Eidos to publish Trade Empires?

San Francisco-based Frog City Software, the development studio that created the Imperialism series of strategy games, is currently developing a new strategy game called Trade Empires. Unlike the turn-based Imperialism games, Trade Empires will be a pausable real-time strategy game. It will feature four different continents encompassing a wide variety of areas, including ancient China, Central Asia, the Mediterranean, North Africa, Europe, and the New World.

The game will focus exclusively on trade and commerce, rather than including the combat and diplomacy found in most other empire-building games. Players will begin with a single merchant riding a donkey, and through the course of 4,000 years of history, they will build huge trade and transport networks. The game will include a number of scenarios, such as the development of trade in the Middle Ages, the Old Kingdom of Egypt, and the Industrial Revolution. It will feature a 3D map and an entirely new game engine.

Although no publisher has been officially announced, Eidos Interactive has registered the domain name www.tradeempires.com. The developers expect to complete Trade Empires this fall. For more information, visit the official Frog City Software Web site.