civilization-network posts

It's been a long, long time since we have heard anything about the status of the Facebook strategy game Civilization Network, a game that was first announced back in October 2009. Today the game's designer and "game god" Sid Meier broke his long silence with a new post on the game's Facebook page. The note announced a title change for the game to Civilization World (or Civ World if you prefer). Meier states that the name change "reflects the main theme of the game"

More importantly Meier states that the closed alpha testing for the game will begin on January 12. Folks can go ahead and sign up to be a part of the alpha test right now. The catch is that for this phase the development team at Firaxis Games want teams of players of between five to 50 people to sign up rather than as individuals (single players can still play the game when it officially launches). Meier states, " ... to win in Civ World, you'll need to collaborate with your friends in order to do well in the game and become ruler of the world, so in our early Alpha testing, we're grouping people together to simulate how the game will work when it's available to the world at large." People who are picked to be in the alpha test will get "a special item that you can proudly display in your throne room."

Every year we are surprised by the number of games that manage to be released. But there are always PC game titles that are announced and then pretty much disappear from view. These are the games that Big Download puts the label "Vaporware" On. Unlike other such web sites, we consider vaporware to be any PC game that was announced, lots of time with much hype, only to go into a cave with little to no info revealed about the game at all.

That's why you won't see games like Diablo III or even Duke Nukem Forever on this list. Yes, they are taking a long time to be completed but at least the development teams behind them have shown the game off in playable form in the past year and it looks like they may actually be released. But that's not the case with most of the games on our new 2010 PC game vaporware list. While they may all finally come out of their shell, we have no idea when that will be at this point.

So which games made our top 10 list this year? Check after the jump to find out for yourself. Just be careful: It's dark in there.

It's perhaps one of the most long awaited Facebook-based games ever announced and, well, it looks like it will still be waiting for a while longer. During today's BMO Capital Markets 18th Annual Digital Entertainment Conference Take Two Interactive's executive chairman Strauss Zelnick stated that developer Firaxis Games' Civilization Network will launch sometime in 2011, adding that the public will get to see the game "relatively soon."

The game, which has direct design input from Civilization's creator Sid Meier, was first announced over a year ago and at the time Meier said a closed beta would begin "soon". Since the announcement there's been little info on the game's status and the game's Facebook page has not had an official update since May.

[Via Joystiq]

A year ago, there was much excitement when it was announced that "game god" Sid Meier was helping to design a Facebook game called Civilization Network.At the time it was announced that a beta test for the game would begin soon with the official launch coming in 2010.

Since that announcement there's been little info on the game's current status. Big Download has emailed publisher 2K Games to find out what happened to Civilization Network but so far the publisher has not responded to our inquires. The game's official Facebook page has also been sparsly updated since the announcement. The last such update on that page was made back in May. Hopefully 2K Games will give an official comment on the game's status soon.

2K Games has confirmed to Big Download via a PR rep that developer Firaxis Games, home based to gaming design legend Sid Meier and his best selling Civilization strategy game series, has laid off a number of its team members this week. Internet reports of the layoffs started appearing earlier today. Here is 2K Games' full statement:

I can confirm that 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 approximately 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.

A note on Firaxis' web page says that the company employs 130 people which means that the 20 team members that were laid off this week amount to about 15 percent of the studio's total employees. Civilization V, which was officially announced last March, is set for release in September. Civilization Network, the highly anticipated Facebook-based game was first revealed last October but so far does not yet have a launch date.

Technically there was only one official main keynote address at last week's GDC 2010. It was given by legendary game designer Sid Meier who has declared 2010 to be "the year of Civilization!" That's not just because of the recently announced Civilization 5, due out this fall, but also the upcoming Facebook game Civilization Network that should start beta testing later this year.

Neither game got much hype during Meier's chat, according to our sister site Joystiq. Instead he talked a lot about players and how they relate to the the games they play. Meier stated that he always lets the player win his games, with just the threat of punishment enough to keep the player interested. You can check out more from the speech at Joystiq.

Last October, game god Sid Meier gave hope to those of us who have friends and family that are addicted to Farmville on Facebook. He revealed plans to launch a new Civilization game on the social networking site on Facebook called Civilization Network. At the time of the announcement he stated that closed beta testing would happen "soon".

Apparently "soon" means something a tad different to Meier than it does to the rest of us. Variety's gaming blog The Cut Scene reports that publisher Take Two Interactive is planning the beta to begin sometime in June. That's still at least four months away to tear us away from putting up barns and planting crops . . .not that we do that sort of thing. Really.

Sid Meier has mostly been a PC game developer and creator but recently he and his team at Firaxis Games have been moving into different platforms such as the recent console game Civilization Revolution. Now Meier has announced plans to enter the social networking game business with a game called Civilization Network on Facebook.

The game has already launched a fan page with a message from Meier who states that the game will "allow you to join together with your friends to create the world's most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization." The game will be free to play and will launch a closed beta test "soon". The full game will launch sometime in 2010.