Take Two have dropped word that a 100-strong team of developers in South Korea are building a dedicated online version of Civilization. It's being built for release in Asia, but if it does super-well there's always a chance it'll travel. The XLGames team is headed up by ex-Lineage designer, Jake Song. "A genius? That would be nice to hear, but I'd rather be called a craftsman," he says on XL's comically po-faced front page .
XLGames' last project was a CryEngine 2 powered MMO called ArcheAge . The size of the current team and the studio's knack for turning out pretty environments suggests that Civ Online will likely be a presentable, polished experience (the header image is of Civ 5, not Online incidentally), but will they be able to retain the depth of the Civilization series without becoming a Lineage-esque grindhouse? The Facebook game, Civilization World , was the last attempt to take Civilization online, and ended up being a bit of a disappointment to Civ fans.
But what does Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick think? “Making our intellectual property available to delight consumers wherever they are is an important component of our long-term growth strategy,” he says. “Our online and mobile social projects in Asia are enabling Take-Two to further broaden its global footprint and-" okay that's enough of that. More importantly, what do YOU think of the idea of Civilization Online?
