Gamespot is reporting that a conference call with Take Two Interactive revealed that PopTop, the developer of Railroad Tycoon 2 and 3, Shattered Union, and Tropico has been folded into Firaxis, best known for Alpha Centauri, the 2004 Pirates! and, of course, Civilization III and IV.

Given Take Two’s latest business woes, this is an obvious cost cutting measure. Supporting two strategy development houses means that you will be paying out to two groups whose games will appeal to the same bunch of gamers and take strategy market share from each other.

The idea of Railroad Tycoon returning the stable of Sid Meier has a certain appeal, even though the series has been in great hands at PopTop. It’s not clear how much downsizing this will mean or how/if Firaxis will be restructured to accomodate the new people.