Civilization III now has Steamworks multiplayer support

Civilization III Conquest

Here's good news if you're still playing Civilization III: following the closure of GameSpy last year, the game now has Steamworks multiplayer support. Publisher 2K Games promised the transition in April last year, but now it's finally happened.

The update can be downloaded now on Steam, with multiplayer functioning exactly as it used to, except you won't have the option to connect with a 'Direct IP' anymore. Meanwhile, save game data will not be affected, but if you happen to own a disc copy of Civilization III (read: not a Steam version) then you'll need to contact 2K support for info on how to make the jump.

It's good timing: creator Sid Meier was the star of last week's PC Gamer show, where he discussed the history of 'Sid Meier' games, in particular the Civilization series.

Shaun Prescott

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.