Take Two Buys Civilization with Firaxis

Firaxis Games has become the latest destination on Take Two Interactive's whistle-stop tour of recent acquisitions. Wednesday, Take Two announced that it has obtained exclusive rights to the Civilization gaming franchise from Firaxis, a developer of a popular series of simulation and strategy games.

A second half to the announcement made public a long-term multi-title publishing agreement between the software makers.

Sid Meier's Civilization IV for PC will be the first Firaxis title published by Take Two under its 2K Games brand.

"The Civilization name brings with it an expectation of quality from millions of fans around the world," said Susan Lewis, Vice President of Publishing for 2K Games. "It is a pleasure to be working with a company like FIRAXIS that has developers who have proven with every successive title that they are masters of this genre."

On Tuesday, Take Two revealed that has finalized plans to purchase Sega's sports game development studios, Visual Concepts Entertainment and Kush Studios, for $24 million. Take Two will obtain rights to the 2K sports brand and will collaborate with Sega to broaden its arcade game product offerings.

This week's opening announcement came on Monday when the Major League Baseball Players Association informed the press that it had entered into a seven-year exclusivity agreement with Take Two, making it the official third-party video game vendor for the major league.