Firaxis Games is the storied developer behind the Civilization series and, more recently, XCOM Enemy Unknown. The studio was formed in 1996 by ex-MicroProse developers Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs, and Brian Reynolds.

History

Firaxis began as a PC developer, and until very recently the developer's games remained exclusive to the platform. After its formation in 1996, Firaxis went on to develop several games based on the American Civil War. The fruits of this labor included Sid Meier's Gettysburg! and Sid Meier's Antietam!. These were quickly followed by Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, a game of space colonization.

In the early aughts, the company branched out and began to experiment with new properties, including the often-overlooked yet critically-acclaimed Sid Meier's Sim Golf. They also put out Sid Meier's Civilization III and later, [Sid Meier's Civilization IV]]. These titles were met with great success and eventually led to the development of the highly-successful Sid Meier's Civilization V, which is still being expanded upon today.

In early 2012, it was revealed on the cover of February's Game Informer magazine that 2K Games had handed over the reigns of the XCOM franchise to Firaxis, and the company had been deep in development of XCOM Enemy Unknown for several years. The game released to critical acclaim on October 9th, 2012 in the US, and is notable as the only game developed by Firaxis to not champion Sid Meier's name in front of the game title, reportedly due to a lack of involvement on his part in the development and production of the game.

Portfolio

Firaxis has developed the following games since its formation in 1996:

- Sid Meier's Gettysburg! - 1997

- Sid Meier's Antietam! - 1998

- Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - 1999

- Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire - 1999

- Sid Meier's Civilization III - 2001

- Sid Meier's Civilization III: Play the World - 2002

- Sid Meier's Civilization III: Conquests - 2003

- Sid Meier's SimGolf - 2002

- Sid Meier's Pirates! - 2004

- Sid Meier's Civilization IV - 2005

- Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Warlords - 2006

- Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword - 2007

- Sid Meier's Railroads! - 2006

- Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution - 2008

- Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization - 2008

- Sid Meier's Civilization V - 2010

- Civilization V: Gods and Kings - 2012

- XCOM Enemy Unknown - 2012