Atari has sold the rights to the Civilization franchise!

[Nikolai]

Holy crap, I hope this won't have any major impact on the making of cIV! Today, I read on a game news site that Atari because of financial problems has sold the rights tof the civilization franchise! I checked around, and found their financial report, here.

This is what stands there:

After the close of the first half on September 30, 2004, the Group sold the rights to its Civilization franchise for US$ 22.3 million, generating a one-time gain of € 15.5 million.

I am curious what will happen now...? I guess this won't harm the development of cIV too much?

[conmcb25]

Hmmmmmmmmmm

I think we need to hear from the Firaxis guys

[Brent]

Grr. I like Atari. It has nostalgic value from my family's computer when I was a kid. I thought Atari and Civ were a good match. I read elsewhere the other day about Firaxis wanting to hire some new people. Considering what positions they needed filled, it sounded positive, but maybe it isn't. I guess it would be unrelated to the Atari thing. Could this cause the exact same problems that Civ3 had?

[Jon Shafer]

The Atari of these days is not the same Atari of everyone's youth. Infogrames NA changed their name to exude just that alure, and it seems to have worked.

[asleepathewheel]

Can't be worse for the game than Atari.

[Brent]

As people are saying, it's likely that Firaxis itself is the buyer. But I guess we should discuss this in the thread in the Off Topic forum.

[Dinner]

So Firaxis bought the rights to Civ? This means there will be a Civ4 but likely it will be very different from Civ3.

[Brent]

You almost make it sound like my word is the confirmation, which of course would be ludicrous.

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by Brent
But I guess we should discuss this in the thread in the Off Topic forum.

Why? I think the topic match very wel with Civilization Games General.

[conmcb25]

Yes I do as well Graphmos, Im wondering who bought them number 1, and Im wondering if Nikolai has the link number 2.

[Trifna]

I remember BullFrog (Syndicate Wars, Populous, Dungeon Keeper...), this so prodigious company, it was sold to Electronic Arts. After being a mini-Blizzard-like success with each game great, genuine and fresh... it never produced anything from there on.

The question is WHO bought franchise... it changes everything.

[Brent]

I agree this is a better place for it, but I just thought the Off Topic thread should be used because there's more activity over there.

[Trifna]

There's so much activity there that it will be on page 2 in two minutes and on page 4 in 4 minutes

[conmcb25]

Originally posted by Trifna
There's so much activity there that it will be on page 2 in two minutes and on page 4 in 4 minutes

This is BIG news

has anyone actually read the report?

I dont have time right now but Im REALLY curious who bought the rights if that indeed has been revealed.......

If not I guess Ill have to read up later tonight

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by conmcb25
Yes I do as well Graphmos, Im wondering who bought them number 1, and Im wondering if Nikolai has the link number 2.

I only has this one link. I haven't read the thread in OT though, I rarely visit OT and I honestly didn't think I could find civ related things THERE...!