Overview
MicroProse Software was founded in 1982 by Sid Meier and Bill Stealey. Between them, they took care of software design ( Sid Meier) and administration and public relations / marketing ( Bill Stealey).
The first games coming out of the studio were military simulation games, such as 1942: The Pacific Air War, B-17 Flying Fortress, the Fighter (Jetfighter) series and many more. Stealey and Meier disagreed on more than one occassion, regarding issues extending the focus on console systems or easing up the focus on military games ( Sid Meier released Railroad Tycoon through Microprose).
One strategy to broaden the publishing philosophy had been to create sub-divisionary brands to keep the association between MicroProse and military simulations intact, yet enabling the company to release games of other genres as well. The subdivisons were called MicroPlay and MicroStyle, the latter releasing titles such as Rick Dangerous and Elite Plus.
It was not before Sid Meier's Civilization was released to a huge success, that Sid Meier's argument to release non-military games found solid ground. However, despite the success of titles such as Civilization and Pirates! and the X-Com series, MicroProse was in financial trouble. It was not long after MicroProse was acquired by Spectrum Holobyte in 1993 that Bill Stealey left the company and found Interactive Magic (releasing games such as Capitalism and Seven Kingdoms). Sid Meier left the company as well and founded Firaxis Games, taking some former employees of Microprose along for the venture. By the end of 1998 MicroProse was aquired by Hasbro Interactive, which was in turn bought by Infogrames in 2001, by which time the brand MicroProse ceased to exist.
Timeline
- 1982: MicroProse is founded by Bill Stealey and Sid Meier.
- 1993: MicroProse is acquired by Spectrum HoloByte.
- 1994: Bill Stealey departes and founds Interactive Magic.
- 1996: Sid Meier and Jeff Briggs departes and founds Firaxis Games.
- 1998: MicroProse is acquired for $70 million in cash by Hasbro and merged with Hasbro Interactive.
- 2001: MicroProse ceased to exist after publisher InfogramesEntertainment SA (IESA) acquired Hasbro Interactive.
- 2019: David Lagettie and Bill Stealey secure the rights to the name again
- 2020: A number of new titles are announced in May, set to be released in 2021 and 2022.
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