Maxis
| Maxis Software Inc.
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1987 |
| resolution | 2015 |
| Seat | Emeryville , United States |
| management | (Founders) Will Wright, Jeff Braun |
| Branch | entertainment |
Maxis is a label for simulation computer games from the American computer game publisher Electronic Arts . It originally referred to the development studio Maxis Software Inc. , founded in Emeryville in 1987 , which was mainly known for the computer games SimCity and The Sims . Since the 1990s, the company has belonged to Electronic Arts, which Maxis expanded into a brand for the products of several development studios. In 2015 the group closed its main office. The brand name remained in use.
history
The company was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun . Contrary to popular belief, the name of the Maxis company did not come about by simply reading the words "six AM" backwards. Instead, it came about through a recommendation from Jeff Braun's father, who said that the name of a computer game company should be two-syllable and contain the letter "x".
Wright and Braun implemented the game SimCity , which until then ran on Commodore 64 , for other home computers . In the first half of the 1990s Maxis made a name for itself with other games from the Sim series: the evolution simulation SimEarth (1990), the ant simulator SimAnt (1991) and SimFarm (1993), the simulation of a farm. What all games have in common is that they do without a realistic depiction of violence, in contrast to previous classic games, they do not show a winner / loser or a score and sometimes manage without a defined game end ("open end").
From 1997 the company belonged to Electronic Arts. The main studio is located in Walnut Creek, California . Most of the games developed by the company are based on simulations . The company's most successful product is The Sims (original title The Sims ).
The main branch was closed in March 2015. According to EA, however, the Maxis brand will continue to exist, and other development studios in Redwood Shores , Salt Lake City , Helsinki and Melbourne will continue to develop new games and expansions under it .
Timeline
- 1987 - Maxis founded
- 1989 - SimCity released
- 1990 - SimEarth is released
- 1991 - Publication of SimAnt ( life simulation of an ant colony )
- 1992 - SimLife released
- 1992 - Publication of A-Train (railway simulation)
- 1993 - SimCity 2000 and SimFarm are released
- 1995 - SimTower , SimIsle, SimTown, Full Tilt are released! Pinball
- 1996 - SimCopter , SimTunes, SimPark and SimSafari are released
- 1997 - Acquired by Electronic Arts and released Marble Drop
- 1999 - SimCity 3000 released
- 2000 - The Sims released
- 2001 - SimCoaster and SimGolf are released
- 2002 - The Sims Online was released
- 2003 - SimCity 4 was released
- 2004 - The Sims 2 and The Urbz are released
- 2007 - The Sims 2 Castaway (Stranded) was released
- 2008 - Release of Spore (At first only the creature editor, the so-called "Spore Labor", was available in a basic and a premium version. The full version has been available since September 4th, 2008.)
- 2009 - The Sims 3 released
- 2011 - Darkspore released
- 2013 - SimCity released
- 2014 - The Sims 4 released
- 2015 - Closure of the Emeryville studio
Web links
- Electronic Arts
- Maxis at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ EA Shuts Down SimCity Developer Maxis. Kotaku , March 3, 2015, accessed March 5, 2015 .
- ↑ Tobias Ritter: Maxis - Electronic Arts makes SimCity and Sims developers shut down. GameStar , March 5, 2015, accessed March 5, 2015 .