Independent company (1982–1993) 1980s In summer 1982, mutual friends who knew of their shared interest in aviation arranged for retired military pilot
Bill Stealey and computer programmer
Sid Meier to meet in
Las Vegas. After Meier surprised Stealey by repeatedly defeating him when playing
Red Baron, he explained that he had analyzed the game's programming to predict future actions and claimed that he could design a better home computer game in one week. Stealey promised to sell the game if Meier could develop it. Although Meier needed two months to produce
Hellcat Ace, Stealey sold 50 copies in his first sales appointment and the game became the first product of their new company. They planned to name it Smugger's Software, but chose MicroProse. (In 1987 the company agreed to change its name to avoid confusion with
MicroPro International, but MicroPro decided to rename itself after its
WordStar word processor). MicroProse became profitable in its second month and had $10 million in sales by 1986. MicroProse advertised its first batch of games in 1982, under the headline "Experience the MicroProse Challenge!!!" All three were written by Sid Meier for the
Atari 8-bit computers: platform game
Floyd of the Jungle, 2D shooter
Chopper Rescue, and first-person airplane combat game
Hellcat Ace.
Hellcat Ace began a series of increasingly sophisticated 8-bit flight simulation games, including
Spitfire Ace (1982) and
Solo Flight (1983), that defined the company. '' Design Team flight jacket In 1983, MicroProse ported
Floyd of the Jungle to the
Commodore 64, its first product for that machine. By 1984, the company had begun supporting the
Apple II and
IBM PC compatibles. MicroProse released the air traffic control game
Kennedy Approach, written by
Andy Hollis, in 1985.
Conflict in Vietnam (1986) was MicroProse's final Atari 8-bit game. By 1987,
Computer Gaming World considered MicroProse one of the top five computer game companies, alongside likes of
Activision and
Electronic Arts. MicroProse also started a branch in the United Kingdom to cross-publish titles in Europe, and to import some European titles to be published in the United States. Notable products from this period include simulation games
F-15 Strike Eagle,
F-19 Stealth Fighter,
Gunship,
Project Stealth Fighter,
Red Storm Rising and
Silent Service, and action-strategy games such as ''
Sid Meier's Pirates! and Sword of the Samurai. Several games from different developers were also published by MicroProse under the labels "Firebird" and "Rainbird" (acquired after buying Telecomsoft in May 1989), including Mr. Heli, Midwinter'' and
Core Design's Rick Dangerous. During the same period, MicroProse created two labels: MicroStyle (UK), and MicroPlay Software (US), using them for publishing a variety of externally developed games, such as
Challenge of the Five Realms,
Command HQ,
Global Conquest,
Elite Plus,
Flames of Freedom,
Rick Dangerous,
Stunt Car Racer,
Xenophobe and
XF5700 Mantis. By the late 1980s, the company maintained a division, Medialist International, in order to distribute and develop independent titles that was publish through the MicroPlay and MicroProse labels.
1990s In the early 1990s, MicroProse released the strategy games ''
Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon and Sid Meier's Civilization'', designed by Meier and developed by its internal division, MPS Labs, on multiple platforms. Critically acclaimed, both of them quickly became two of the bestselling strategy games of all time and spawned multiple sequels. Some of MicroProse's simulation games from the 1980s received
remakes in the early 1990s, such as
Night Hawk: F-117A Stealth Fighter 2.0,
Silent Service II and
Gunship 2000, and made some first cautious attempts to expand into the console market with
F-117A Stealth Fighter and
Super Strike Eagle (MicroProse also ported several of its titles to the 16- and 32-bit consoles during the mid-1990s). Brand new simulation and strategy titles included
1942: The Pacific Air War,
Dogfight,
Fields of Glory,
Formula One Grand Prix,
Harrier Jump Jet,
Knights of the Sky,
Starlord,
Subwar 2050 and
Task Force 1942. MicroProse attempted to diversify beyond its niche roots as a sim and strategy game company, looking for opportunities into the arcade game industry. MicroProse designed further action-strategy titles such as
Covert Action (also designed by Sid Meier) and
Hyperspeed, and experimented with the
role-playing genre by developing
BloodNet and
Darklands (in addition to publishing
The Legacy: Realm of Terror). The company invested a large sum of money to create its
arcade game division as well as its own
graphic adventure game engine. Meier felt that Stealey was taking the company in a risky direction, and the two could not work out their differences. Meier opted to quietly sell Stealey his share of the company but remained on in the same apparent role for all other purposes to the rest of the staff and their customers to allow Stealey to proceed in this direction. The arcade division did not perform well, and was canceled after making only two games:
F-15 Strike Eagle: The Arcade Game and
Battle of the Solar System (both of which featured high-end 3D graphics but failed to become popular as they were too different from existing machines), while the adventure game engine was used for just three games:
Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender,
Return of the Phantom and
Dragonsphere, before it was sold off to
Sanctuary Woods. In August 1991, MicroProse filed for an
initial public offering. The company hoped to raise $18 million to help repay debts from its unsuccessful arcade games. In 1992 MicroProse acquired
Paragon Software. It also acquired
Leeds-based flight simulation developer
Vektor Grafix, which had already developed titles for it (such as
B-17 Flying Fortress), turning it into a satellite development studio named MicroProse Leeds.
Under Spectrum HoloByte (1993–1998) In December 1993, following
Black Wednesday in the UK, MicroProse Software Inc. merged with
Spectrum HoloByte, another game company that specialized in simulation games, to form MicroProse Inc. Bill Stealey, who was good friends with Spectrum HoloByte president
Gilman Louie, convinced Louie to help MicroProse as Stealey was afraid that some bank would not understand the company culture. MicroProse UK was forced to close its two satellite studios of MicroProse in northern England and dispose of over 40 staff at its
Chipping Sodbury head office (Microprose Chipping Sodbury). A core group of artists, designers, and programmers left MicroProse UK to join
Psygnosis, which opened an office in
Stroud specifically to attract ex-MicroProse employees. In 1994, Stealey departed MicroProse and Spectrum HoloByte agreed to buy out his shares. He later commented, "Spectrum Holobyte had a lot of cash and very few products. Microprose had a lot of products and no cash. It was a great marriage, but the new company only needed one chairman, so I resigned." Stealey went on to found an independent game company
Interactive Magic (also specializing in vehicle simulators and strategy games), while
Andy Hollis departed for
Origin Systems, and
Sandy Petersen joined
id Software. Spectrum Holobyte managed to line up licenses, including
Top Gun (
Top Gun: Fire At Will),
Magic: The Gathering (
Magic: The Gathering),
Star Trek: The Next Generation (
A Final Unity,
Birth of the Federation,
Klingon Honor Guard) and
MechWarrior (
MechCommander,
MechWarrior 3). Strategy game
UFO: Enemy Unknown proved to be an unanticipated hit in 1994, spawning multiple sequels. In 1996, Spectrum HoloByte/MicroProse bought out
Simtex, earlier a developer of MicroProse-published bestsellers
Master of Orion and
Master of Magic. Simtex was re-branded as MicroProse Texas (
Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares), based in
Austin, Texas. Other MicroProse developed and/or published games during that period included
7th Legion,
Addiction Pinball,
AEGIS: Guardian of the Fleet,
Civilization II,
Dark Earth,
F-15 Strike Eagle III,
Fleet Defender,
Grand Prix 2,
Pizza Tycoon, ''
Sid Meier's Colonization, Tinhead, Transport Tycoon, X-COM: Apocalypse, X-COM: Interceptor and X-COM: Terror from the Deep''. Insufficient financial resources largely prevented MicroProse from developing games for other game platforms, therefore MicroProse concentrated on the
PC game market. MicroProse Software continued as separate subsidiary company under Spectrum HoloByte until 1996. That year, Spectrum HoloByte started cutting a majority of the MicroProse staff to reduce costs. Soon after, it consolidated all of its titles under the MicroProse brand (essentially renaming itself MicroProse). MicroProse's remaining co-founder Sid Meier, along with
Jeff Briggs and
Brian Reynolds, departed the company after the staff cut, forming a new company named
Firaxis Games. On October 5, 1997,
GT Interactive announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire MicroProse for $250 million in stock. The deal was unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both companies. After the announcement MicroProse's stock price reached $7 a share. GT Interactive expected the deal to be completed by the end of that year. The acquisition was canceled on December 5, as according to both CEOs "the time is simply not right" for the deal. MicroProse's stock plummeted to just $2.31 after the announcement of the deal's cancellation, and the company had estimated losses of $7–10 million during the third quarter of 1997 which are largely attributed to dislocations caused by the aborted merger. According to
Computer Gaming World, the merger was annulled due to a "fundamental" disagreement over how the joint company would be writing off its research and development costs, as MicroProse insisted to keep its method of paying off the developer immediately. In November 1997, MicroProse was sued by both
Avalon Hill (who had the U.S. publishing rights to the name
Civilization) and Activision for
copyright infringement. MicroProse responded by buying Hartland Trefoil, which was the original designer and manufacturer of the
Civilization board game, and then sued Avalon Hill and Activision for trademark infringement and unfair business practices as a result of Activision's decision to develop and publish
Civilization video games. Because
Hasbro was negotiating the acquisition of both Avalon Hill and MicroProse, the lawsuits were settled in July 1998. Under the terms of the settlement MicroProse became the sole owner of the rights of the name
Civilization and Activision acquired a license to publish a
Civilization video game which was later titled
Civilization: Call to Power.
Under Hasbro Interactive (1998–2001) In preparation for its sale, MicroProse closed down its studio in Austin in June 1998; as a result of the closure, 35 employees lost their jobs. On August 14, 1998,
Hasbro issued a $70 million cash
tender offer to purchase all MicroProse's shares for $6 each. This deal was completed on September 14, when Hasbro bought 91% of MicroProse's shares and announced that MicroProse had become a
wholly owned subsidiary. The remaining shares would also be acquired for $6 in cash. MicroProse was merged with
Hasbro Interactive. At the time of Hasbro's acquisition, MicroProse had 343 employees, including 135 at
Alameda, California (MicroProse Alameda), with a total operating cost of $20 million per year. Besides the development studio in Alameda, MicroProse had three other studios:
Hunt Valley, Maryland (Microprose, Hunt Valley);
Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Chipping Sodbury, England. In December 1998, MicroProse finally managed to publish
Falcon 4.0 (in development by Spectrum HoloByte since 1992), to disappointing sales. In December 1999, Hasbro Interactive closed down former MicroProse studios in Alameda and Chapel Hill. Among titles in development that got canceled during that period was
X-COM: Genesis. The last MicroProse developed game under Hasbro,
B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th, was published in 2000.
Under Infogrames (2001–2003) On December 6, 2000, amidst struggling sales and restructurings, Hasbro announced it would entirely sell off Hasbro Interactive, including MicroProse's assets, to French holding company
Infogrames Entertainment SA for $100 million, $95 million as 4.5 million common shares of Infogrames and $5 million in cash. The deal was closed on January 29, 2001 After the sale, sales and distribution of MicroProse titles transitioned to
Infogrames, Inc. in North America and the company's standalone international divisions everywhere else. By this time, the company began a slow phase-out of the brand with many MicroProse branded titles previously released by Hasbro being reissued with Infogrames' logo on the packaging. MicroProse's two remaining development studios in Chipping Sodbury and Hunt Valley were rebranded under the Infogrames banner as well, becoming Infogrames Interactive Chippenham Studio and Infogrames Interactive Hunt Valley Studio, respectively. The development of
X-COM: Alliance was finally aborted in 2002 without a formal announcement. The final newly released games released under the MicroProse brand name were
X-COM: Enforcer, released in April 2001,
Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror, released in April 2002, and
Grand Prix 4, released in June 2002. In September, Infogrames shuttered the Chippenham studio and aborting the development of an Xbox port of
Grand Prix 4 that had been currently worked at in the studio within the process. The Hunt Valley studio worked on
Monopoly Casino: Vegas Edition for the PC, and then focused on the development of the
Xbox title
Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes, which was released in October 2003. Earlier on in May, Infogrames rebranded all its subsidiaries under the
Atari brand; including Infogrames, Inc. becoming Atari, Inc., and Infogrames Interactive, Inc. becoming Atari Interactive, Inc. In November 2003, Atari announced the closure of the Hunt Valley studio, which itself was the last MicroProse studio still operating. However, several
game developers now exist in the area, including
Firaxis Games and
BreakAway Games, who all owe their origin to MicroProse.
Brand sale to Interactive Game Group and Cybergun Group (2007–2019) In 2007, the MicroProse brand name was sold by
Atari Interactive to the Interactive Game Group, a producer of video game titles. The company filed for transfer of trademark protection on December 12, 2007. Originally, it was unclear if MicroProse's titles and
intellectual properties were also acquired by the Interactive Game Group from Atari/Infogrames, but was soon confirmed that the latter had remained the owners of the properties. In January 2008, the Interactive Game Group sub-licensed the MicroProse brand and trademark to I-Drs At in January 2008. The company also licensed the MicroProse brand to the Legacy Engineering Group (LEG), which used the license to form subsidiaries called Microprose Systems and Microprose Consumer Electronics Division, selling consumer electronics from February 2008 to the second half of 2008. In October, the licensing agreement between LEG and Frederic Chesnais, owner of Interactive Game Group, was discontinued, forcing LEG to rebrand its subsidiaries to Legacy Consumer Electronics. In 2010, the Cybergun Group, manufacturer of
airsoft gun products, merged with the Interactive Game Group, acquiring the MicroProse brand within the merger. In 2011, the Interactive Game Group was rebranded under the MicroProse name and began licensing and executive producing various casual and budget video game titles that the Interactive Game Group had already licensed including
Jaws: Ultimate Predator and fitness games featuring Jillian Michaels. In August 2012, MicroProse announced that it would re-partner with its former owner Atari to release
Special Forces: Team X for 2013. The MicroProse brand continued in use until the end of 2013, when its domain lapsed and the brand fell into dormancy. On July 22, 2013, during the Atari bankruptcy sale, most of MicroProse's former IPs that remained with the publisher were sold to
Tommo. In October 2014, Tommo announced the launch of the "Retroism" brand and re-released a majority of MicroProse's catalogue through digital media platforms such as Steam.
Brand revival (2018–present) (IGDA) In 2018, David Lagettie, an Australian simulation software entrepreneur and one of the makers of
TitanIM open world military simulation software, purchased the MicroProse brand from the Cybergun Group. Lagettie was a former developer for
Bohemia Interactive at its Australian studios before starting his own company to create video game simulators to be used by military groups. Lagettie had been a fan of the original MicroProse games growing up, and as he saw the games ownership transition made the company eventually disappear, he started investigating the fate of MicroProse around 2005. When possible, he began buying whatever IP from MicroProse he could, including the name and original logo trademarks. In February 2019, MicroProse was officially revived as a full publisher of video game and simulation titles, working with the
iEntertainment Network on the
WarBirds series of combat flight simulators. Within the rest of 2019, MicroProse announced
Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age by the developer Triassic Games AB,
Task Force Admiral – Vol.1: American Carrier Battles by Drydock Dreams Games,
Operation: Harsh Doorstop by Drakeling Labs, and
Warfare 1944 by Drakeling Labs. Lagettie's acquisitions drew the attention of Stealey, who subsequently inquired Lagettie about his plans, leading to Stealey joining Lagettie in an unofficial manner in the new MicroProse. with about twenty additional titles planned out for publishing in the future. Lagettie said that while the new MicroProse will branch out to other genres such as adventure and racing games, its core portfolio will be centered on combat-based ones. In 2022, Microprose announced the purchase of the
Outerra game engine, which it said will complete, release, and also use as the engine for some of its future games. On May 4, 2023, the company announced it had re-acquired the copyright to the
Falcon series. On December 17, 2025, it was announced that MicroProse had reunited with
Geoff Crammond for an updated rerelease of all four
Grand Prix games, set for release on Steam in 2026. ==Games==