Xequted: The original Pirates was first developed and released over 17 years ago; can you tell us why you have decided to make a sequel now? Or what lead to the decision to make a sequel now?

Sid Meier: He he, I get asked that one a lot! Well, there’s been a loyal fanbase that have enjoyed the original for years and they’ve been pretty persistant in asking us to make a new version. We finally decided that the time was right and that technology had advanced to the point that we could really bring the world of Pirates! to life in a whole new way, and make significant improvements to a game that is already so well liked. We didn’t want to simply remake the original (even though many fans emailed us to say they’d be happy with just that!), we wanted to make a great game for the 21st century gamers. Plus there were a few other projects that we were working on to get out of the way!