14 DAY TRIAL // Developer Firaxis and publisher 2K Games have released a brand-new update, delivering Steamworks multiplayer support to Civilization III.
Civ 3 was released back in October 2001, but the game still has a ton of players who are still enjoying it after 14 years, who were left out in the cold last year, when the GameSpy network was shut down.
Firaxis promised a patch to solve the lack of online connectivity around a year ago, and now it finally delivered on the promise.
The patch is limited to the Steam versions of Civilization III, and people who own a physical copy of the game have to submit a support request in order to get official multiplayer support up and running.
The update does not support direct IP connections, and people who really wanted to play it already had some tools at their disposal, but having official multiplayer support makes it more convenient for those who don't want the extra hassle.
A lot of popular games transitioned to alternative means of enabling multiplayer after the disappearance of GameSpy, but there are still plenty of games who lack support.
Sid Meier's Civilization is one of the most successful series in the turn-based strategy genre, with the latest entry, Civilization V, being among the most played games on Steam, in spite of it being over 4 years old now.