Atari has sold the rights to the Civilization franchise!

[Jon Shafer]

Yeah, that's definitely news to me, and I'm pretty well on top of things...

[Gramphos]

I've still not seen any confirmation, nor any denial from any part. At least I didn't buy it

[Dauphin]

I would be surprised Firaxis would have enough money to buy it. Especially if Atari are doing this to liquidise the asset.

[Yolky]

Just read the news myself. Who ever bought the rights can still keep Firaxis developing the game, they would be their boss now, then again maybe not.

No one knows for shure unless they can post a link to it so who ever says they know don't. POST A LINK IF YOU DO KNOW!

Time will tell and we will all have to wait.

[snoopy369]

Some info in this link makes me wonder if the release date for cIV will be at or close to October 2005. The writer indicates that Atari retains the rights to sell old Civ titles until that date; it makes sense to allow the resale of CivIII and others up until the date of the cIV release...

edit: Homelan Fed seems to actually have interviewed Atari, who is being fairly secretive about this whole thing. I wonder if the purchaser is someone interested in staying out of the news - even Sid Meier ???

[snoopy369]

And this link, if by a real person at Firaxis (Perhaps someone can comment on a person named Dan existing @ Firaxis?) is at least somewhat reassuring I'd assume they wouldn't stop the presses just because of a sale, but I would worry about the possibility of a significant change. Sounds like not.

[Brent]

If that was authentic, my guess is it was Dan Magaha. There's also another Dan at Firaxis.

[Jon Shafer]

Yes, it was Dan Magaha. He's the associate producer for Pirates, currently working on the XBox version. The other Firaxian Dan is Dan Garry, the MP programmer for Civ 4.

[conmcb25]

Interrsting, I wonder why the buyer wants to remain anonymous........

Trip any legal insight you can give us on that????

[Jon Shafer]

No comment.

Actually, I don't know why the party would want to keep its identity secret. Information on the issue may be released Monday, but we'll see.

[conmcb25]

Dam,

I had a feeling you wouldn't be able to "share".

[Alex]

I've heard that Osama Bin Laden bought the rights to the Civilization name. He intends to create a new Civ meant to be played only at the "Osama" difficulty level, where the Taleban civ starts with 300 suicide mujaheddins and wreaks havoc on the other Western civs. The game will be called "Civilization: I Don't Think So".

[Abdul Alhazred]

See Legion II of Slitherine E

He really looks as Civ

[Agathon]

I've heard that Osama Bin Laden bought the rights to the Civilization name. He intends to create a new Civ meant to be played only at the "Osama" difficulty level, where the Taleban civ starts with 300 suicide mujaheddins and wreaks havoc on the other Western civs. The game will be called "Civilization: I Don't Think So".

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by Abdul Alhazred
See Legion II of Slitherine E

He really looks as Civ

Legion 1 got trashed, but who knows.