Galactic Civilizations is a turn-based strategy video game developed by Stardock and released in March 2003.

It is possible to achieve victory through war, cultural domination, diplomacy or by developing overwhelming advanced technology.

Although revenue from the initial OS/2 release was never paid by the bankrupt publisher,[3] popular support encouraged Stardock to release Shipyards, an add-on pack that allowed users to design their own starships, and this provided enough revenue to support further development, with a simplified version being sold to IBM in 1995 as Star Emperor.

It was followed by another version of Shipyards (which added both the ship design feature and improved governors/AI), and an expansion pack in April 1997, before Stardock was forced to withdraw from significant OS/2 development with the loss of their market.

[5] An expansion pack, called Galactic Civilizations: Altarian Prophecy, was released in 2004.

[19] The Altarian Prophecy expansion pack received "favorable" reviews, although slightly less than the original, according to Metacritic.