But what if I’ve tired of the players in the lobbies of Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. We’ve heard the complaints before. What if I want “Civilization Revolution” on my PC? Unfortunately, a producer at 2K Games says it’s “never” going to happen.

He repeated the word “never” twice when I asked, actually.

They must really mean it. But why?

“This is not a PC game,” said producer Jason Bergman to Multiplayer. “It’s been designed as a console game. It’s very, very different from ‘Civ[ilization] 4′ and we don’t want it to be looked at as ‘Civ[ilization] 5.’ We don’t want people to think that this is meant to replace the existing ‘Civ’ games. This is a totally different game, created exclusively for consoles. It is never coming to PC.”

And it’s not because Firaxis don’t have the manpower or technical hang-ups. The prototype for “Civilization Revolution” originated on the PC, but the interface was created from day one to be manipulated with a gamepad in the player’s hands. “There was never a mouse interface; it was always designed around a controller,” continued Bergman.

Last week, 2K showed “Civilization Revolution” to the San Francisco-based media (we had a separate demo a few days later at 2K’s offices). Bergman said a common question was over enabling keyboard and mouse support in the PlayStation 3 version. Microsoft doesn’t allow the feature, but Sony’s had no problem with it; look at “Unreal Tournament 3,” for example.

Bergman’s rationale is simple. “…the answer is no, because why would you need to? The game has not been designed for that [controller]; we would have to make a new interface for that. People sort of assume it’s the other way around, like it is with the PC RTSs that are ported. This is not a port, this is an entirely new game.”

While “Civilization Revolution” on the PC appears to be out, reading between the lines, Bergman seems to be suggesting a “Civilization 5″ is in the cards, as well.