Take-Two grabs 'Civilization'

Game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software announced Wednesday that it had acquired rights to "Civilization," a popular series of PC strategy games, from developer Firaxis Games.

Take-Two said a new installment of the franchise, "Civilization IV," will be published late this year by its new 2K Games division. Among other developments, the new game will allow players to create custom content using standard Python and XML development tools.

Terms of the deal were not announced. This marks the second acquisition in as many days for the publisher, which revealed plans Tuesday to take over Visual Concepts Entertainment, the sports game studio of Japanese game company Sega.