A bizarre move by 2K has seen them decide to exclude online multiplayer from the Nintendo Switch version of Civilization 6. They have, instead, limited the multiplayer aspect of the game to local multiplayer only.
This was initially brought to light by WinneonSword over on Reddit, where he posted a screenshot of the game on the Nintendo store which states that the game can be played with friends over ‘local wireless’. Other games that feature online multiplayer, such as the upcoming Diablo Eternal Collection, specifically mention the addition of online multiplayer.
Some fans were hoping that the game would offer online multiplayer in a future patch (as a lot of games do these days), however, 2k has now confirmed that the game will only offer local multiplayer and they have no plans to release an online multiplayer patch.
When speaking to Eurogamer, publisher 2k games said:
“Civilization 6 for Nintendo Switch includes support for local cooperative and competitive multiplayer for up to four players via a Wireless Network,”
“It will not have online multiplayer.”
In my opinion, this is a major drawback for the game. Although Civilization 6 on the PC does have a solid single-player campaign which will be carried over to the Switch, online multiplayer is where the real fun is at for me. These sort of strategy games are best played against real players.
This is especially strange considering the digital age we live in, there’s plenty of games now that are online only. Take Call of Duty, for example; they’ve ditched the single player campaign completely. I’m not saying that single player games can’t be great, I mean look at Red Dead Redemption 2 and Fallout to name just two, but a strategy game such as Civilization needs online multiplayer, in my opinion.
It doesn’t look like there’s much hope of 2K backtracking on this, the decision seems to have already been made, so I guess I will be giving it a miss.
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