It began with a chance meeting between Jeff Braun and Will
Wright at a pizza party in 1987. Jeff heard about a simulation Will was working on, a
"toy" for personal computers that allowed players to design, build and rule a
city of
their dreams. Jeff agreed to fund development of the game, which they called SimCity, and
Maxis was born. The first major hurdle was to get a company
to license it. No one was interested in a game that could not be won or lost.
Did they throw in the towel? Not a chance. Working out of
Jeff's apartment, Jeff, Will, a small group of programmers and a writer launched SimCity
in 1989. The response was immediate and phenomenal; there had never been anything like it
and game lovers ate it up. In fact, their appetite was voracious. During the eight years
since its release, SimCity Classic and SimCity 2000 have sold nearly six million units to
become one of the best selling computer games of all time. What's more, SimCity and
SimCity 2000 formed the basis for over a dozen SimGames for gamers of all shapes and sizes
to the tune of more than a million units.
Growth and development followed each other, and Maxis became
a leader in its field. In 1997, Maxis merged with Electronic Arts, the world's leader in
interactive entertainment software (NASDAQ: ERTS). Since its days in Jeff's apartment,
Maxis has remained dedicated to development of software products that engage and
entertain, and encourage exploration, learning and creativity. The company consistently
excels in adapting advanced technologies to create accurate simulations of natural,
human-made and imaginary environments. Maxis is currently developing the next generation
in the SimCity line - SimCity 3000TM -- for release in January 1999 and is
working on a number of other simulation titles.
