Much like they did when they bought the rights to the Tropico franchise and got a third game in the series published, Kalypso Media is expanding yet again. Today they announced that they have acquired the Airline Tycoon rights from the game's original developers Spellbound.

The original game was released way back in 1998 by Spellbound. A number of follow-ups were released adding new material but a true sequel was never released. Now Kalypso Media plans to publish a true Airline Tycoon II game via their own developer Realmforge. It's currently set for release in the first quarter of 2011.

In related news, The Washington Post has a new article on the recently launched US branch of Kalypso Media. The article goes into how the company got the Tropico rights and states that Kalypso has plans to release 10 games in 2010.