Firaxis Games, Inc. is an American

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 ...

based in

Sparks, Maryland Sparks is an unincorporated community that is located in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It is situated approximately north of Baltimore and is considered to be a suburb of the City of Baltimore. The Gunpowder River runs through Spar ...

. The company was founded in May 1996 by

Sid Meier Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian-American programmer, designer, and producer of several strategy video games and simulation video games, including the ''Civilization'' series. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with ...

, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds following their departure from

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization'' and '' X-COM'' series. Most of their in ...

, Meier's earlier venture. They were acquired by

Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City and founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns two major publishing labels, Rockstar Games and 2K, which operate internal ...

in August 2005, and subsequently became part of the publisher's 2K label. Firaxis Games is best known for developing the ''

Civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). ...

'' and '' XCOM'' series, as well as many other games bearing Meier's name.

History

Firaxis Software was founded on May 1, 1996, by

, Brian Reynolds and Jeff Briggs, three

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

s formerly employed by

, a video game venture founded by Meier and partner Bill Stealey in 1982. The name "Firaxis", a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words Briggs explained that they decided to stay in the Baltimore area, rather than moving to

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Cou ...

, because it was "just a great place to be". Unlike MicroProse, Firaxis Software aimed at being a "design house", leaving manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of their games to outside contractors. As such, the company talked to six potential

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ...

s for their games, and finally signed an agreement with

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 ...

, through which their games would be distributed under Electronic Arts'

Origin Systems Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert Garriott, Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres ...

label. The studio's opening was announced on June 24, 1996. Firaxis Software was originally located in a 2,500-square-foot office on Gilroy Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland, temporarily sharing office space. To accommodate their growth, in February 1997, they announced that they were moving their corporate headquarters to a 7,200-square-foot office suite in Executive Plaza III, an office building on 11350 McCormick Road and part of the Hunt Valley Business Community. The deal, assisted by broker William W. Whitty Jr. of MacKenzie/O'Conor, Piper & Flynn Commercial Real Estate Services, was expected to be completed by March that year. The company had 13 employees at the time. Firaxis Software announced their first title, '' Sid Meier's Gettysburg!'', in June 1997. Interimly, on July 24, 1997, the company was legally renamed Firaxis Games. Electronic Arts announced to have acquired a

minority interest In accounting, minority interest (or non-controlling interest) is the portion of a subsidiary corporation's stock that is not owned by the parent corporation. The magnitude of the minority interest in the subsidiary company is generally less than 5 ...

in Firaxis Games, to undisclosed terms, in August 1997. By September 1997, Firaxis Games signed

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the dea ...

s for its three founders. ''Gettysburg!'' was released in October 1997 to critical and commercial success, scoring near-perfect reviews from critics, and selling 200,000 copies by August 1999. Starting with ''Gettysburg!'', Firaxis Games prefixed all games designed by Meier with "''Sid Meier's''", a trend the three founders carried over from MicroProse, as they believed that Meier's name added more recognizability to their games. For his works on many MicroProse games, as well as ''Gettysburg!'' and Firaxis Games' second title, '' Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri'', Meier became the second-ever person in the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentatio ...

's Hall of Fame, following

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he ...

. Co-founder Reynolds left Firaxis Games to pursue his personal interests in February 2000. To compensate his departure, the company started hiring various industry veterans by March 2000. For his executive engagement at Firaxis Games, co-founder and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

Briggs was named "CEO of the Year" by ''Smart CEO Magazine'' in October 2004. Briggs later left the company in November 2006, and was succeeded by Steve Martin. Also for his executive work at Firaxis Games, Martin was awarded the "Maryland International Business Leadership Award" by the World Trade Center Institute in March 2011. In November 2004, Infogrames, at the time owner of the ''Civilization'' franchise and parent to the series' publisher, sold all

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

(IP) to an undisclosed buyer for . The buyer was announced to be

on January 26, 2005. The publisher announced that the franchise would be managed by their 2K label, which was founded the day before, and that Firaxis Games would stay in charge of the series' development. In March 2005, NDL announced a partnership with Firaxis Games, wherein their Gamebryo engine would be used for the development of '' Civilization IV'', which was to be released later that year. On November 7, 2005, Take-Two Interactive announced that they had acquired Firaxis Games. Through the deal, Firaxis Games became part of 2K, although its present management and development plans would stay intact. Meier and Briggs both expressed that the acquisition saw a great opportunity for Firaxis Games in terms of creative development and marketing capabilities, and were fortunate to have re-gained full control over the ''Civilization'' franchise. In April 2007,

Soren Johnson Soren Johnson (born May 23, 1976) is an American video game designer and programmer. Johnson's games primarily belong to 4X strategy, with a number of his titles having been critically acclaimed. He is best known for his work as a lead designer o ...

, lead designer on ''Civilization IV'', left the company to move to

Maxis Maxis is an American video game developer and a division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by EA in 1997. Maxis is best known for its simulation games, including '' The Sims ...

and work on ''

Spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, ...

''. Similarly, ''

Civilization V ''Sid Meier's Civilization V'' is a 4X video game in the ''Civilization'' series developed by Firaxis Games. The game was released on Microsoft Windows on September 21, 2010, on OS X on November 23, 2010, and on Linux on June 10, 2014. In ...

'' lead designer Jon Shafer departed following the game's release, in December 2010. In August 2014, Firaxis Games announced Firaxicon, a convention dedicated to Firaxis games. The event was held from September 27 to 28, 2014, at a hotel in Hunt Valley, and included meet and greets with the company's staff, a presentation titled "An Evening with Sid Meier", and early

playtest A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and design flaws before releasing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise, and are very common with board games, collectible card games, ...

s of '' Civilization: Beyond Earth''. A tour of Firaxis Games' offices was also held at the event. The event was renewed for a second edition in July 2015, and held on October 3, 2015, at the

Baltimore Convention Center The Baltimore Convention Center is a convention and exhibition hall located in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. The center is a municipal building owned and operated by the City of Baltimore. The facility was constructed in two separate phases: th ...

. Events were similar to that of the 2014 event, with '' XCOM 2'' and '' Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide'' up for early testing. By December 2015, Firaxis Games expanded their Sparks headquarters, which they moved to in 2009, to , and employed 40 new staff, totaling to 180 employees present at the company. In June 2016, at the Games for Change festival, Firaxis Games announced that they had partnered with GlassLab to develop ''CivilizationEDU'', an educational derivative of ''Civilization V'' optimized for classrooms. On July 23, 2018, David Ismailer of 2K confirmed that Firaxis Games was working on a new IP.

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1996 establishments in Maryland 2005 mergers and acquisitions 2K (company) American companies established in 1996 Companies based in Baltimore County, Maryland Take-Two Interactive divisions and subsidiaries Video game companies established in 1996 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies

History

Games developed

Further reading

References

External links