Firaxis Games

Last updated

Firaxis Games, Inc.
FormerlyFiraxis Software, Inc. (1996–1997)
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Video games
FoundedMay 1, 1996;27 years ago (1996-05-01) in Hunt Valley, Maryland, US
Founders
Headquarters
Sparks, Maryland
,
US
Key people
  • Steve Martin (president, CEO)
  • Sid Meier (creative development director)
ProductsSee List of games by Firaxis Games
Number of employees
Increase2.svg 180 (2015)
Parent 2K (2005–present)
Website firaxis.com

Firaxis Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Sparks, Maryland. The company was founded in May 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds following their departure from MicroProse, Meier's earlier venture. They were acquired by Take-Two Interactive in August 2005, and subsequently became part of the publisher's 2K label. Firaxis Games is best known for developing the Civilization and XCOM series, as well as many other games bearing Meier's name.

Contents

History

Executive Plaza III at 11350 McCormick Road, Hunt Valley, Maryland, home to Firaxis Games' former headquarters Firaxis Games headquarters.jpg
Executive Plaza III at 11350 McCormick Road, Hunt Valley, Maryland, home to Firaxis Games' former headquarters

Firaxis Software was founded on May 1, 1996, [2] by Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds and Jeff Briggs, three video game designers formerly employed by MicroProse, a video game venture founded by Meier and partner Bill Stealey in 1982. [3] The name "Firaxis", a portmanteau of "fiery" and "axis", was derived from the name of a piece of music created by Briggs. [1] Briggs explained that they decided to stay in the Baltimore area, rather than moving to Silicon Valley, because it was "just a great place to be". [4] Unlike MicroProse, Firaxis Software aimed at being a "design house", leaving manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of their games to outside contractors. [3] [5] As such, the company talked to six potential video game publishers for their games, [6] and finally signed an agreement with Electronic Arts, through which their games would be distributed under Electronic Arts' Origin Systems label. [3] [7] The studio's opening was announced on June 24, 1996. [8] Firaxis Software was originally located in a 2,500-square-foot office on Gilroy Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland, temporarily sharing office space. [3] [8] 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 at 11350 McCormick Road and part of the Hunt Valley Business Community. [8] 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. [8] The company had 13 employees at the time. [8]

Firaxis Software announced their first title, Sid Meier's Gettysburg! , in June 1997. [6] Interimly, on July 24, 1997, the company was legally renamed Firaxis Games. [2] [9] Electronic Arts announced to have acquired a minority interest in Firaxis Games, to undisclosed terms, in August 1997. [10] By September 1997, Firaxis Games signed life insurances for its three founders. [11] Gettysburg! was released in October 1997 to critical and commercial success, scoring near-perfect reviews from critics, [12] and selling 200,000 copies by August 1999. [13] 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. [14] 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's Hall of Fame, following Shigeru Miyamoto. [15] Co-founder Reynolds left Firaxis Games to pursue his personal interests in February 2000. [16] To compensate his departure, the company started hiring various industry veterans by March 2000. [17] For his executive engagement at Firaxis Games, co-founder and chief executive officer Briggs was named "CEO of the Year" by Smart CEO Magazine in October 2004. [18] Briggs later left the company in November 2006, and was succeeded by Steve Martin. [19] 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. [20]

In November 2004, Infogrames, at the time owner of the Civilization franchise and parent to the series' publisher, sold all intellectual property (IP) to an undisclosed buyer for US$22.3 million. [21] [22] The buyer was announced to be Take-Two Interactive on January 26, 2005. [23] 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. [24] 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. [25] On November 7, 2005, Take-Two Interactive announced that they had acquired Firaxis Games. [26] Through the deal, Firaxis Games became part of 2K, although its present management and development plans would stay intact. [27] 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. [28] [29] In April 2007, Soren Johnson, lead designer on Civilization IV, left the company to move to Maxis and work on Spore . [30] Similarly, Civilization V 's lead designer Jon Shafer departed following the game's release, in December 2010. [31]

In August 2014, Firaxis Games announced Firaxicon, a convention dedicated to Firaxis games. [32] [33] 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 playtests of Civilization: Beyond Earth . [34] [35] A tour of Firaxis Games' offices was also held at the event. [36] The event was renewed for a second edition in July 2015, and held on October 3, 2015, at the Baltimore Convention Center. [37] [38] Events were similar to that of the 2014 event, with XCOM 2 and Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide up for early testing. [39] [40]

By December 2015, Firaxis Games expanded their Sparks headquarters, which they moved to in 2009, to 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2), and employed 40 new staff, totaling to 180 employees present at the company. [41] 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. [42] On July 23, 2018, David Ismailer of 2K confirmed that Firaxis Games was working on a new IP. [43]

On February 17, 2023, it was announced that Midnight Suns creative director Jake Solomon and longtime Firaxis boss Steve Martin were exiting the company. COO Heather Hazen was promoted to replace Martin. [44] On May 30, 30 employees were laid off from Firaxis as part of cost-saving measures implemented by parent company Take-Two Interactive. [45]

Games developed

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<i>Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri</i> 1999 strategy video game

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a 4X video game, considered a spiritual sequel to the Civilization series. Set in a science fiction depiction of the 22nd century, the game begins as seven competing ideological factions land on the planet Chiron ("Planet") in the Alpha Centauri star system. As the game progresses, Planet's growing sentience becomes a formidable obstacle to the human colonists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sid Meier</span> Canadian-American game programmer and designer (born 1954)

Sidney K. Meier is an American businessman and computer programmer. A programmer, designer, and producer of several strategy video games and simulation video games, including the Civilization series, Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with Bill Stealey and is the Director of Creative Development of Firaxis Games, which he co-founded with Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds in 1996. For his contributions to the video game industry, Meier was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.

<i>Civilization II</i> 1996 turn-based strategy video game

Sid Meier's Civilization II is a turn-based strategy video game in the Civilization series, developed and published by MicroProse. It was released in 1996 for PCs, and later ported to the PlayStation by Activision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MicroProse</span> American video game company

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 internally developed titles were vehicle simulation and strategy games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Reynolds (game designer)</span> American videogame designer

Brian Reynolds is an American videogame designer. Reynolds has designed at SecretNewCo, Zynga, Big Huge Games, and MicroProse and has been chairman of the International Game Developers Association. He has played a major part in designing a number of multi-million selling games including Civilization II, Rise of Nations, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, and FrontierVille. He has also founded or co-founded three game companies, SecretNewCo, Big Huge Games, and Firaxis Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4X</span> Genre of strategy-based video and board games

4X is a subgenre of strategy-based computer and board games, and includes both turn-based and real-time strategy titles. The gameplay generally involves building an empire. Emphasis is placed upon economic and technological development, as well as a range of military and non-military routes to supremacy.

<i>Civilization IV</i> 2005 video game

Civilization IV is a 4X turn-based strategy computer game and the fourth installment of the Civilization series, and designed by Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier and his video game development studio Firaxis Games. It was released in North America, Europe, and Australia, between October 25 and November 4, 2005, and followed by Civilization V.

<i>Sid Meiers Gettysburg!</i> 1997 video game

Sid Meier's Gettysburg! is a 1997 real-time wargame developed by Firaxis Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was designed by Sid Meier, and followed by Sid Meier's Antietam! in 1999.

<i>Sid Meiers Antietam!</i> 1999 video game

Sid Meier's Antietam! is a real-time computer wargame designed by Sid Meier, the co-founder of Firaxis Games, then released in December 1999. It is the sequel to the 1997 Sid Meier's Gettysburg!.

Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy video games, first released in 1991. Sid Meier developed the first game in the series and has had creative input for most of the rest, and his name is usually included in the formal title of these games, such as Sid Meier's Civilization VI. There are six main games in the series, a number of expansion packs and spin-off games, as well as board games inspired by the video game series. The series is considered a formative example of the 4X genre, in which players achieve victory through four routes: "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate".

<i>Civilization Revolution</i> 2008 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution is a 4X, turn-based strategy game developed in 2008 by Firaxis Games with Sid Meier as designer. It is a spin-off of the Civilization series. The video game was released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Windows Phone, and iOS. A Wii version was originally expected but was cancelled. The absence of a PlayStation Portable version was attributed to a lack of development manpower.

<i>Civilization V</i> 2010 video game

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.

<i>Civilization IV: Colonization</i> 2008 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization is a remake of the 1994 turn-based strategy game Sid Meier's Colonization. Players control settlers from one of four European nations – Spain, England, France, and the Netherlands – that are trying to conquer/colonize the New World in the period 1492–1792. The victorious player is the first to build up his colonies and army, declare independence from the mother country, and defeat the military force that the king inevitably sends to crush the rebellion.

<i>XCOM: Enemy Unknown</i> 2012 video game

XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a 2012 turn-based tactics video game that was developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K, is a "reimagined" version of the 1994 strategy game X-COM: UFO Defense—which is also known as UFO: Enemy Unknown—and a reboot of MicroProse's 1990s series X-COM. XCOM: Enemy Unknown' is set during an alien invasion of Earth in an alternative version of 2015; the player controls an elite, multinational, paramilitary organization called XCOM and commands troops in a series of turn-based tactical missions. Between missions, the player directs the research and development of technologies from recovered alien technology and captured prisoners, expands XCOM's base of operations, manages finances, and monitors and responds to alien activity.

<i>Civilization: Beyond Earth</i> 2014 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is a turn-based strategy, 4X video game in the Civilization series developed by Firaxis Games, published by 2K Games and released for Microsoft Windows on October 24, 2014, the Mac App Store on November 27, 2014 and for Linux on December 18, 2014. The game's premise is that Earth became uninhabitable due to an undescribed disaster known as "the Great Mistake", forcing humanity to colonize space. As a spiritual successor to the 1999 game Alpha Centauri, Beyond Earth shares much of its development team and some concepts, most notably its setting on an exoplanet in the future.

<i>XCOM 2</i> 2016 turn-based tactics video game

XCOM 2 is a 2016 turn-based tactics video game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K. It is the sequel to 2012's reboot of the series, XCOM: Enemy Unknown; it takes place 20 years after the events of Enemy Unknown. XCOM, a military organization trying to fight off an alien invasion, has lost the war and is now a resistance force against the occupation of Earth and the established totalitarian regime and military dictatorship. Gameplay is split between turn-based combat in which players command a squad of soldiers to fight enemies, and strategy elements in which players manage and control the operations of the Avenger, an alien ship that is used as a mobile base for XCOM.

<i>Civilization VI</i> 2016 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization VI is a turn-based strategy 4X video game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K. The mobile and Nintendo Switch port was published by Aspyr Media. The latest entry into the Civilization series, it was released on Windows and macOS in October 2016, with later ports for Linux in February 2017, iOS in December 2017, Nintendo Switch in November 2018, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2019, and Android in 2020.

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