Sid Meier on Civilization Revolution length and console versions

He’s been at it for 25 years, and he’s still going strong. We’re referring to Sid Meier, Firaxis head and game designer of such notable PC titles as Civilization 4. This industry veteran is obviously far from tired, as he can still talk animatedly about the upcoming Civilization Revolution and the MMORPG genre. Find out more in the full article after the jump.

It’s no small feat to spend 25 years in the gaming industry and come up with games like Civilization 4 and Railroads. What’s even more interesting is that the person who actually done that, Sid Meier, is showing no signs of stopping. In fact, he even took the time to talk about Firaxis Games‘ upcoming Civilization Revolution (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS) and the MMORPG genre in general during a recent interview.

If you recall, Meir himself once mentioned that console gamers are ready for strategy games. He still believes that, so much so that he’s making sure that all versions of Civilization Revolution will be the same, regardless of platform. For Meier and Firaxis, safeguarding the very core of the game is imperative.

When quizzed about the relatively short playing time for a single playthrough in Civilization Revolution, the Firaxis head admitted that, while a single run through only takes a few hours, enjoying all that the game has to offer is a different story:

You can play it on your own pace in singleplayer, because itÂ’s turn based. You can either really think things over, or you can make your moves rapidly. Depending on this and your strategy and your playing style, a game can take anything between three and five hours. I think the beauty of Civilization is that, if you played it once, that only means that you want to play it again. ThereÂ’s 16 different civilizations to play. Even to play them each once would take at least 50 hours. Then, thereÂ’s difficulty levels, every map is different when you start a game. So thereÂ’s plenty of play time involved. But you can finish a game in just one evening.

Meier also talked about other things, such as new IP ideas and a possible venture into the MMORPG arena . If you’d like more information on those, feel free to click on the source link below for the full interview.