Maxis proved that a game did not need a goal, an enemy or a way to win to be one of the most compelling things you could sit in front of. Founded in 1987, and defined by the ideas of designer Will Wright, it made SimCity, which let you build and run a whole city as a kind of software toy, and then a whole family of Sims: ants, earths, towers, planets. Then it made The Sims, a dollhouse for the entire world, which became the best-selling PC game ever made. Maxis did not simulate to be realistic. It simulated to be playful.
This is the studio's run: the city-builders, the software toys, the life simulator that conquered the world, and Will Wright's grandest experiments. Here is the map.
The essential Maxis
Start here
Will Wright and the software toy
What tied Maxis together was Will Wright's conviction that systems themselves could be the toy. Give a player a model of something, a city, an ant colony, a skyscraper, a whole planet, and let them tinker, and the emergent stories that result are more interesting than any scripted plot. Maxis built a whole catalogue on that idea, from the earnest SimEarth to the whimsical SimAnt to the impossibly ambitious Spore, which tried to simulate evolution itself. No studio has ever been this devoted to the joy of the system.
The SimCity saga
Building the city, one decade at a time
The Sims family
The dollhouse that conquered the world
The other software toys
Ants, towers and the whole of evolution
A short history of Maxis
- 1987Will Wright and Jeff Braun found Maxis.
- 1989SimCity invents the software toy and the modern city-building game.
- 1991SimAnt and the wider Sim family explore simulation as pure play.
- 1993SimCity 2000 refines the city-builder into a classic.
- 2000The Sims becomes the best-selling PC game of all time.
- 2004The Sims 2 deepens the life simulator with full 3D and life stages.
- 2008Spore attempts to simulate evolution from cell to space empire.
The people who built Maxis
The designer and the co-founder behind SimCity and The Sims. Follow either to their full catalogue.
Keep listening on Podfriend
Shows and themes that go deep on this era of gaming.
More golden-age studios
Every studio in the series. More on the way.
It turned simulation into play and built the best-selling PC game of all time. That was Maxis.
Frequently asked
What is Maxis best known for?
SimCity and The Sims, plus a family of simulation games including SimAnt, SimTower, SimEarth and Spore. Maxis, and its designer Will Wright, pioneered the open-ended sandbox and life-simulation genres.
Did SimCity invent the city-building game?
SimCity (1989), designed by Will Wright, defined the modern city-building game and the idea of the open-ended software toy, a game with no win condition that you play to tinker with a system. It influenced virtually every management and sandbox game since.
Why was The Sims so successful?
The Sims (2000) simulated everyday life in a customisable, funny, endlessly open way, reaching a huge audience beyond traditional gamers. It became the best-selling PC game of all time and one of the most popular franchises in the medium.
Who is Will Wright?
Will Wright is the game designer behind SimCity, The Sims and Spore, and a co-founder of Maxis. He is one of the most influential designers in the history of games, credited with pioneering the simulation and sandbox genres.