Firaxis uses Wikipedia as an inspiration for their new game

[Freddy]

Civilization: Beyond Earth (T-H-L)

In designing the tech web, the Beyond Earth team began by going to the Wikipedia article on Alpha Centauri, as well as reading books the article listed as sources of inspiration for Alpha Centauri designer Brian Reynolds.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (T-H-L)

[Anroth]

They could you know, have just played Alpha Centauri Surprised they had to research what the original team used as inspiration rather than just asking though. Firaxis has a (well known in the industry) low turnover of staff. Good benefits plus a working environment that (unusually for the games industry) is not shit means they tend not to lose talent....

[Kelly Martin]

To be fair, Wikipedia's coverage of video and computer games is extremely good. So I can't really blame them.

[Johnny Au]

At least Civilization V's Civlopedia was not ripped from Wikipedia.

By the way, Civilization V's defeat screen looks similar to Midsize Jake's avatar:


The Civilization V Defeat Screen


Midsize Jake's Avatar