JinseiNGC224: Of all the guesses, I would want this guess to be reality, and I would hope Civilization 2 would follow :)
Who owns the distribution rights to 1 and 2? Microprose is labeled on Wikipedia and Moby games. I know Firaxis and 2k own the later ones.
Grargar: I wouldn't be surprised if Take-Two had the rights to the whole Civilization IP. Microprose was purchased by Hasbro and Hasbro by Infogrames (now Atari) and I saw no mention of Civilization amongst Atari's auctioned IPs last year, so Atari must have sold everything regarding Civilization to Take-Two.
But I doubt it will be Civilization, as Judas didn't mention classic in his hint.
At least we know it's probably to do with water, and boats, and maybe combat as well (like pirates, or naval battles), but I'm aiming more towards a game featuring trading and exploration, even if it's not directly related to Columbus.