Civ City, a new civilization game?

[Alex]

From the Trademark Electronic Search System, which you can consult on the United States Patent and Trademark Office site:

Word Mark - CIV CITY

Goods and Services - IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer game programs; software and computer game cartridges; and computer games provided and played through a global computer network

Standard Characters Claimed

Mark Drawing Code - (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK

Serial Number - 78627670

Filing Date - May 11, 2005

Current Filing Basis - 1B

Original Filing Basis - 1B

Owner - (APPLICANT) Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc CORPORATION DELAWARE 622 Broadway New York NEW YORK 10012

Attorney of Record - G. Roxanne Elings

Type of Mark - TRADEMARK

Register - PRINCIPAL

Live/Dead Indicator - LIVE

So, what do you think it is? A Simcity kind of game?

Edit: The first link was leading to a "session expired" page, so I changed it to point to the TESS main search page. If you want to see the page about Civ City, just click on "New User Form Search (Basic)" and use the search box to look for it.

[Pythagoras]

Interesting. Maybe another Will Wright/Sid Meier collaboration?

[Solver]

I hope not. We've got SimCity for managing a city already. SimCity 2000 was a fine game, too. I don't believe Meier and Wright go well together, though.

[Kuciwalker]

methinks there would be some slight copyright issues

[Locutus]

Well, Take-Two did spend $22 million on the rights to Civ, unless it does really, really well they ain't gonna make that much on Civ4 alone. So I could see it happening...

Then again, it might just be an idea they're toying with and they want to make sure noone steals it. Doesn't necessarily mean it'll actually become a game.

[snoopy369]

I thought Firaxis bought the rights to the Civ series? TakeTwo just publishes for them ...

[Locutus]

Nope, Take 2 bought the rights. Firaxis probably doesn't nearly have that kind of money...

Firaxis did buy the rights of a couple of other titles from Atari though, more notably Pirates and Colonization. This was a long time ago though: at around the same time that they signed the initial deal with Atari to develop Civ4, in the spring of 2003.

[DarkCloud]

Originally posted by Solver
I hope not. We've got SimCity for managing a city already. SimCity 2000 was a fine game, too. I don't believe Meier and Wright go well together, though.

As SidGolf should demonstrate

[paramir]

They could be holding it so noone else can

[DerSchwarzfalke]

My eyebrow cocked in interest at the thought of a Firaxis-led Colonization remake. I look forward to that day.

[Locutus]

As do we all, I reckon

Though right now, that would put them right opposite to AoE3 for many gamers -- and I don't think they can win that. Civ4 will have enough trouble with that as it is...

It would probably be wiser for Firaxis to wait a few years with that, if they're ever gonna do it.

[DarkCloud]

I bet they'll do it eventually- I mean, they remade Pirates!

It's always a good strategy to revisit the old classics.

[TomVeil]

Originally posted by DerSchwarzfalke
My eyebrow cocked in interest at the thought of a Firaxis-led Colonization remake. I look forward to that day.

I noticed those comments coming out of Firaxis, too. I expect that Colonization II will depend on the success of Civ4. If Gamebryo proves to be a good engine, then Colonization II may surface as either a Civ4 add-on or look-alike.

If Civ4 doesn't pan out well, then this "Civ City" model is another way to approach Colonization II. Historically, the act of colonizing divided into two starkly different tasks -- exploration and city planning. Colonization II could benefit, then, from the knowledge gained coding a city-based game.

...if Sid ever makes it, that is.

[realpolitic]

Methinks its a turn based epic game. Sid's said turn bsed is big now. CTP could have been a contender....but it was too easy to beat. Stick the philosophers stone in your capital, fill it with slaves, build all science improvements and wonders in that city, use all your freemen as scientists....and pulverize the opposition. Some great concepts...should have been playtested more rigously. ctp2 was more challenging but too late.

Activision had said they'd planned several civ variants. TakeTwo probably does too.

[lord of the mark]

hold your horses.

Trademarking something doesnt mean theyre going to actually make it, IIUC. Its done preemptively, to keep someone else from trademarking it, and then making Take Two pay if they EVER decide to bring out something under that name.

IIUC when McDonalds was first getting big in the US, some guys in Australia registered the Australian patent for McDonalds, and McDonalds Corp had to buy it from them.