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The Future Of Strategy Games: An Interview With Sid Meier

While Sid Meier is not directly designing XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a trip to Firaxis Games wouldn't be complete without a conversation about strategy games with the legendary game designer. Game Informer's Adam Biessener has been a rabid fan of the Civilization series for years, so the conversation floats from the past to the future of Civilization while noting the impact that the fans have had on the series. We also took this opportunity to pick Sid Meier's mind about the state of the strategy genre and how it manages to stay relevant in a shooter-drenched marketplace. Check out the video below and leave your feedback in the comments. Enjoy!

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Comments
  • i enjoy strategy games but i dont have a computer capable of running the good ones (Civ V)......so im stuck on my 360 with halo wars and civ revolution
  • RTS is one of my favourite styles of gaming. Sid Meier's Rollercoaster Tycoon series is legendary in my opinion. God bless you Sid
  • I think strategy games still have a lot of life in them (look at SC2, or even Angry Birds). Shooters may be fun to play with friends for an hour or two, but if I want to play a game with a lot of depth and challenge then I'll hop on my laptop to play some strategy games. PS: I cannot stand this video player - it constantly freezes or resets and drives me insane.
  • Why is this in the X-COM hub? Not relevant at all.
  • I really enjoy these in-depth interviews. Keep 'em coming GI! I love my magazine, but its also great to be able to able to access these much more detailed interviews with a lot more content online.

  • Does this mean I will actually like the next civilization game and it will go back to sophisticated but not complicated game play? I'm one of those people that thought Civ 5 was a disgrace and dumb-ed down version to the series.

  • Could you have asked him about a real Civ game in a fantasy setting? I mean, I've done a lot of looking at Paradox Interactive's Warlock: Master of the Arcane and I'm not liking what I'm seeing. I look at there comments about how you research spells and enchantments; which are things for a character not a civilization. I see the use of hexes for what I assume are parts of the city, and while I'd welcome city building elements I doubt that idea would work well. I'm happy with multiple dimensions, but the whole Civilization style game that focuses on a person instead of a Civ seems like a bad idea.

    That's why I'm waiting for Firaxis to make their fantasy style Civ.

  • strategy games are probably my favorite. but im no fan of civilizations. i like thinks like C&C and supreme commander

  • Sure

  • Seriously, you guys need to fix or switch to another player.
    I have NEVER been able to watch an entire video here, it always hangs and I have to refresh the page.
    And I usually don't have any problems with Flash video players.

    EDIT: Finally finished this one, only had to refresh the page every 2 minutes...
  • They need to give the Game of Thrones license to these guys and see what they can come up with.
  • X-Com is a console game? Seriously? I think I've heard all I need to know the new XCOM will be dumbed down for the crappy consoles and their controllers. X-Com on my Android tablet? YES PLEASE!!!
  • why are you sitting so far away from each other?
  • Am i the only one who didn't like Civ V as much as IV? I was just so familiar with IV, nothing in V made sense. It wasn't the unit stacking, that made sense, and the hexagon tiles weren't much of a change either. It was just too.... different. That, and City-States pissed me off.
  • Favorite Strategy game: Red Alert 3. I like the formula and the slightly unrealistic weapons. Lets hope Sid Meier makes it an app.

  • If you're really interested in the future of strategy games, you should talk to someone at Blizzard.

  • It's like he's a living ventriloquist.  His mouth never moves

  • Great video! I love me some RTS games, just need a better PC to run them on.

  • Sid's got quite the legacy. I think the "making games we want to play" mindset sounds like a good development strategy. I can understand why many studios want or need to appeal to the largest crowd, but Sid and the rest of the people at Firaxis are clearly passionate about strategy, and I wouldn't want to risk losing that trying to cater to the shooter crowd.

  • i love civ V i love civ rev but i want a game like civ V for consoles maybe portable psp/3ds that would be grat it would be cool to see those games not 64 bit like civ rev on ds

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