Civilization IV in development

Firaxis Games president and CEO Jeff Briggs has revealed that the developer has three projects in development, with a fourth "probably" starting soon, and that one of those titles is Civilization IV.

Speaking in an interview with GameDaily, Briggs would only identify Civilization IV and the previously announced Pirates!, although helpfully he did explain that the Firaxis production cycle generally consists of one year for the prototype phase and one year for the production phase.

Briggs also commented on a recent job ad for a PS2 programmer which appeared on the Firaxis website. "The console market is big and getting bigger," adding "We've got a lot of IP in our pocket and we have the ability to develop those properties across all platforms. So, yeah, we are investigating the whole gamut. We need to learn stuff, as we are primarily a PC developer."

Firaxis is also eyeing up massively multiplayer games according to Briggs, although they are apparently in no rush to tackle an MMOG at this stage.