Firaxis Games

Firaxis Games
Subsidiary
Industry Video game industry
Interactive entertainment
Founded Hunt Valley, Maryland, U.S. (1996)
Headquarters Sparks, Maryland, U.S.
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
Civilization series (2001-present)
Sid Meier's Pirates!
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
(See complete products listing)
Number of employees
 ~180
Parent Take-Two Interactive
Website 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. Now a wholly owned subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, the company is best known for its Civilization series of games, though it has had notable success with other titles as well. Firaxis is based in Sparks, Maryland; Sid Meier continues to lead creative efforts there.

History

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

Since 1997, Firaxis has released 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, Soren Johnson 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 a few miles, from Hunt Valley, Maryland to Sparks, Maryland.

Games

Firaxis' titles are frequently prefixed with Sid Meier's name, a practice continued from Meier's earlier games at Microprose.

Year Game Publisher Platform(s)
Win Mac Lin Xbox NDS X360 Wii PS3 PSP iOS WP OnLive Android
1997 Sid Meier's Gettysburg! Electronic Arts Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
1999 Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Electronic Arts Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] Yes[lower-alpha 2] No No No No No No No No No No
1999 Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire Electronic Arts Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] Yes[lower-alpha 2] No No No No No No No No No No
1999 Sid Meier's Antietam! Electronic Arts Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
2001 Sid Meier's Civilization III Infogrames Yes Yes[lower-alpha 3] No No No No No No No No No No No
2002 Sid Meier's SimGolf Electronic Arts Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
2002 Sid Meier's Civilization III: Play the World Infogrames Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
2003 Sid Meier's Civilization III: Conquests Atari Inc. Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
2004 Sid Meier's Pirates! Atari Inc. Yes[lower-alpha 4] Yes[lower-alpha 5] No Yes[lower-alpha 6] No Yes[lower-alpha 7] Yes[lower-alpha 8] No Yes Yes[lower-alpha 9] Yes[lower-alpha 10] No No
2005 Sid Meier's Civilization IV 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] No No No No No No No No No No No
2006 Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Warlords 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] No No No No No No No No No No No
2006 Sid Meier's Railroads! 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 5] No No No No No No No No No No No
2007 Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] No No No No No No No No No No No
2008 Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution 2K Games No No No No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No No
2008 Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] No No No No No No No No No No No
2010 Sid Meier's Civilization V 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] Yes[lower-alpha 11] No No No No No No No No No No
2012 Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods & Kings 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] Yes[lower-alpha 11] No No No No No No No No Yes No
2012 XCOM: Enemy Unknown 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 5] Yes[lower-alpha 12] No No Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes
2013 Haunted Hollow 2K Games No No No No No No No No No Yes No No No
2013 Sid Meier's Ace Patrol 2K Games Yes No No No No No No No No Yes No No No
2013 Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] Yes[lower-alpha 11] No No No No No No No No No No
2013 Sid Meier's Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies 2K Games Yes No No No No No No No No Yes No No No
2013 XCOM: Enemy Within 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 5] Yes[lower-alpha 12] No No Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes
2014 Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution 2 2K Games No No No No No No No No No Yes No No Yes
2014 Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] Yes[lower-alpha 11] No No No No No No No No No No
2015 Sid Meier's Starships 2K Games Yes Yes No No No No No No No Yes No No No
2015 Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth - Rising Tide 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] Yes[lower-alpha 11] No No No No No No No No No No
2016 XCOM 2 2K Games Yes Yes[lower-alpha 5] Yes[lower-alpha 12] No No No No No No No No No No
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 The Mac version was published by Aspyr Media.
  2. 1 2 The Linux version was published by Loki Software.
  3. ↑ The Mac version was published by MacSoft.
  4. ↑ Since 2006, the Windows version is published by 2K Games.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 The Mac version was published by Feral Interactive.
  6. ↑ The Xbox version was published by 2K Games.
  7. ↑ The Xbox 360 version was published by 2K Games.
  8. ↑ The Wii version was published by 2K Games.
  9. ↑ The iOS version was published by 2K Games.
  10. ↑ The Windows Phone version was published by 2K Games.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 The Linux version was published by Aspyr Media.
  12. 1 2 3 The Linux version was published by Feral Interactive.

References

  1. ↑ Thorsen, Tor (November 7, 2005). "Take-Two takes in Firaxis". GameSpot. Retrieved April 12, 2011.
  2. ↑ iTZKooPA (April 18, 2007). "Civilization IV Lead Designer Leaves Firaxis Games". TotalGaming.NET. Retrieved April 18, 2007.

External links

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