Jeff Braun is an American business executive and co-founder of the

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

Maxis Maxis is an American video game developer and a Division (business), division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts, EA in 1997. Maxi ...

Career

Braun had successfully published

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

packs for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

when he met Will Wright at a pizza party hosted by Chris Doner in 1987. Wright had been unsuccessful in finding a game publisher for his

city-building game A city-building game, or town-building game, is a genre of simulation video game where players act as the overall planner and leader of a city or town, looking down on it from above, and being responsible for its growth and management strategy. ...

SimCity ''SimCity'' is an open-ended city-building video game series originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series, ''SimCity'', was published by Maxis in 1989 and were followed by several sequels and many other spin-off "''Sim' ...

''. Braun already had a

wire frame Wireframe or wire-frame may refer to: * Wire-frame model, visual model of a three-dimensional object in computer graphics * Website wireframe, a basic visual guide used in web design See also * Wire sculpture Wire sculpture is the creation of scu ...

jet fighter Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domination o ...

simulation game he hoped to publish, and when he saw ''SimCity'' he told Wright that the two games would give them critical mass to start a new games publisher of their own. They named the company Maxis. Wright had been an employee of

Broderbund Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits ''Choplifter'', ''Lode Runner'', ''Karateka'', and '' ...

when he first developed the concept, so Braun and he had to return there to clear the rights to ''SimCity''. Broderbund had just set up a new distribution office to counter the

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

(EA) ''Affiliated Label'' program. Broderbund executives Gary Carlston and

Don Daglow Don Daglow (born circa 1953) is an American video game designer, programmer, and producer. He is best known for being the creator of early games from several different genres, including pioneering simulation game ''Utopia'' for Intellivision in ...

saw ''SimCity'', recognized its potential and urged Braun to sign a distribution deal with Broderbund for the game. Braun wanted the jet fighter game included in the deal, and Broderbund agreed. The first five years of Maxis' history saw them remaining with Broderbund, before Braun added a dedicated sales force to Maxis in preparation to taking the company public. The company's

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

took place in 1995. In 1997, after setbacks on a series of secondary titles, Braun and Wright sold Maxis to Electronic Arts for US$120 million in stock. The deal made Braun the largest shareholder in EA at the time. Since 1997 Braun has continued to make investments in a wide range of software and technology companies in the United States and in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Braun, Jeff American entertainment industry businesspeople Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Maxis Living people American technology company founders Video game businesspeople