In 2004, Maxis' longtime studios in Walnut Creek were closed, and the staff moved to EA offices in Redwood City and Emeryville.
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SimCity 4 was released in 2003, the first title in the series to implement true 3D, as well as the first where Wright was not directly involved with work. The Sims was released in February 2000 to widespread success, and would become one of Maxis' core focuses until a 2006 reorganisation shifted it away from their core team. In 2000, Maxis South (Austin, Texas) was closed. EA however backed the title on the basis of the economic potential for expansion releases. Over 1998, Maxis was allowed to finish SimCity 3000 on its own time following this, Wright's efforts were thrown into The Sims, at the time seen as a major gamble for the company, as the dollhouse game was not seen as a match for the video game market's demographics. Jeff Braun left, having received a sizeable amount of money during the purchase, and nearly half of the Maxis staff were laid off. The transaction was complete on July 28, 1997, and triggered major changes at the company. In a press release, Maxis stated it agreed to the acquisition in order to take advantage of Electronic Arts' strong distribution channel. In 1997, Maxis agreed to be acquired by Electronic Arts by means of a stock swap which valued Maxis at $125 million. Heavy losses and lack of direction led Maxis to begin considering acquisition offers.Įarly years under Electronic Arts (1997-2006) On June 1, 1995, Maxis became a public company. However, these newer games were not successful.
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In what Kotaku later referred to as the "era of scattergun experimentation", Maxis released numerous titles throughout the 1990s, including "sim" titles as well as some non-simulation titles, such as RoboSport (1991) and 3D Pinball for Windows (1995), which was included as one of the standard system games in several Windows releases. Most of the information on MBS and Thinking Tools has been lost as upon being told of the company's closure, the few remaining employees burned most of the company's archives and only remnants of MBS' output exists. and continued to produce similar simulation tools, but eventually closed down in 1998.
In 1994, Maxis decided to let this division go on its own MBS rebranded itself as Thinking Tools Inc. Among works developed under this included SimRefinery for the Chevron Corporation, and SimHealth for the Markle Foundation. To support this, Maxis bought a small company, Delta Logic, and its owner John Hiles, who had been focused on more immediate business simulation software, and rebranded it as Maxis Business Simulations (MBS) for this work. Around 1992, Maxis was approached by corporations and government agencies who wanted the company to use the same system simulation principles of SimCity to develop non-game simulations that they could manipulate for similar planning purposes. One of the unintended successes of SimCity was recognition of the means to gamify the intersection of multiple real-world systems that could be used for planning and development, such as using SimCity-type simulations for urban planning. Following the broad success of SimCity 2000, Maxis moved from Orinda, California, to Walnut Creek in 1994.
To name the company, Braun required that the name was "from 5-7 letters, mean nothing, be easy to remember and contain a x,z or q" the name "Maxis" was presented by Braun's father. The SimCity series became a staple for the company and spawned multiple sequels and spin-offs. The title went on to become one of the most popular and successful video games of all time. Before then, the game was only available on a limited basis on the Commodore 64 due to few publishers showing any interest in porting a non-traditional game without definite "win" and "lose" conditions. Maxis was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun to help publish SimCity on home computers.
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