Sid Meier Interview on GamersGlobal

[Thunderfall]

GamersGlobal has published a 5-page long interview with Sid Meier in which Sid talks about the upcoming Civilization Revolution, MMORPG, consoles versus PC, gaming industry trends, original IP, and more.

Here is an excerpt:

[IMG=right]http://www.civfanatics.com/images/sidmeier_sm.jpg[/IMG]I have been told by your colleagues that Civilization Revolution will be highly portable because there’s a core gameplay engine, and the rest is eye candy and interface. It is as easy as that?

It actually is! We’re doing a DS version, and the gameplay is exactly the same as on the 360 and PS3. We do not like the idea of ports or outsourcing different versions to other developers. We want to safeguard our gameplay, we want to make sure that, with all the work we put into the gameplay, it carries over to the different platforms. So we have a game core that has all the game rules and the AI and everything. And that’s the same on all the systems. It’s just the graphics and the buttons that are different.

The last question asked in the interview is about Civilization V. From Sid's response, it sounds like we may hear something about it later this year...

Thanks to Joerg Langer of GamersGlobal for the news tip!

 

[Thorn]

Civilization 5!!!

 

[Nahtanoj]

This is goin to be one great game

:adds to list of games:

 

[Ranbir]

What a very good idea with the core engine. Why can't anyone else do that!

Civ 5? Already?! Nooo please wait in announcing until 2010 or something. With the amount of Civ4 modding still left to do...I won't need another Civ game in a while! Hell...in a way, the community has already provided a Civ 5...ish sort of. Maybe a 4.5.

 

[Grifftavian]

Civilization 5!!!

Civilization 5 Wish List - Launch the space ship; 20 turns later, the game morphs into Alpha Centauri 2

 

[OctopusOverload]

Firaxis should delay CiV and make Colonization 2 with the Civ 4 engine.

 

[Nahtanoj]

Firaxis should delay CiV and make Colonization 2 with the Civ 4 engine.

Yeah exactly but still...

 

[Sullla]

Hmm... Sid keeps saying in interviews that it's easy to port Civ:Revolutions between different platforms, including the DS (which clearly has nothing in common with either the 360 or the PS3). Yet Jason from 2K told us earlier this week that the Wii version of Civ:Revolutions was indefinitely postposed (read: unofficially canceled) because it was too difficult to port.

Something doesn't add up here.

 

[Nahtanoj]

Hmm... Sid keeps saying in interviews that it's easy to port Civ:Revolutions between different platforms, including the DS (which clearly has nothing in common with either the 360 or the PS3). Yet Jason from 2K told us earlier this week that the Wii version of Civ:Revolutions was indefinitely postposed (read: unofficially canceled) because it was too difficult to port.

Something doesn't add up here.

that would suck so bad if they stopped it all together for the wii

 

[dojoboy]

Hmm... Sid keeps saying in interviews that it's easy to port Civ:Revolutions between different platforms, including the DS (which clearly has nothing in common with either the 360 or the PS3). Yet Jason from 2K told us earlier this week that the Wii version of Civ:Revolutions was indefinitely postposed (read: unofficially canceled) because it was too difficult to port.

Something doesn't add up here.

Not port but build. I gathered that it was akin to making an entire new game, because it needed an entire new engine.

I still want the damn Wii version Sid! Stop drooling over your 360, you're not a kid any more.

PS3 v. Wii

 

[xerexs]

dude thats mest up civ5 ok im glad I have all of civ4 but it hardly works on my computer and im not ready just to give up now all because of civ5

 

[xerexs]

I rather wait like 2012 for civ 5 and for some reason civilization doesent feel like civilization anymore all with this marketing I thought it was just about injoying the game.

 

[Gaius Octavius]

This is exactly what he said about Civ 5:

GamersGlobal: Last question, what about Civilization 5 ?

Sid Meier: We should talk again sometime later this year...

That is a pretty cryptic response. It could simply be the standard company line for generating public interest.

Personally, I would not like to see Civilization V being done so soon. As noted above, there is still quite a bit of modding possibilities left open in IV, and I for one am not enthusiastic about starting all over with a new game... particularly since Civ V will likely be more CPU-intensive, possibly even geared exclusively toward 64-bit processors or Vista. That may not be much of an issue for me, since I have a decent computer, but it would necessarily limit the market to a smaller segment of the traditional Civ population. (But I suppose you always have that trend.)

In short, I don't think Civ 4 has yet reached its zenith yet. The creations for it have not approached the size and scope like we had seen in Civ 3 by late 2005. Starting on Civ 5 now... well, what is to be gained? Revenue only, I guess. No vanilla game in recent times has fully incorporated the features of the previous version's expansions, so there's always something of a setback in terms of breadth. Perhaps I will be proved wrong.

 

[Shigga]

Firaxis should delay CiV and make Colonization 2 with the Civ 4 engine.

lol Firaxis should delay V and fix IV first for G's sake!

And if they don't, I hope they will not make V a civ for dummies like it seems they have done with Rev. Gogo gadget community relation management... uhm... or something...

 

[dojoboy]

lol Firaxis should delay V and fix IV first for G's sake!

And if they don't, I hope they will not make V a civ for dummies like it seems they have done with Rev. Gogo gadget community relation management... uhm... or something...

I think somebody here doesn't pwn a console.

 

[TheDS]

What's so bad about making a Civ for dummies? Not everyone wants to spend a month to play a single game.

 

[Nahtanoj]

I think somebody here doesn't pwn a console.

exactly

well revelution would be awesome on the wii...online play

 

[Emperor Giulio]

I hope Civ 5 will be targeting a more adult audience, imagine the units looking like something out of metal gear? IMO that would be awesome, they should even throw in some crazy stuff like advanced genetics, to raise an army of genetically engineered super soldiers.

 

[zarakand]

If they are going to talk about Civ V later this year, that could be sometime in fall or the Holiday season. I don't see Civ V being released until 2009. The comment was just to get us all excited.

 

[NYHunter]

Umm.... if they "talk again sometime later this year". It would be nothing more than an announcement that there will indeed be a Civilization 5.

I doubt it would be released before early 2010. Earliest would be Fall of 2009.

And that leaves almost 2 years, possibly longer, for all this great modding that people here are in love with. And Civ 4 will be "old" too most people by then.