Westwood Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was founded by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle in 1985 as Brelous Software, but got changed after 2 months into Westwood Associates and was renamed to Westwood Studios when Virgin Games bought the company in 1992. The company was bought by Electronic Arts alongside Virgin Interactive's North American operations in 1998. In January 2003, it was announced that Westwood, alongside Westwood Pacific, would be merged into EA Los Angeles. The main studio location closed in March of that year.
Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to play. The term "real-time strategy" was coined by Brett Sperry to market Dune II in the early 1990s.
Populous: The Beginning is a real-time strategy video game and the third entry in the Populous series, developed by Bullfrog Productions. The game was released in 1998 on Microsoft Windows, and in 1999 for the PlayStation. Unlike earlier games in the series, which cast the player in the role of a god influencing loyal followers, The Beginning took a radical departure and placed the player in the role of a shaman, who directly leads her tribe against opponents. Throughout the twenty-five missions of the campaign, the player leads their tribe across a solar system, dominating enemy tribes and tapping new sources of magic, with the ultimate goal of the shaman attaining godhood herself.
Syberia II is a 2004 graphic adventure game developed and published by MC2-Microïds. As the direct sequel to 2002's Syberia, it is a third-person puzzle-solving game. Although it is stylistically identical, Syberia II improves upon the first game by introducing more realistic character animation. The game includes a recap of the first chapter, so it does not require the player to have experienced the first game.
Microids is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. Founded in 1985 by Elliot Grassiano, it attained early success with games published through Loriciel in France and other partners in international markets. Through expanding its staff and development teams, Microïds generated funds to expand from just development to publishing and distribution and opening international offices. The company merged with MC2 in 2003 to create MC2-Microïds, whereafter it acquired publishers Wanadoo Edition and Cryo Interactive. Grassiano left MC2-Microïds in 2005; under new management, MC2-Microïds was briefly renamed MC2 before returning to the old Microïds name. It was then acquired by Anuman Interactive in 2010, which itself was renamed Microïds in 2019.
Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire is a role-playing video game, part in the Ultima series, published in 1990. It is considered a Worlds of Ultima game, as its setting differs from that of the main series. It uses the same engine as Ultima VI: The False Prophet and Martian Dreams. On June 18, 2012, Electronic Arts released the game as freeware through GOG.com.
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II is a 2006 real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts. The second part of the Middle-earth strategy game series, it is based on the fantasy novels The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien and its live-action film series adaptation. It is the sequel to Electronic Arts' 2004 title The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth. Along with the standard edition, a Collector's Edition of the game was released, containing bonus material and a documentary about the game's development.
Warrior Kings is a real-time strategy video game, developed by Black Cactus and published by Microïds in 2002. It was published for the Mac OS X the following year by Feral Interactive. The game, set in a fantasy medieval world, focuses on the concepts of pagan tribalism, renaissance enlightenment, and imperialist theocracy.
Corsairs: Conquest at Sea, also known as simply Corsairs, is a 1999 strategy/action/adventure game for the PC, developed and published by Microïds. The game is a simulation of the life of a privateer employed by either England, France, The Netherlands or Spain in, most likely, the 17th century. The player can take part in either the campaign, which consists of several scenarios with a specific goal, or adventure mode, where the goal is simply to capture all the ports on the map for their nation.
WorldShift is a science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Black Sea Studios and released in 2008.
Tower defense (TD) is a subgenre of strategy games where the goal is to defend a player's territories or possessions by obstructing the enemy attackers or by stopping enemies from reaching the exits, usually achieved by placing defensive structures on or along their path of attack. This typically means building a variety of different structures that serve to automatically block, impede, attack or destroy enemies. Tower defense is seen as a subgenre of real-time strategy video games, due to its real-time origins, even though many modern tower defense games include aspects of turn-based strategy. Strategic choice and positioning of defensive elements is an essential strategy of the genre.
Strategy is a major video game genre that emphasizes thinking and planning over direct instant action in order to achieve victory. Although many types of video games can contain strategic elements, as a genre, strategy games are most commonly defined as those with a primary focus on high-level strategy, logistics and resource management. They are also usually divided into two main sub-categories: turn-based and real-time, but there are also many strategy cross/sub-genres that feature additional elements such as tactics, diplomacy, economics and exploration.
Warlords III: Reign of Heroes is a computer wargame released in 1997, and the third release in the Warlords video game series. In 1998 it was followed by the expansion Warlords III: Darklords Rising.
7th Legion is a real-time strategy video game for Microsoft Windows, developed by Vision Software and Epic MegaGames and published by MicroProse in 1997. The game consists of two single-player campaigns and supports multiplayer online games. On February 18, 2014, Tommo re-released the game on GOG.com, but without multiplayer. In a joint effort, Nintendo was going to help Epic MegaGames port the game to Nintendo 64, but this port did not come to release.
Far Gate is a video game released for Microsoft Windows. It was developed by Super X Studios and published by Microïds. The gameplay consists of 3D space-based real-time strategy, and allows players to play as any of three distinct factions employing different units and structures. It was one of the first video games to offer fully 3D space-based real time strategy.
Kixeye is a video game company founded in July 2007 and headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The company creates, develops and publishes massively multiplayer online real-time strategy games (MMORTS) for PC and mobile devices. Kixeye gained popularity as a pioneer in midcore action games featuring real-time combat on the social networking website Facebook. Following their initial launch, Kixeye's games generated twenty times more revenue per daily active user than other social games, retaining active users five times longer on average.
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.
Tribal Wars (TW) is a browser-based, real-time strategy, massively multiplayer online game set in the Middle Ages. The game is set with each player starting off controlling a small village, with the objective being to slowly expand and conquer new villages through the formation of complex armies and a tactical combat system. The game incorporates multiple components of teamwork, planning, and strategy. The game allows players to collect resources, build armies, construct buildings, combat other armies, and conquer new villages. The game also allows for a level of player-specific customization, in regards to village names, army types, and troop-counts. The game operates under world-specific settings that vary from world to world.
Gear.Club Unlimited is a racing video game developed by Eden Games and published by Microïds for the Nintendo Switch. It was released on November 21, 2017 in North America, in Europe on December 1, 2017, and in Japan on December 14, 2017. It is an expanded version of the iOS/Android mobile game Gear.Club.
Tribal Rage is a real-time strategy game developed by Disintegrator for Microsoft Windows, released in 1998. It was published by TalonSoft in the USA and by Empire Interactive in Europe. The game was met with low to mediocre reviews.
