Firaxis Explains Civ Rev Wii Cancellation

Speaking on the recently cancelled Wii edition of Civilization Revolution, developer Firaxis has explained that the title was postponed due to issues with controller mapping and assets.

Elaborating on publisher 2K Games' terse statement issued last week, Firaxis programmer Scott Lewis said that the Wii version of the title required a complete overhaul of the game's interface and art assets created from the ground up.

Translating Civilization Revolution's control schemes to the waggle-centric Wii Remote was another sticking point. "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," Lewis told MTV Multiplayer. "We'd have to throw out all of our interface work (and some of our game design decisions) to make it feel like it truly fits on the platform."

Lewis also noted that while concerns of a less-than-stellar port of the title may have put aside development of the Wii version, there's still some hope. "The Wii version had the most question marks, so it got put on hold," he said. "If the 360/PS3/DS versions do well, obviously a Wii version will be more likely."

Civilization Revolution's console life began with only the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in mind; Wii and DS versions of the title were added in response to those platforms' strong sales. Though not initially planned, the DS version is still on track for release alongside the other editions this spring, with 2K Games recently releasing screens of the portable version.