Civilization Lead Designer Johnson Leaves Firaxis

Firaxis' Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson has left the company after nearly seven years, reportedly be returning to Electronic Arts to join the cross-platform development team creating Spore. According to a post on Civilization fan-site Apolyton, Johnson left the company as of April 2nd to return to EA, where he previously interned on the Knockout Kings franchise programming teams, to work with the publisher's Spore group in an unspecified role. According to various sources, including a panel from E3 2006, Johnson had been working on an original IP at Firaxis -- no word has yet emerged on what his departure means for the yet unannounced title. Gamasutra has requested more information on the departure from Firaxis and Electronic Arts and will update with details as they become available.