Maxis | Code Like It's 198x

Maxis exists because nobody wanted SimCity. Will Wright had a working city simulation on the Commodore 64 by the mid-1980s, but it had no enemy, no score and no way to win, and publishers kept waiting for it to turn into a game. “Will couldn’t find a publisher,” Jeff Braun told ACE in 1990, “so we set up Maxis.” The company that grew from that decision made a business out of programs that period magazines struggled to name. Computer Gaming World settled on “software toys”: a city, a planet, an ant colony or a family farm for the player to tinker with. Ten years after SimCity, Wright turned the same idea on a household, and The Sims became the best-selling PC game there had been.

Fast facts

Founded: 1987, by Will Wright and Jeff Braun.
Based: Lafayette, California, in 1988; Orinda in the early 1990s; Walnut Creek by 1995; later Emeryville.
First release: SimCity (1989), distributed in North America by Brøderbund.
Public company: from 1995, on Nasdaq as MXIS.
Bought by: Electronic Arts, in 1997, for about $125 million in stock.
Best known for: SimCity and its sequels, SimEarth, SimAnt, The Sims (2000) and Spore (2008).
Today: a studio inside Electronic Arts, making The Sims.

A partnership to publish one game

Braun told ACE how it began. “Maxis started in 1987, it’s a partnership between Will Wright and myself. Before Maxis I was involved with productivity software on the Amiga but I just didn’t see that going anywhere. I then met up with Will at a party.” Wright showed him the game that had grown out of the island editor for his helicopter game Raid on Bungeling Bay. Retro Gamer described Braun as an investor looking for a way into games, and quoted Wright’s view of the time: “The idea of a sandbox game was pretty foreign to everybody.” Braun, the magazine wrote, saw its potential and persuaded Wright to keep going.

By December 1988 Computer Gaming World was listing Maxis Software at a suite on Mountain View Drive in Lafayette, California. The two rewrote SimCity for the Macintosh and Amiga, and it came out in early 1989 with Brøderbund, which had published Raid on Bungeling Bay, as its distributor. Retro Gamer reported that the first 100,000 copies were sold out of Braun’s living room. Sales were slow at first and then kept growing: Info reported in January 1992 that Maxis had sold its millionth copy. The SimCity entry tells that story in full.

Software toys

SimCity’s success paid for more simulations, each of a different system. SimEarth (1990) modelled a whole planet. SimAnt (1991) went down to an ant colony, and Retro Gamer later called it the first Maxis sim to give the player a clear set of goals. SimLife followed in 1992, and SimFarm (1993), in Computer Gaming World‘s words, was “almost a rural version of SimCity”. Previewing SimFarm in April 1993, the magazine placed it in “the tradition of Maxis’ other software toys in allowing the player to control a model of a real-life system”.

Maxis also published other people’s simulations. El-Fish, a Russian program, was in Computer Gaming World’s words “a sort of SimAquarium”, a pet “you don’t have to feed”. SimTower (1994) was a skyscraper simulation designed in Japan by Yoot Saito; reviewing it in 1995, the magazine explained that the makers of “engrossing system simulations (SimCity, SimEarth, SimLife, sim-anything)” had seen a game in Saito’s idea of an elevator simulator. In early 1996 Computer Gaming World previewed Maxis’s Full Tilt! Pinball, noting that the company did not propose to charge more than $30 for it.

In 1992 Maxis moved out from under its first partner: Computer Gaming World’s report on Brøderbund’s finances that October mentioned “Maxis leaving Broderbund’s distribution network”. SimCity 2000 followed in 1993, and in 1995 Computer Gaming World’s Hall of Fame described the “Maxis SimEmpire of SimEarth, SimFarm, SimAnt and SimCity 2000”, adding that SimCity “may not be a game, but it’s certainly a product that revels in creativity for its own sake”.

A public company

Maxis sold shares to the public in 1995. By October that year its press releases came from Walnut Creek, gave the company as “Maxis (Nasdaq: MXIS)” and quoted Sam Poole as president; one announced SimCity 2000 for the Sega Saturn. Being a small company on the stock market proved hard. Retro Gamer counted SimCopter (1996), in which Wright returned to helicopters, among some “suspect releases” before the EA takeover, with “poor 3D rendering and bugginess”. In July 1997 Edge reported that Maxis had made a net loss of $1.7 million for the financial year to 31 March, and that its share price had fallen to $11.

Electronic Arts

In mid-1997 Electronic Arts agreed to buy Maxis in a share swap worth about $125 million. Edge called it “EA acquires Sim kings” and expected the deal to go through in August; Computer Gaming World said the merger should be complete by the end of that month, and that EA would add “the highly successful franchise of Sim products” to its line-up. Maxis’s announced titles then included SimCity 3000 and Streets of SimCity.

For Wright the purchase was a rescue. He had been trying for years to build a game about a simulated household, and inside Maxis, he told Edge in 2004, “it was kind of a struggle to get one or two programmers devoted to it… we were kind of struggling until EA bought Maxis. They were really, really into it, and for the first time I got resources on the project.” SimCity 3000 came out in 1999 and The Sims in February 2000. In June 2002 Computer Gaming World reported that The Sims had become “the best-selling PC game of all time, according to Electronic Arts, ending the long reign of previous leader Myst”, with more than 6.3 million copies shipped. Myst has its own entry.

After The Sims

SimCity 4 followed in 2003. Wright’s next project, Spore, was a Maxis game when Edge previewed it in 2007, and came out in 2008; Darkspore, a spin-off action role-playing game, followed in 2011. For a time The Sims was made by a separate EA team, The Sims Studio, but by 2013 the series was back with Maxis, and Edge previewed The Sims 4 that October as the studio’s work.

The same Edge preview mentioned “the problems that plagued Maxis’s previous outing, SimCity, at launch”. The SimCity of March 2013 required a constant internet connection, and many players could not reach its servers. On 4 March 2015 EA closed Maxis’s studio in Emeryville, California, where SimCity and Spore had been made, and moved development of Maxis’s games to its studios in Redwood Shores, Salt Lake City, Helsinki and Melbourne. The name survived. EA still presents Maxis as a studio making The Sims, which marked its 25th anniversary in 2025.

The code of the first SimCity is public: in 2008 EA released it under the GNU General Public License as Micropolis.

Sources

Computer Gaming World issue 54, December 1988, p. 66: Maxis Software, 953 Mountain View Drive, Lafayette.
ACE issue 39, December 1990, p. 55: Rik Haynes, interview with Jeff Braun (the 1987 partnership; Braun’s earlier Amiga productivity software; meeting Wright at a party; “Will couldn’t find a publisher, so we set up Maxis”).
Info issue 46, January 1992, p. 18: SimCity’s one millionth copy.
Computer Gaming World issue 97, August 1992, p. 92: SimLife nearly finished; El-Fish, “a sort of SimAquarium”.
Computer Gaming World issue 99, October 1992, p. 94: Brøderbund’s finances, with “Maxis leaving Broderbund’s distribution network”.
Computer Gaming World issue 105, April 1993, p. 16: SimFarm and El-Fish previewed as “Maxis’ other software toys”.
Computer Gaming World issue 129, April 1995, p. 176: SimTower review (designer Yoot Saito; publisher Maxis, Orinda).
Computer Gaming World issue 138, January 1996, p. 258: Full Tilt! Pinball preview (Maxis, Orinda).
Computer Gaming World issue 136, November 1995, p. 415: Hall of Fame, SimCity and the “Maxis SimEmpire”.
Maxis, “Maxis announces SimCity 2000 for the Sega Saturn”, press release, PR Newswire, 11 October 1995 (Walnut Creek; “Maxis (Nasdaq: MXIS)”; Sam Poole, president).
Edge issue 47, July 1997, p. 13: “EA acquires Sim kings” ($125 million share swap; net loss of $1.7 million; share price; SimCity 3000 and Streets of SimCity).
Computer Gaming World issue 158, September 1997, p. 51: EA’s agreement to acquire Maxis “for approximately $125 million in stock”.
Computer Gaming World issue 215, June 2002, p. 48: “The Sims Hits No. 1” (6.3 million shipped; Myst overtaken).
Edge issue 143, December 2004: Will Wright interview (The Sims at Maxis before and after EA).
Edge issue 181, November 2007, p. 30: Spore preview (developer Maxis).
Retro Gamer issue 47, 2008, pp. 56–58: Will Wright profile (Braun as investor; “The idea of a sandbox game was pretty foreign to everybody”; SimAnt’s goals).
Edge issue 223, January 2011, p. 38: Darkspore preview (developer Maxis). Issue 225, March 2011, p. 69: The Sims 3 for 3DS, developer The Sims Studio.
Retro Gamer issue 115, June 2013, pp. 23–29: SimCity feature (founding in 1987; the first 100,000 copies from Braun’s living room; SimCopter).
Edge issue 258, October 2013, pp. 42–44: The Sims 4 preview, and the launch problems of SimCity (2013).
Jimmy Maher, “The Life and Times of Maxis, Part 1: SimEverything”, The Digital Antiquarian, July 2026 (web, secondary): El-Fish as a Russian aquarium simulator. https://www.filfre.net/2026/07/the-life-and-times-of-maxis-part-1-simeverything/
Jimmy Maher, “The Life and Times of Maxis, Part 2: SimWorld”, The Digital Antiquarian, July 2026 (web, secondary): the 1995 share offering, the move to Walnut Creek and SimTower (late 1994). https://www.filfre.net/2026/07/the-life-and-times-of-maxis-part-2-simworld/
Alex Wawro, “EA shutters venerable SimCity studio Maxis Emeryville”, Game Developer, 4 March 2015 (web, secondary): the closure and EA’s statement. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ea-shutters-venerable-i-simcity-i-studio-maxis-emeryville
“Maxis”, Wikipedia (accessed September 2026) (web, secondary): The Sims Studio’s return to Maxis and The Sims 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxis
Electronic Arts, “Maxis” studio page (accessed September 2026) (web, secondary): Maxis and The Sims’ 25th anniversary. https://www.ea.com/ea-studios/maxis