Take-Two Partners With Firaxis As Civilization Goes Forth

Representatives from Take-Two have announced that the company has purchased 'certain rights' to the Civilization franchise, and signed a long term deal with developer Firaxis. Titles in the Civilization series were last published by Atari, who had previously bought original publisher Microprose, but although it was reported that the company had sold those rights for up to $22.3 million, it was not known who had acquired them until now. Take-Two will be allowing development duties on the new sequel to continue at Firaxis, the company headed by the series’ creator Sid Meier. Sid Meier’s Civilization IV will be published for PC in late 2005 by Take-Two’s newly announced publishing label 2K Games, with console versions to follow. "The Civilization name brings with it an expectation of quality from millions of fans around the world," said Susan Lewis, vice president of publishing for 2K Games. "It is a pleasure to be working with a company like Firaxis that has developers who have proven with every successive title that they are masters of this genre."