War! What is it good for? Winning a game of Civilization VI on the Nintendo Switch, apparently. As far as bugs go, this one is a doozy, and it’s a hilarious one to boot. What makes it even funnier is that, as of the time of this writing, there’s no fix for it. Grab your bayonet, soldier, because you’re going to war.
The main goal in the Civilization franchise is the same in every game: achieve victory. This can be done in one of several ways. You can be the most advanced nation economically, technologically, even diplomatically. Of course, war is always an option, too. Wiping your enemy off of the face of the globe is probably the most permanent victory there is.
The fun of the Civilization games is found in trying different strategies and winning through various means. In the Nintendo Switch version of the game, however, the only way to win is through war, because otherwise the game will crash and you’ll never be able to finish.
A bug that was seemingly introduced in the most recent update of the game (those things are supposed to fix things, not break them) causes the game to crash whenever a player is on the eve of victory. It doesn’t matter what sort of victory, either. Attempting to win through any means will crash the game. Well, almost any means.
The issue, discussed in a recent Reddit thread, does have one workaround solution. Find out which rival nation is causing the crash by noting whose turn occurs just before the game breaks, reload your save, and declare war on that nation before they get a chance to take action. Assuming this isn’t some sneaky, intentional pro-war update, it’s a pretty hilarious and game-breaking bug.
As it stands, 2K is aware of the problem and working on a fix, but for now, Civilization VI on the Switch is practically unplayable. It’s definitely a serious situation and it’s absolutely baffling how something like this gets by quality assurance. Generally, when a bug makes it through QA testing, it’s not because it wasn’t caught. In a lot of situations, the bugs are noticed and noted, but not considered serious enough to delay shipping. There’s no way anyone would allow an update to roll out if it all but guaranteed end-game crashes.
Sorry, Gandhi, you’re great and all, but I have to attack you. It’s the only way to save us all.
