditional expansion in size, added a toggle that lets you keep one civilization from Antiquity to the Modern Age.
The same update replaced Legacy Paths with Triumphs, more than 90 optional objectives with permanent rewards, redesigned every victory condition, added a Fractal Continents map script and gave all players Alexander the Great as a free leader.
Where you can play it
Civ VII is on PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5 and 4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, and Apple Arcade. On Steam the standard edition is $69.99 and the Deluxe Edition $99.99.
Why it matters
Civilization games usually get two big expansions that change how they play. Civ VII is getting something more unusual: free updates that rewrite its core rules, followed by paid content on top. Test of Time answered the biggest complaint about the game; Arc of Tomorrow answers the second-biggest, that matches end too early. If the Atomic Age lands well, Civ VII could become the strategy game its fans hoped for at launch. For more on the genre's other giant, see Europa Universalis V's first year.