Maxis is a subsidiary of Electronic Arts (EA), serving as one of its four major video game development labels. The company was originally founded in 1987 as Maxis Software, an American independent video game development company. For a long time it was known as EA Maxis. Later it simply became known as Maxis.
Maxis was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun.
Maxis' most successful series to date and the best-selling PC game of all time is The Sims (2000). Maxis has developed seven expansion packs for the game as well as an online version (The Sims Online). Maxis released The Sims 2 in 2004, a sequel title that features a full 3D environment as opposed to the original's dimetric engine. From 2006, production of the game, its expansion packs and stuff packs began to transfer to The Sims Studio, as Maxis (Emeryville) started to focus on their Spore franchise. Eight expansion packs and nine stuff packs were released for The Sims 2; the earlier releases developed by Maxis, later releases by both Maxis and The Sims Studio, and by the time the next major sequel was under development, Maxis no longer had involvement in producing The Sims.
The third sequel, The Sims 3, was released by EA in 2009, entirely developed by The Sims Studio. However, in 2012 an EA restructure saw The Sims Studio reintegrated with the revitalised EA Maxis label, and since the 9th expansion of The Sims 3, University Life,which was released in early 2013, the Sims franchise was back in development control of EA Maxis, including expansion packs and new developments, with The Sims Studio operating inside EA Maxis.
On May 6, 2013, it was announced that Maxis would be developing The Sims 4. The game was released internationally in September 2014. We are all glad that this happened, because we all can agree that Sims 4's performance is the best out of all the Sims Series. Some may even say that Sims 4 has the best CAS editor, where you can customize your sims by dragging and clicking on their body parts. The crashes, freezes and bugs are also very minimal in the Sims 4. We can also say that Maxis has been way more involved in updating the game and announcing news about the development.
The base game was missing ghosts, pools and toddlers. It was also known that there were several bugs in the base game that didn't appear to be tested before the game was released. Most of these issues have been resolved by Maxis.
Although the whole idea about The Sims 4 having a multiplayer feature could not have been fulfilled, Maxis came up with an even better solution: The Gallery.
When logging into the community and browsing the Gallery in-game, we can often see Maxis favoring lots and sims. We appreciate this involvement of the creators, because this means that they think it's important to interact with their public, even if the game is already out. This is a very important aspect of a game and especially a big game like the Sims 4.
External links[]
- Will Wright at Twitter
- Will Wright at MobyGames
- Will Wright ar RAWG.io