Take Two acquires Firaxis

The Core Video Games Forum
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<A HREF=“http://ir.take2games.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=178951”>Link</A>

For those who don’t like legal talk, Take Two, the publishers of such games as Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, Midnight Club, Age of Wonders, and NBA 2K6 has acquired Firaxis, best known for Sid Meier’s games, including Alpha Centauri, Pirates, and Civilization.

Personally, I don’t know if this will effect Firaxis or not, but I certainly hope not. I guess we’ll see if Sid Meier ends up leaving the company. That’s when I stop buying their games.

[edit]

I’ve found that 2K Games (the division of Take-Two which Firaxis will be rolled into) has released an updated patch for Pirates! that, as far as I can tell, simply replaces the Atari logo with a 2K Games logo, and the Atari copyrights with Take-Two copyrights (<A HREF=“http://www.take2games.com/support/patches/Sid_Meiers_Pirates_Version_1.0.2.0_Update.zip”>link</A>). There’s a Civ III section on their site now, too, so I’m willing to bet that a new patch for it will be released with a 2K logo.

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Well, take2 doesnt have as bad of a reputation for ruining those that they buy, at least not on the same wavelength as EA, and to a lesser extent Atari. I’ll give T2 a chance. And if T2 does turn out to be a bad dev, well, remember what sid did when Microprose and he had some disagreeances? He had enough pull to up and quit, and to start his own company (which has lasted up until now, with this buyout). I’d still love to see them free, but I’m not too distressed.

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Of course, until this year, Microprose still published all of Firaxis’ games, even after the split (though Microprose was later bought by Hasbro, who was later bought by Infogrames, who later became Atari).