America: 2xCD, Europe: DVD - Answer from Firaxis.

[Lucky The Fox]

Good thing I got a DVD-drive earlier this year then. Anyone have any idea how friggin impossible it is to find a regular, non-writable DVD-drive?

 

[Ex Mudder]

No we just towed you guys away, just below Greenland actually. Haven't you noticed?

Wasn't there a UK political party whose platform included towing England south to get better weather?

As for the UK being part of Europe... well, I think Churchill said it best.

 

[Muki]

is there any difference between dvd and cd besides that dvd stores more data. And what speed is a good dvdrom?

 

[Mercade]

is there any difference between dvd and cd besides that dvd stores more data. And what speed is a good dvdrom?

They are quite similar, round and all that. Different colour laser, but what do you mean? There are other places where you can find far more information about CD's and DVD's.

 

[Jonathan]

Wasn't there a UK political party whose platform included towing England south to get better weather?

Sounds like a great idea. Madeira might be a bit surprised to get a new neighbour.

The only trouble is that the southern half of the country is overcrowded and overpriced already, despite the weather. With decent weather, there'd be standing room only. I suppose Scotland could fill up a bit...

 

[Muki]

They are quite similar, round and all that. Different colour laser, but what do you mean? There are other places where you can find far more information about CD's and DVD's.

well ye i know how dvds look and all that..but why they bother releasing cds in US and dvds in europe..wouldnt it be easier cds or dvds everywhere.

 

[vbraun]

Darn, I was hoping for the DVD...

 

[Shillen]

Europe is probably on DVD for all the language support files that would have made it take 3 CD's instead of 2. They figured 1 DVD was a better option than 3CD's, especially since they'd have to alter the packaging to allow for 3 CD's as well...

 

[Mercade]

well ye i know how dvds look and all that..but why they bother releasing cds in US and dvds in europe..wouldnt it be easier cds or dvds everywhere.

That's not quite what you asked

Anyway, there are various possibilities. One reason could be that they want to include multi-language voice / video for various European countries on one medium, so people can pick their language of choice during installation. And this would probably take more than 2 CD's, and thus instead of distributing four CD's, they distribute 1 DVD.

Another reason could be that Europe simply is a front runner with adoption of DVD technology compared to US and they want to include the many CD users in US. As argued in other threads, Europe has more PC users than US and on average they use more modern PC's.

 

[Pazarius]

For the purpose of deciding whether you get CD or DVD, it is part of Europe, yes.

Although if people are correct in saying that the reason for the DVD is the space needed for the language files, the same reasoning doesn't apply to the UK.

Doesn't the UK often get exact copies of the US versions of games, as there isn't a language difference, and it isn't worth the time and effort to make minor changes?

 

[Biggles]

I wonder what Australia will be getting?

We used to be part of Britain, but we were towed so far south that we broke away.

Now, little Johnney, seems to have attached us to America.

 

[icecool]

Thanks for posting the explanation - I was wondering which was correct.

 

[Mercade]

Although if people are correct in saying that the reason for the DVD is the space needed for the language files, the same reasoning doesn't apply to the UK.

Doesn't the UK often get exact copies of the US versions of games, as there isn't a language difference, and it isn't worth the time and effort to make minor changes?

Even though (British) English and American (English) are strongly related siblings, I'm sure many people in the UK would prefer to play the game in their own language, with their own spelling and their own voices (if there are any). If it's worth the effort to make a French or Italian version, then it's also worth to make a British version in terms of target audience. I'm sure many Americans wouldn't quite appreciate to play this game in some pidgin English either.

Anyway, further to answering whether UK gets the CD's as copy of US, or gets a DVD as the rest of Europe, on civilized.de they quote producer Barry Caudill as follows:

Produzent Barry Caudill informiert uns, dass Civ4 in den USA nicht wie in Deutschland und Großbritannien auf DVD, sondern auf 2 CDs erscheint.

which translates to:

Producer Barry Caudill informs us, that Civ4 in the USA appears on 2 CD's and not on DVD like in Germany and Great Britain.

Of course Great Britain and the UK aren't exactly the same, but we'll not get into that now

 

[TerraHero]

aaah goodie, DvD format

But it still leaves a big question mark as of what will the rest of the world get?

NA gets 2x CD, Europe gets 1x DvD. And Asia? Australia? S. America?

Not that i really care, but ppl from those continents might

go figure

 

[civfanDE]

no multilanguage support for the us-version?

 

[Robi D]

aaah goodie, DvD format

But it still leaves a big question mark as of what will the rest of the world get?

NA gets 2x CD, Europe gets 1x DvD. And Asia? Australia? S. America?

Not that i really care, but ppl from those continents might

go figure

Australia gets the DVD, i know because i preordered it, there was no cd option, i would guess asia would be the same.

 

[civfanDE]

no multilanguage support for the us-version?

 

[elderotter]

Britain isn't in Europe is it?

No, it is kinda off to the left with Ireland. I think they(Britain and Ireland) should declare their own continent. (jk).

 

[Sub]

Mm, 2 cds. I can live with that. If it was three or higher, I'd be a bit upset, but two I can handle. *Sigh*... If only I had a dvd drive.

 

[Mercade]

Mm, 2 cds. I can live with that. If it was three or higher, I'd be a bit upset, but two I can handle. *Sigh*... If only I had a dvd drive.

CD's are required only once during the installation anyway. I wouldn't care whether the game was on 2 or 4 CD's. Once it's on the hard drive, it's on the hard drive. End of story.