PCs undergoing re-Colonization

Sid Meier bringing back his celebrated New World conquest sim as stand-alone Civilization IV spin-off, due this fall.

Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization

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During a question-and-answer session at the 2008 Game Developers Conference, Civilization creator and Guinness World Record holder Sid Meier was asked about which of his other franchises he might revisit. Though several attendees inquired about a possible Alpha Centauri or Railroad Tycoon revival, no one mentioned Colonization, the 1994 simulation based on the conquest of the Americas.

Today, though, 2K Games revealed that Colonization is coming back. The division of Take-Two Interactive has announced it will release Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization this coming fall on PCs. As the name implies, the game will be based on the award-winning 2005 strategy game Civilization IV, which has since spawned two expansion packs, Warlords (2006) and Beyond the Sword (2007).

Unlike the aforementioned add-ons, Civilization IV: Colonization will be a stand-alone product that does not require the original game to play. Players will assume the role of one of four European nations--Spain, England, France, and Holland, as in the original--vying for control of the newly discovered Americas. They will have to negotiate, trade, and often fight rival powers as well as the native tribes occupying the lands where Old World colonists are building their settlements. Ultimately, colonies will develop militaries and economies strong enough to allow them to declare their independence.

In addition to announcing Civilization IV: Colonization, 2K outlined some of its features. The game will feature an all-new interface, and will sport "improved" diplomacy options, as well as a built-in toolset for the modding community.

38 Comments

  • isahunt

    Posted Jun 20, 2008 5:15 pm PT

    Hey, don't blame me, blame Sid.

    Most players problably doesn't even care if its Holland, Portugal or the United States of Mars in the game

  • talshiarr

    Posted Jun 17, 2008 11:13 pm PT

    I want to like this game, I liked the original Colonization very much. My troubles with Sid Meier is that lately it seems he's bought a lot of stock in the "games are too complicated" design theory. I don't want this to be Railroads all over again. Sad to say but the less he's involved in the actual depth and mechanics, the better IMO unless he took the less than excited player reviews of Railroads to heart.

  • rogerio_melfra

    Posted Jun 17, 2008 4:36 am PT

    Isahunt, "Holland" was under Spanish domain until the end of the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648 - that is, good part of the colonizations period). It took longer than the Iberian Union itself. That closes the question.

    Furthermore, there wasn't a country named Holland or Netherlands. It makes no sense, historically. The only similar government were the Seventeen Provinces, which were made by what's known today as Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, a large part of France (North), and West Germany. One can rather think about a "Batavian territory".

    I'm not Portuguese, but I study the "barroco" literature. It includes the Spanish "Siglo de Oro" poetry.

  • dcameirinha

    Posted Jun 16, 2008 6:59 pm PT

    isahunt, Portugal cannot be redundant. During this period Portugal was the greatest power in the world, the most technologically advanced, most rich and one of the largest.
    That thing you call "Iberian Union" was a hostile takeover by the spanish that last for 60 years and by the time that happened Portugal already had its colonies explored. They discovered the colonies while independent.

  • isahunt

    Posted Jun 16, 2008 1:23 am PT

    Holland is part of the four European powers (along with Spain, France, and England) represented in SM's Pirates - Colonization simply follows that same standard that this game set earlier.

    Historically there was this little thing called Iberian Union in 16th century, which to Sid Meier I guess would make Portugal redundant. No offence if you're Portugese.

  • rogerio_melfra

    Posted Jun 15, 2008 10:31 pm PT

    Uncanny. The informations sound funny, because Holland's role on the great colonizations is simply nothing when compared to what Portugal did. Ergo, why is Portugal absent? Lusitania was a great actor at those times. Vasco da Gama, Cabral and Magellan are indeed great personalities.

    Holland failed almost completely to colonizate the Americas. That's for sure. Dutch Brazil had its Dienaaren and Vrijburgher and it's influence on modern Brazil does exist, but it's not irrelevant if one thinks of Futebol brasileiro rather than voetbal van Brazilië.

  • Nater2010

    Posted Jun 15, 2008 4:17 pm PT

    I love colonization!!!!

  • Rumle

    Posted Jun 15, 2008 12:57 pm PT

    Sweet! thought Civ IV died with BTS.

  • TehEliteElite

    Posted Jun 14, 2008 11:28 am PT

    Now we just need Alpha Centauri!

  • mmallory

    Posted Jun 14, 2008 10:06 am PT

    Can't wait, I'm sure it will be a fun game.

  • isahunt

    Posted Jun 14, 2008 2:38 am PT

    I wonder if Sid is gonna dodge the slave-issue again - like the last time.

  • q64silver

    Posted Jun 13, 2008 2:03 pm PT

    At last!!! ...

  • sonicare

    Posted Jun 11, 2008 11:51 am PT

    Great to hear this. The original colonization was a great game. Hopefully this new one will separate itself from the civ 4 style and be more like the old colonization.

  • wademiner

    Posted Jun 10, 2008 9:16 pm PT

    I'm a huge fan of the original. I still play a handful of games every year. Fourteen years on. I will almost certainly buy this on day one, sight unseen, regardless of what I see or read. I think it makes perfect sense to build it on the Civ IV engine, and begrudge the company nothing for any 'laziness' that may be attributed to them.

    However, I hope, desparately hope, that this game uses that Civ engine to make another Colonization, and doesn't just give us a fresh coat of paint on Civ IV. I'm hopeful, but very worried. A couple of things in the screenshots give me pause. Make me think this game will get away from the things that made Colonization Colonization.

    I hope that people are still people, and whether one is a soldier in the field, a worker in the factory, or a miner in the hills is determined by where you put him, and the same colonist may do all three on three successive turns.

    I hope it's still a game about economics. I need a number of different resources to get by as an independent nation, and I need to develop the infrastructure to harvest and process them all, and the physical movement of those goods is a necessary part of that game element.

    I hope.

  • Red_Knight_Alex

    Posted Jun 10, 2008 7:23 pm PT

    I never played the original Colonization, but I've played Civ II-IV and loved all of them. This being said, it might not be a bad game, at least to look into. I'm curious as to how the might add historical features into the game, things like gunpowder, disease, horses, and diplomacy and trade (my biggest question of all seeing as it was a huge part of life back then). Looks good!

  • Darkreaper_1

    Posted Jun 10, 2008 2:22 pm PT

    I remember the old Colonization i had on the Mac. It was one of my most fav games and would play it over and over again.

    I'm really looking forward to this and i hope it's as good as the original!

  • FstrthnU

    Posted Jun 10, 2008 10:54 am PT

    Though this and Revolution are all nice, I am still waiting for the REAL Civilization V (the PC follow-up to Civilization IV.)

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Jun 10, 2008 12:19 am PT

    2K - be careful not to repeat history! Using the same engine as Civ 4 means it will look quite similar. Just like the original Colonization looked almost identical to the original Civilization - and because of this 'looking like' and 'playing like', the original Colonization actually did pretty poorly compared to it's more wider-scoped cousin Civilization!

    In today's market, I would have gone with a Civ 4 expansion. And if 2K have any sense, they will sell this at an expansion pack price. Which would be fair enough, as it's using a hardly changed prior engine.

  • bioghost

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 9:13 pm PT

    Gonna rocks the stores, I love his games!

  • rf_switch

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 7:46 pm PT

    I've always been a fan of Sid, so I'm definitely looking forward to this.

  • GoldenRamoth

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 6:58 pm PT

    ooooo. A must have from Sid Meier. 'Bout time. The Civilization for the Wii, I was gonna get, but then he canceled. I'm definately getting this. As soon as I get around to buying XP instead of Linux. roflmao

  • stziggy

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 6:29 pm PT

    This announcement made my day. The original was great. Hopefully this lives up to the original!

  • Gruug

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 6:08 pm PT

    I loved the first version of this game! I hope it is almost a direct duplicate with better graphics. Really hope Sid is involved as well.

  • combatsoldier

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 6:02 pm PT

    wow thanks for the feedback guys. im going to check it now. appreciate it.

  • maverick_76

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 5:53 pm PT

    I wish they would remake the Alpha Centauri games, both the original and the expansion pack. Put these together in one pack with updated graphics and voila!, you've got game of the year material.

  • Lazyimperial

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 5:52 pm PT

    SInce I already edited my first post, I'll post this here. Yes, I know you can abandon a vassal if they consitute a nation of about 40% of your land mass and meet a bunch of requirements, but these are absolutely ludicrous, arbitrary, and worthless prerequisites for butt whooping. In order to beat up a vassal, I need to help them get to within half my nation state in size and then break off relations and attack them? No wonder my vassals have always proven so cocky and arrogant. I would be too if the only way my master could punish me was to first make me stronger. It's like taking a troublesome neighbor to the gym and teaching him karate before you try and beat his butt for stealing your lawnmower. WTH?

  • Lazyimperial

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 5:41 pm PT

    To Combatsoldier: Sid's games are mixed bags, at least in my experience. For example, Civ IV has detailed tech trees, pretty good multiplayer, and can be quite amusing. On the other hand, the enemy AI is a complete freaking joke. Seriously, it is so borked that the game has to cheat to make it effective. On one particular playthrough on noble difficulty (enemy gets no special bonuses, supposedly, and neither do you), my friend and I were besieging Washington's last city to get his Great Wall. It was a marathon game, and we had him down to one desert hill city with 3 population and only one beaver farm to work (soldiers on non-desert tiles). He was churning out an archer a turn, with about 6 production earned a turn when they needed at least 76 per unit. BS! The game was cheating so bad that we quit. And no, he wasn't slaving. Population never went down. The AI was so easy to rush and destroy at early levels due to its stupidity that Sid's team pimped it with cheap buffs and cheats.

    And it does that in other things too. Planning to take an enemy city that has been building up for 1,400 years? Enjoy taking it, only to see that it has no upgrades or buildings. Either they get deleted when you take the town (LAME) or they were never built (leaning towards this one) because the AI is so stupid. Enjoy trying to put 1,400 years of work back into a town. Tis impossible, and it makes no sense. I didn't raze the bloody thing. Every single improvement gone. Not even a semblance of infrastructure left. BAH!!!

    Enjoy too the fact that the enemy cities in jungles don't seem to suffer health penalties due to such said jungles... so long as they are in enemy hands. The moment you take a population 7 jungle city of so and so, it will make a beeline to population 1 while you feebly try to build improvements that only a moron wouldn't have built. No granary? Great! Jungle not cleared at all around the city? Wonderful. What AI would be so neglectful of a city? This AI, hence the incessant cheating.

    A brilliant game in many ways, but also an infinitely lousy game in so many others. Much like a lot of Sid Meier's work. You'll either enjoy the brilliant bits so much that the negative becomes superficial detail, or you'll be so irked by the numerous awful design decisions that none of the good stuff has any meaning to you (A player can't abandon a vassal ever, even if they refuse to give you tribute or obey you? Really Sid, this is what you got from West Civ? That a vassal can be totally disobediant but the dominant power puts up with it due to being retarded? Great. Catherine wouldn't give me gold, animals, or even tech, and I can't grind her into dust in vengeance? Bleh). edit addition: and sorry about my various typos here or there. I love Civ IV so much, but I hate it so much. I'm conflicted.

  • KingBobCat

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 5:40 pm PT

    The original version of this game was awesome ... especially if you like US history. I still have this game on my hard drive and play it occasionally ... That's how good it was. Hail, Sid Meier!

  • xmg0

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 5:24 pm PT

    Civ V for PC '08 plz n ty

  • Elgaard2

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 5:18 pm PT

    YES! - The origial Colonization was great - cant wait for this, i just hope they stay true to the original.

  • sc_ajk29

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 4:45 pm PT

    So when are we getting Civilization V?

  • kca89

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 4:18 pm PT

    Sounds like fun, can't wait.

  • mysterylobster

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 4:09 pm PT

    Does Sid Meier actually make games anymore, or does he lend his name to remakes of his previous work?

  • DonutTrooper

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 4:06 pm PT

    @combatsoldier:

    It depends on what you like, but if you ever have the chance to play a Sid game, please take that chance. I love the games, I know people who feel both ways, and it's up to you. Give it a shot.

  • combatsoldier

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 3:57 pm PT

    i never played a sid game. is it as good as everyone hypes them up to be.

  • DaLegend

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 3:55 pm PT

    OMG, finally! They better don't screw this one up!

  • kos1085

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 3:54 pm PT

    Who thinks of the titles for these articles cause they are horrible at it.

  • Adam_the_Nerd

    Posted Jun 9, 2008 3:52 pm PT

    A lot of Strategy games are going towards this era. Odd.

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