Maxis

Will Wright and Jeff Braun founded Maxis in 1987 to publish SimCity on home computers. Until then the game had only had a limited release on the Commodore 64, as few publishers wanted a game with no clear way to win or lose. The name came from Braun's father, after Braun asked for something short, meaningless, easy to remember and containing an x, z or q. SimCity (1989) was Maxis' first release and started a long-running series.

In the 1990s it tried many things: more 'Sim' titles, a business simulation unit that made SimRefinery for Chevron, and games outside the genre such as RoboSport (1991) and 3D Pinball for Windows (1995), which shipped with several versions of Windows. After the success of SimCity 2000 it moved from Orinda to Walnut Creek in 1994, and it went public on 1 June 1995. Losses pushed it to look for a buyer, and in 1997 Electronic Arts acquired it through a stock swap. Braun left.

Under EA it finished SimCity 3000, and Wright threw himself into The Sims, a risky bet that came out in February 2000 to great success and was followed by The Sims 2 (2004). SimCity 4 (2003) was the first in its series in true 3D. In 2004 Maxis left Walnut Creek for EA offices. Spore (2008), Wright's big project, arrived after years of waiting, amid harsh criticism and a consumer protest against EA. Wright left Maxis in 2009.

The 2013 SimCity reboot, which required a permanent connection, had a launch full of problems and was the last game made by the main Emeryville studio, which closed in 2015. Since then Maxis has mostly been an EA brand, with The Sims 4 (2014) as its core project. In 2019 and 2021 EA opened Maxis Texas in Austin, for a new intellectual property, and Maxis Europe, a remote team supporting The Sims 4.