It’s been just over a week since Sid Meier’s Civilization VII – VR made its debut on Quest 3 back in 2025. Released on April 9th, the game has seen its fair share of turbulence with players grappling with performance issues and frequent crashes despite a post-launch update from developer PlaySide Studios.
Developed by PlaySide in collaboration with Firaxis Games, the VR edition of Civilization VII brings the beloved real-time strategy experience to virtual reality for the first time. It supports both solo and online multiplayer modes for Quest 3 and 3S users.
However, not everything went smoothly at launch. Players quickly voiced their frustrations about the game’s stuttering issues, particularly when interacting with the game’s war table in both virtual and mixed reality modes.
An update aimed at tackling “some of the performance issues” was rolled out on April 11th, as mentioned by the studio in a response to a Horizon Store review. Nonetheless, it seems there’s more work to be done.
Recent reviews from players continue to highlight the same issues with stuttering, and a new problem has surfaced—crashing, both mid-game and right at the start.
PlaySide Studios acknowledged the crashing issue on Monday through their official Discord channel, assuring players that they are actively investigating the matter. Firaxis, on the other hand, encourages players to reach out to support, but that hasn’t slowed the influx of complaints. This has unfortunately resulted in the Civ VII Quest 3 port receiving an aggregate user rating of just 2.8 out of 5 on the Horizon Store, with only about 200 reviews as of now.
Firaxis announced via Discord that they plan to release more information “ASAP.” However, without a clear update log or a roadmap detailing current fixes, it’s hard to predict what improvements, if any, are on the horizon. At this stage, determining whether the issues are specific to VR remains challenging.
The non-VR version of Civilization VII hasn’t fared much better. Available on Steam, it has garnered mixed reviews, partly due to performance issues, and partly due to its $70 price tag. Reviewers like PC Gamer’s Nick Evanson noted that the late game was demanding on PC systems, pushing many setups to their limits.
We’ve reached out to PlaySide Studios for further comment on these issues and will update with any new information as soon as we hear back.
