14 DAY TRIAL // Important personnel cuts have been announced at Firaxis Studio, the development team headed by Sid Meier, which is behind the Civilization turn based strategy franchise. 20 developers, who account for about 15 percent of the overall employees at the studio, have been laid off, with the parent company, Take Two Interactive, saying the team is realigning its development resources in order to better achieve its goals for the year.
A statement from Take Two reads, “Firaxis has realigned its development resources in order to streamline its development process, reduce costs and maximize the overall performance of the studio. This will result in the elimination of 20 positions. These reductions will not impact Firaxis’ ability to create and deliver AAA titles, including its forthcoming Sid Meier’s Civilization V and Sid Meier’s Civilization Network for Facebook.”
At the moment, the main project in development at Firaxis Studios is Civilization V, the new strategy title in the long running series, which is set to be launched exclusively on the PC towards the beginning of the fall launch season. The game is seeing quite a few changes from its predecessor, with squares replaced with hexes on the map, combat more tactical with just one unit occupying any space and with diplomacy playing more of a part in the game.
Previews for Civilization V have so far been extremely positive, with the title set to become another instant classic. Game critics voting for the Best Strategy Title for E3 chose Civilization V as the best product they have seen and the September 21 date is surely marked down in fans’ calendars.
Firaxis is also working on a Civilization game for the Facebook social networking platform, which was announced before Civilization V. A beta stage was to take place during June but now a Take Two representative is saying it might be open later in the year.