So where are these Screenshots, Informer?

[Civrules]

Civ 4 will have plenty of competition nonetheless. I'm pretty certain that games such as EE2 or HoI2 will last for long enough to still hav ethe attention of many in early 2006, and AoE3 definitely so. I just wonder how much overlap there is between RTS and TBS purchasers. I know there's a significant number of players who play both, but I think that many have a clear preference of either RTS or TBS. I'd certainly get Civ4 even if it meant no EE2 and no AoE3 for me.

When I looked at how many copies Age of Empires Series has sold, I was very surprised (the number was around 16 million copies). I'm not exactly sure about how many Civ series copies were sold though.

I think Age of Empires III will be the biggest competitor for Civ IV. Empire Earth II, I don't think. I played the demo of it and I didn't really like it.

[Robert]

screenshots mailed to Lorizael

[Solver]

I think Age of Empires III will be the biggest competitor for Civ IV. Empire Earth II, I don't think. I played the demo of it and I didn't really like it.

I haven't played the demo, but I'm pretty positive it will sell well. AoE3 will be the biggest competitor, of course, it's pretty much bound to be the best-selling 2005 strategy game.

[Peter Triggs]

Empire Earth II, I don't think. I played the demo of it and I didn't really like it.

Anybody else tried the Empire Earth II demo? It uses the Gambryo graphics engine, so (making allowances for the fact that it's RTS) it may give an insight into the 'look' of Civ4.

I thought the demo was interesting but I don't think I'll ever be an RTS gamer.

BTW, Empire Earth II was developed by our old friend from CTP1, "The Mad Dr I" (Dr Ian Davis, CEO of MadDoc software). If you go to http://www.ndl.com/ and click on "Firaxis and Mythic talk about how they use Gamebryo", you can see Ian Davis, Sid Meier, and others going on about how great Gamebryo is.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Solver
Civ 4 will have plenty of competition nonetheless.

That's exactly what I said. If Civ4 would be released earlier, it would only have competition from EE2 and HoI2 (and the overlap in communities is limited and the time between release date (presumably) sufficient, so it wouldn't have terribly much of an impact).

But exactly because it's released late in the year, it has to compete with a whole new generation of strategy games, which is of course being led by AoE. How much AoE will affect Civ4 sales is hard to tell, normally overlap between RTS and TBS isn't huge, but AoE and Civ are both VERY big titles that draw customers that normally wouldn't be too eager to buy games of their respective genres (especially true for Civ of course, TBS is a niche). It will also depend on how close the release dates are. If they're released nearly simultaneously it might hurt sales (for both titles, but Civ being by far the smaller game, it would hurt them more), but if there's two or three months between them I don't think it'll be terribly much of a problem.

What I'm actually more interested in is how Legion II and Civ4 will affect each other. They're both TBS, so they both serve the same core TBS community. I think Legion II is the more vulnerable title, but with their R:TW-like 3D combat engine they might snoop away some from Civ4 as well. Or maybe both games will boost each other and reinvigorate the TBS genre (hey, I can always dream)...

BTW, Empire Earth II was developed by our old friend from CTP1, "The Mad Dr I" (Dr Ian Davis, CEO of MadDoc software).

Well, everyone has some weak moments, I don't think we should hold it against him too much (and hey, maybe part 2 will be better than the first)

[Leto]

i guess my thinking is that they'll shoot for christmas sales. there's usually a swarm of games that come out in october-december.

plus they've already been testing for some time, so it seems reasonable. if only they'd just put up a website..

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Leto
if only they'd just put up a website..

Oh, don't worry about that. E3 is only weeks away now, we'll almost certainly be seeing some online info (previews on Gamestop, IGN, and the like and/or an official website) before then...

[Solver]

This makes me think that I should maybe also play other TBS games. I am a hardcore Civ player, definitely, and any Civ game is my top priority, but the only other TBS game I've played is EU2, and it's actually with RTS elements.

As for AoE3, it's definitely a classic RTS title, AoE means as much to RTS as Civ to TBS now, so have little doubt that everyone with even the slightest interest in RTS will buy AoE3, even if he doesn't normally buy other RTS games. One factor that will limit the competition between AoE3 and Civ4, though, will be hardware. We don't know Civ4 system requirements, but the AoE3 ones will be very high. It will definitely need a new DirectX9-level video card and 512 MB RAM for smooth performance, and a decent CPU at that (Havok for each unit and building). People with comps on the lower end won't be able to play AoE3.

[Robert]

When is E3?

[Nikolai]

Isn't it usually mid May?

[Civrules]

Originally posted by CyberShy
When is E3?

Expo is May 18-20th

[Lorizael]

w00t. thanks.

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by Sn00py
I'm done with sending screenshots, someone else take over my job.

Well, well, that's understandable. Would anyone be so kind to remember of mine mailbox, too?

At "gmail com", my address is "conti.costantini". Thank you in advance.

[Adagio]

Screenshots sent to Adm.Naismith

[Shogun Gunner]

May I request an email of screenshots as well?

at "msn com" with the userid of "michaeldnelson"

Thank you in advance.