Firaxis Games

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Firaxis Games
Type Subsidiary of 2K Games
Industry Video game industry
Interactive entertainment
Founded Hunt Valley, Maryland, United States (1996)
Headquarters Sparks, Maryland, United States
Key people Sid Meier, co-founder and director of creative development
Jeff Briggs, co-founder and former CEO
Brian Reynolds, co-founder
Products Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Sid Meier's Civilization III
Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Sid Meier's Civilization V
Sid Meier's Pirates!
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
(See complete products listing)
Owner(s) Take-Two Interactive
Employees ~120
Parent 2K Games
Website http://www.firaxis.com/

Firaxis Games is an American video game developer founded in 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs, and Brian Reynolds upon leaving MicroProse. The company focuses on strategy video games and is based in Sparks, Maryland.

History

Firaxis Games' former headquarters in Hunt Valley, Maryland in 2008

Early on, Firaxis has produced several PC games, including Sid Meier's Gettysburg! and Sid Meier's Antietam!, based on their namesake famous American Civil War battles, and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, a space colonization game taking place in the Alpha Centauri star system. In early 2000, co-founder Brian Reynolds parted with Firaxis to form his new studio, Big Huge Games. Firaxis Games then went on to release Sid Meier's SimGolf, a golf course building/management game. Perhaps their most popular releases have been Civilization III, and later Civilization IV, sequels to Meier's original Civilization game. In November 2004, Firaxis released Sid Meier's Pirates!, a remake of Meier's classic 1987 game of the same name. An Xbox version of the game was released in 2005 and a PSP version (developed by Full Fat) was released in 2007. Civilization IV started production in late 2003 and was released in 2005. Civilization Revolution, a console-only version of their popular Civilization series, was released in 2008.

On November 7, 2005, Take-Two Interactive announced that it was acquiring Firaxis.[1] The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but according to the SEC filing it amounted for US$26.7 million in cash, stock, and development advances, with almost US$11.3 million of that figure coming in the form of possible considerations based on future product sales. The company was consolidated with PopTop Software in March 2006, the resultant combined studio to be headed up by Sid Meier. Jeff Briggs assumed the role of Chairman in April 2006 and left the company completely in November. In April 2007, it was announced that Soren Johnson had left the company and joined Electronic Arts to work on Spore with Lead Designer Will Wright. Johnson was formerly a key person for Firaxis, acting as Co-Designer for Civilization III and later Lead Designer on Civilization IV.[2] In September 2009, the studio moved from Hunt Valley to Sparks, Maryland.

Games

Firaxis' titles are frequently prefixed with Sid Meier's name, due to his design and programming contributions and original game ideas. His name also contributes to their game's marketability due to his high industry profile and track record.

References

  1. ↑ Thorsen, Tor (2005-11-07). "Take-Two takes in Firaxis". GameSpot. Retrieved 2011-04-12. 
  2. ↑ iTZKooPA (2007-04-18). "Civilization IV Lead Designer Leaves Firaxis Games". TotalGaming.NET. Retrieved 2007-04-18. 

External links

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