Highly Anticipated Sid Meier's Civilization IV Makes History Using Gamebryo Technology 

CALABASAS, Calif. and CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (October 4, 2005) – Emergent Game Technologies today announced that Firaxis Games' Sid Meier's Civilization IV, one of the most highly anticipated games of the year, was built using Emergent's Gamebryo technology.  The strategy game, which spans the entire range of human history, will ship this month and has already been named by Time magazine as one of the hottest new games of 2005.  

"Gamebryo has been a great fit for our engineers and artists," said Bretton Wade, director of technology at Firaxis.  "From the prototype phase to the final product, Gamebryo enabled us to spend our development time on the unique challenges that make Civilization IV great. The tool set and flexible design of the system have been a great boon to a content team tasked with spanning all of human history. When Civilization IV hits the shelves, our customers are going to be blown away by the quality of the game." 

In Civilization IV, players will have greater control over the roles of major foundations such as governments and religions, with less emphasis on more routine tasks such as pollution cleanup.  Players will also enjoy easy modding, with the ability to create new units, game maps, scenarios, and even entire civilizations.   

Firaxis is no stranger to Gamebryo, having used the 3D graphics engine and toolkit for its blockbuster hit title, Sid Meier's Pirates!  "We've always enjoyed working with Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and the entire Firaxis team," said John Austin, senior vice president of business development and strategy at Emergent.  "Their games are always highly anticipated, and this is no exception. The Civilization series holds a special place in the history of computer games and we're thrilled they trust Gamebryo to help make it one of the most exciting games in the industry." 

Other well-known titles that use Gamebryo include Sid Meier's Pirates!, Empire Earth II®, Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich, Dark Age of Camelot: Darkness Rising, Imperator, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Guilds II, and STACKED™ with Daniel Negreanu, a Texas Hold‘em poker game.

Sid Meier's Pirates! is a registered trademark of Firaxis Games.  Firaxis Games is a registered trademark of Firaxis Games.