Stupid Fun Club is an entertainment think tank developing new Intellectual Properties to be deployed across multiple fronts including video games, movies, television, the internet, and toys.

“The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change,” said Will Wright. “Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms.”

The SFC is owned by Will Wright and EA, both for 50%.

Read Will Wright’s post on the official Spore forums, or read the full press release here.

Sid himself says:

The decade-long groundswell of fan enthusiasm around Colonization was the driving force behind our decision to make a new version for today’s gamers. The terrific community support for the game, coupled with the opportunity to design a new edition using our Civilization IV engine, made it the right time to create this title for loyal fans and everyone else who loves great strategy games.

Colonization is a standalone game experience that adds an entirely new scenario to the ever-evolving world of Civilization. In Colonization, players lead one of four European nations on a quest to colonize and thrive in the New World. Players will be challenged to guide their people from the oppressive motherland, discover the New World, and negotiate, trade and fight as they acquire power and battle for their freedom and independence.

The first reviews out there are very promising with Game Informer giving the game a 9 out of 10, and PC Gamer 84%. If you have the game please let us know your opinion on it in the forums!

Here’s a quick and easy test to see how old school a PC gamer is — check to see if they’ve heard of Colonization. Most people might think that you’re talking about the Civilization franchise or perhaps imagining some knockoff, but the truebred gamers of old will fondly recall Sid Meier’s interesting twist on his Civ formula from 1994.

This “truebred gamer of old” is still thankful for his friend Rijebreier introducing him to this game back in 1995, for I have spent many an hour playing it. One thing from the original game is that there is an equivalent of the Boston tea party in there. However, the game would randomly pick a resource to throw into a random city’s harbour. I remember I always thought the “the rebels in defiance threw 50 loads of horses into New Amsterdam’s harbour” variety a bit cruel. We’ll have to see whether PETA will allow that particular twist in this new incarnation.

We’ve received many requests from fans over the years to bring back Colonization and now seemed to be the perfect time to do that. The Civilization IV engine provided a fantastic foundation for a new Colonization experience and allowed us to create something great for both new players and long time fans of the game.

Looks like the perfect new meat for our Empire Building Games forum! Forumer usman found an article over at WorthPlaying that contains some screenshots.

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!

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 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).

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?