MicroProse, known for Sid Meier’s Civilization and its sequel, is making a comeback. The company has already announced its future title.
The company was founded by Sid Meier and Bill Stealey in 1982. After initial success as a sim and strategy developer, the company lost money when expanding their portfolio to include arcade games. Meyer left the studio in 1996 and founded Firaxis Games.
There was a buyout attempt, but it fell through. Eventually, in the early 2000s, the company was closed, and a number of its IPs ended up with other owners, including Atari.
This year MicroProse was purchased by David Lagetti, one of the makers of TitanIM open world modeling software. Lagetty didn’t just buy the studio from Cybergun, he also managed to bring Bill Stealey on board, one of the company’s original co-founders. His position is still unknown.
In its early years, MicroProse developed and published two parts of Civilization strategies (the subsequent installments were developed by Firaxis Games), as well as several tactical X-COM strategies. It is also responsible for Transport Tycoon and many other classic games.
Now MicroProse is working on a game called Warbirds 2020. The title will officially be announced later this year or in early 2020. And it’s not the only project in development. According to 80lvl, MicroProse wants to gradually return to its sim and strategy roots.