Self-publishing developer Stardock has celebrated its 20th birthday with the announcement of Galactic Civilizations 3, the next addition to its successful 4X space strategy series that promises to go bigger than ever before.

Winner of dozens of awards, the premiere space strategy franchise is getting an all-new sequel from original developer/publisher Stardock Entertainment. Explore enormous galaxies full of hostile aliens, possible allies, and untold riches. Conquer the stars with massive fleets of spaceships you designed from the ground up. Forge a shining empire that spreads across the entire sky, and carve your name across the face of future history before anyone else by becoming a Galactic Civilizations III founder today.

Boldly, in addition to being PC-exclusive, Galciv 3 will also be limited to 64bit operating systems and DirectX 10/11 capable GPUs:

We want Galactic Civilizations III, and future expansions, to be able to handle extremely large galaxies with a very high resolution graphics and large data sets for the computer AI to make use of. It allows us to design the best game possible without being constrained by the limitations of older hardware.

Early access and other perks are on offer through the developer's pre-order founder's program, and you can check out the the debut trailer below.