Firaxis Explains Civilization Revolution Wii Postponement

A new interview with Firaxis’ Scott Lewis, by consumer website MTV Multiplayer, has offered an explanation for the surprise cancellation of the Wii version of Civilization Revolution last week. With many companies rushing to put Wii titles into production the announcement that Civilization Revolution would be put “on hold”, despite work on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo DS versions continuing, was unusual. According to Lewis, the Wii version of the game had been lagging behind the other home console versions for some time, with its requirement for a new interface and new art assets forcing Firaxis to abandon work on the title. A problem worsened by the lack of a PlayStation 2 or PSP version to share assets with. The Wii and Nintendo DS versions were green-lit sometime after the other versions, once the success of the formats became apparent. “The Wii version came online very late and we think that the audience would not be happy with a simple mapping of the 360/PS3 controls. (It is particularly tough because the Wii has fewer buttons.)”, said Lewis. “All of our assets were originally created with the 360/PS3 in mind. In order to bring them to the Wii, a great deal of work would have to go into making those assets look appropriate on Nintendo’s system. If we had started the project with all four platforms in mind, it is far more likely that we would not have put the Wii version of CivRev on hold,” he added.