Many of us on the forums have been interested in the game Civilization IV, which was developed by Soren Johnson at Firaxis. Well, good news for Spore: Johnson has resigned at Firaxis and has reportedly joined the Spore team! From Apolyton.net:

On April 2nd, the Co-Lead Designer on Civilization III and Lead Designer on Civilization IV began a new chapter in his gaming career. After nearly seven years at game developer Firaxis Games in Maryland, Soren Johnson has returned to the West Coast and (re-)joined California-based game developer/publisher Electronic Arts. He previously interned there as part of the programming team for sports titles Knockout Kings 2000 and 2001 for the PlayStation console.

Now, Johnson is working on the development of the cross-platform Spore title in what Maxis designer Will Wright has referred to as a Massively Single-Player (MMSP) game. It is anticipated to be released later this year.

It’s not the best news for Civilization, but it should bring a whole new dimension to the game. It’s great to see two very high calibre individuals - both Will Wright and Soren Johnson - working on Spore!