The title of this article might not be as far-fetched as you think, as Reuters reports Electronic Arts is currently trying to take over Take-Two Interactive. Firaxis, the company founded by Sid Meier, is a subsidiary of Take-Two. For now Take-Two has rejected EA’s offer, as they expect their stocks to rise dramatically after releasing ”Grand Theft Auto IV” on April 29. Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick says:

We didn’t slam the door, we just said look, the price is not right and the time is wrong

If EA were to acquire Take-Two it would become the biggest game producer by far, in the process scooping up the producer of some of the most popular games around. In a Q&A with GameSpot EA CEO John Riccitiello says:

we love their studios and we like their intellectual properties

For now the deal is on hold, but EA states they keep “all options open” alluding to a possible hostile take-over. For now it’s impossible to say what this take-over will mean in terms of future production of games. If you have any ideas on this, the forums are open for discussion!

Over the last two months there has been a tremendous revival of interest in the game Civilization IV and its expansion packs Warlords and Beyond the Sword (BtS for short) here at SIMphoni. This has prompted us to create a new forum, where discussion is not constricted to just Civilization, but which is also a home to other Empire Building Games such as Age of Empires and the Total War series. Some of our members have started writing exciting game journals, along the lines of the well-known City journals: i.e. lots of eye candy and lots of storytelling.

Toroca led the pack by creating the fist Empire Journal. His currently active Civ Game is about the English Empire, where he’s currently engaged in a war of attrition with the Mongols. He is keeping his readers in suspense about how this will end though, as the Empire Journal is currently on hold while Toroca is engaged with another game called the Battle for Middle Earth. A journal about his exploits there can be found in the Empire Building Games forum as well.

djVanDrake is currently playing a Noble level game as Viking VanDrakar. This game is called Rise of the Norsemen, and it appears that beautiful Isabella is indeed getting a rise out of the scruffy Viking.

Douwe is willing to give his Kingdom for a Horse. He is a fresh convert to Civilization, and doing quite well as Syberen of the Greek. Read the journal to see whether he finds what he is looking for.

If you like a good story, lots of humour and the occasional war, be sure to check out these Civ Journals, and perhaps start one of your own!

Sid Meier is recognised by his peers as one of the greatest game developers ever. He will be receiving the Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Conference which is slated to take place 18-22 February 2008. Sid is well known for being the creator of games such as Civilization and Railroad Tycoon. However, his impact on the gaming industry goes far beyond that.  In 1982, long before creating Civ, Sid was one of the founding people of MicroProse, a company that brought hours upon hours of monochrome fun to early PC gamers (aah…the memories). Games to come out of this software house include Airborne Ranger, Pirates!, F-19 Stealth Fighter, and of course Civilization. In 1996 Sid left MicroProse to found Firaxis Games where he continues to make successful games to this day.

Sid is the 8th person to receive the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. Guess who was the first? His first and last names start with a W.

This week, IGN’s regular top ten list features game designers and they put Will Wright in second place. IGN says of Will: “Wright is able to tap into common human interests and create some of the most compelling gameplay experiences around” Including our long time favorite SimCity series, Will’s latest game, Spore, also promises to push the limit of gaming as we know it. Indeed, Wright was the inventor of the simulation genre, way back in the days when arcade-shooter games dominated. He’s right behind Shigeru Miyamoto, the designer of iconic Nintendo series such as Mario Bros, the Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong. Sid Meier rounds out the top three, having created titles such as the strategy game Civilization (a Simphoni forum favorite as well).

SIMphoni member Whirly, who is studio manager for French game developer Creative Patterns, today announced in our forums that we will be able to sample their construction simulation “Building World“. He said: “normally in two weeks the demo of the game will be out”. We had some lively discussion in our forums on this simulation, that involves managing a project to build a skyscraper. The concept of the game is somewhat reminiscent of SIMtower of old, but with evolved graphics, that a lot of SIMphoni visitors would have liked to see in a new Simcity.

Last Friday the German magazine Stern published an interview with game developer Will Wright (in German). [Editor’s update: Forum member Jirnsum has translated the article to English.] Apart from the standard Spore talk a few interesting points are made about what the custom content might mean for sequels to games as the Sims and Spore. When players play a role in developing a game and creating content for it, might the game evolve so quickly that creating an add-on will become impossible?

Will also commented on the many sequels and clones released nowadays, game developers are showing little creativity and rather play save than risking their money on something new. For now this strategy seems to work, but for how long?

According to Gameworld Network, Electronic Arts, the leviathan that once gobbled up Maxis, has decided to split into four groups. Their names will be: EA Games, EA Sports, The Sims, and EA Casual Entertainment. According to GWN: “EA Games will be developing games such as Spore, Need for Speed, and Command and Conquer. EA Casual will continue their work with Harry Potter, Boogie and mobile games. EA Sports will no doubt continue to churn out the same tired old series’ year after year, while the new Sims team, now relinquished of any other burdens can focus solely on The Sims franchise.”

They hope “this reshuffle will make a little room for some of that risky ‘innovation’ we all keep hearing about“.

One can’t help wonder where SCS fits in in all of this. The link with the Sims, and Sims-like looks have been pointed out by many. Does this mean SCS will be developed under the Sims division? Or will it remain under Games?