2K Games sends along a press release announcing a special pre-order edition of Sid Meier's Civilization IV. If you order Civ IV before its October launch, you will receive the game in a special collector's packaging with a CD soundtrack of the game, a keyboard template, a tech tree map and a spiral bound version of the manual. The pre-order edition costs the same as the regular edition of the game.

GameSpot has a new Civilization 4 Q&A, asking Barry Caudill of Firaxis about the game. Five new screenshots are included.

2K Games sends along more information about Civilization IV, this time revealing the Great People feature that comes with the game. Throughout history, "men and women have emerged to perform great deeds, thus having profound and lasting effects on the world around them", and these people are represented in the game. Some images can be found here.

Five new Civilization IV screenshots have been released, showing a couple of different cities. 2K Games also sends along this piece from Firaxis producer Barry Caudill who talks about the role of religion in the game.

[...] If you are the first to discover the technology associated with a religion, the religion is founded in one of your cities. Religion can spread passively throughout your cities and even into neighboring cities belonging to your opponents. Establishing trade routes can help spread your religion faster and farther. Certain religious buildings can also help this passive spread but if you want to move the process along, you will want to create missionaries. Missionaries are units that you can move to another city (your own or an opponent's) and attempt to directly convert that city to your religion.

GameSpot has a new Civilization IV preview posted, offering an overview of all the game's new features. New media, including a developer video interview, is up as well.

There's a Civilization IV Q&A on IGN, talking to Sid Meier himself about all the new features in the game. New media is included as well.

There's a Civilization IV Q&A on IGN, talking to Sid Meier himself about all the new features in the game. New media is included as well.

GameSpy and GameSpot have posted their Civilization IV previews, offering impressions based on checking out a recent build of the game.

Over at IGN you can find a new preview of Civilization IV, checking out the strategy game sequel at the Firaxis offices. Several new screenshots are included.

There's a Civilization IV Q&A on GameSpot this afternoon, talking to senior producer Barry Caudill about the strategy game sequel. Six new screenshots are included.

Strategy Informer has a new Civilization 4 Q&A, asking publisher 2K Games a few questions about this strategy game sequel.

New on Computer & Video Games today is this Civilization IV Q&A, asking producer Barry Caudill about the game. Topics include new features, balancing issues, the new 3D engine, the game world, multiple paths to victory, combat, multiplayer and more.

From E3 here are some Civilization IV screenshots. Check out the fact sheet for more info on the strategy game sequel.

Also on IGN today is this Civilization IV Q&A. Firaxis producer Barry Caudill talks about the game's new 3D engine, game interface, new civilizations, the culture feature and more.

Take-Two Interactive has announced that it is the new owner of the Civilization franchise (at least in some form, the company says it has purchased "certain rights"), and have signed Firaxis Games to a multi-title publishing agreement. The new 2K Games label will publish Sid Meier's Civilization IV later this year.

The fourth game in the PC strategy series that has sold over five million copies, Sid Meier's Civilization IV is a bold step forward for the franchise, with spectacular new 3D graphics and all-new single and multiplayer content. Civilization IV will also set a new standard for user-modification, allowing gamers to create their own add-ons using the standard Python and XML scripting languages.

Casually mentioned in a story about Infogrames/Atari's financial results is the fact that the French publishing company has sold the Civilization franchise for a little over $20 million. HomeLAN Fed contacted Atari to find out who the popular franchise has been sold to, with a spokesperson saying it's up to the buying party to disclose that. There's no comment from developer Firaxis Games as of yet. Update: according to this post, Firaxis is still working on the game at least.

This story on Computer & Video Games confirms that Civilization IV is in development, after the game briefly showed up on an Atari product list. The only thing mentioned by Firaxis was that they'll start talking about the game "after the first of the year".