We started thinking about doing an upgraded version of "Pirates!" in 1996, the day Firaxis was born. I've always been very fond of the original game, released by Microprose in 1987 − it had sold quite well and garnered a gratifyingly large number of awards − and fans have been clamoring for a new version for over fifteen years. Everybody in the company wanted to do it: it was just a matter of acquiring the license to the title and putting the game into the first available production slot.

Then we had to decide on what platforms to release the new "Sid Meier's Pirates!" The PC platform was obvious − all of Firaxis' previous games have come out on the PC and that's where our core audience has been − but what about also releasing it on a video game console like the Microsoft Xbox? It was tempting: Firaxis had always planned to take our games to Xbox, but was "Pirates!" the right project?