Type Subsidiary Website www.firaxis.com Acquisition date 2005 | Industry Video game industry Number of employees 180 | |
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Formerly called Firaxis Software, Inc. (1996–97) Products Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Civilization series (2001-present)
Sid Meier's Pirates!
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
(See complete products listing) Headquarters Balti, Maryland, United States Founded 1996, Hunt Valley, Maryland, United States Founders Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs, Brian Reynolds Parent organizations 2K Games, Take-Two Interactive Video games Civilization VI, Civilization V, XCOM 2, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Civilization: Beyond Earth Profiles | ||
Studio tour firaxis games home of sid meier civilization and xcom enemy unknown
Firaxis Games, Inc. 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.
Contents
Firaxicon an evening with sid meier and jake solomon of firaxis games
History
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. 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.
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.