“FIFA is now one of EA Sports most profitable annual franchises, the company in the early days predicted that the game would be a complete flop.”

In the early stages of planning and development for the game, EA’s UK based team went looking to recruit some locally based developers to help them build out some prototypes. A pair of developers from Cheshire, Jules Burt and Jon Law had been working on a football game prototype experimenting with various camera angles. Most other football games at the time such as Sensible Soccer or Kick Off! featured a top down view. The developers of the then titled EA Soccer wanted to create a game that would stand out from the rest. Despite the promising start the executives at EA stateside, were less convinced and didn’t put much faith into the success of the project. The development was shifted to EA Canada who took the early prototypes and built upon them implementing an isometric view for the game. A key selling point for the game was to rest on the realism that they could build into the gameplay and graphics. However just like previous EA Sports titles it also relied on the licensing deals that could be negotiated for teams and player names. This proved to be a problem as unlike the NFL, FIFA didn’t hold the licences for individual players and teams or the various domestic leagues. EA had secured a licencing deal with FIFA but it was all but the name included. Resulting in no real player names featuring in the game, instead the developers used their names to fill out the team roosters.

“The licensing deal with FIFA didn’t give the developers any of the rights for the teams and players but it did give it the brand recognition which it has maintained over the last two decades.”

Just as the development started the US EA executives had tried to shutter development over fears of potential loses in revenue, this trend continued throughout the development process. Both the Canadian and UK based developers had to continually convince their bosses that the game would sell well, as there was a large European market that had yet to be capitalized on. They argued that with the FIFA name behind them that there would be instant brand recognition, which would help boost sales. The game managed to get to market despite the best efforts of the EA executives and would end up proving them wrong for having their initial misgivings about sales figures. The game sold nearly half a million copies within its first month of launch and blew all expectations away. Becoming the bestselling game of 1993 despite the fact it was only launched in December of that year. The studio was soon back to work on the next title and over the last twenty years has managed to build up one of the most successful video game franchises. The FIFA series selling more than 100 million copies combined, earning it the title of best-selling sports video game.

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“The Oculus Rift has come a long way from a Kickstarter concept piece to billion dollar acquisition by Facebook.”

Oculus VR are not breaking new ground for the integration of VR technology and innovative motion controls into video games.  It has been attempt before in various different guises, from Nintendo’s Power Glove to Victormaxx’s ridiculously expensive Cybermaxx headset. Peripherals for video games have never really improved on the overall gaming experience, at least not enough to make gamers shell out cash on the high priced products. The Oculus Rift is really a refinement of the technology laid down by Jaron Lanier, Thomas G. Zimmerman and others alike. The wide field of view, HD display and head tracking the key selling points of the new device and may well be the final piece of the puzzle that was missing previously. The other issue that held back many devices prior to the current day equivalents was a simple matter of size. One of the first virtual reality head mounted displays was so heavy and cumbersome it had to be suspended from the ceiling, users nicknaming the device the “The Sword of Damocles”. Even Nintendo’s Virtual Boy seems bulky and unwieldy by today’s standards. There is no doubting that Oculus VR have put their work in trying to make their device slip seamlessly into the gaming experience and make the interactivity as intuitive as possible.

“Virtual Reality has come and gone in the past can the current trend maintain prolonged interest and more importantly sell in sustainable numbers.”

However it is not as if the company has a monopoly on the VR market as both Sony and Valve are looking to enter the arena with their own interpretations. At this year’s Games Developers Conference in San Francisco Sony came out swinging with their own version of a VR headset dubbed Project Morpheus. The Japanese tech giants have been working on VR prototype headsets for a number of years, integrating their own Move controllers into the system. Sony has the slight advantage of having a long history in the tech industry and all the experience that comes with it. However the Oculus team can boost about the veteran developers that have joined the company, with id Software founder John Carmack the chief technology officer at Oculus VR. Even Valve’s own VR specialist Michael Abrash has switched sides and joined the Oculus Rift team. It would seem that at any rate gamers will be spoilt for choice when these devices make it market, when that will be is still up in the air. Some hints point towards a late 2014 early 2015 launch for the Oculus Rift, but another important question arises in response to that is the devices proposed price point. Again no official pricing structure has been announced only guesstimates can be made at this time, the most recent Dev kit version of the device going for $350 (€254). $250(€180) to $300(€220) the price range been floated around by some market analysts. Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey has stated that he may adopt a similar model used by the console manufactures, dropping the price and making up the money on licencing deals with game publishers. This is integral to the success of any of the current VR headsets in development, the support of the video game developers to integrate the technology into their games. At the end of the day if there isn’t an extensive catalogue of titles that will support VR then the Rift, Morpheus, Gameface or any of the other VR headsets will ultimately fail.

“The Oculus Team have had VR market all to themselves the last two years but now competition is heating up with others jumping on the VR bandwagon.”

The decision by “Notch” to pull his official support for Oculus Rift integration with Minecraft doesn’t help with publicity for the VR company. Not that ‘Minecrafters’ desperate to see their blocky creations up close and personal are out of luck, as there are mods that support Oculus Rift input. However an official release of a VR compatible version of Minecraft could have been a big boon for the Oculus Rift over it soon to be competitors. The Rift is definitely carving itself out as a PC peripheral as opposed to Sony’s VR which obviously will be supported by their PlayStation console. Sony already demonstrating their eye tracking technology working with the current PS4 release Infamous: Second Son. So just like the console wars that take place between Sony and Microsoft it is the exclusive titles that can often sway customers moreover than hardware specs. There is even now a host of tech companies that want to take VR even further, not happy with just tracking movement of the player’s vision they want get them on the move. Companies like Virtuix with their Omni motion tracking device want to have Oculus Rift users get of their seats and start moving. The demonstration of Valves new VR headset at Steam Dev Days also incorporated spatial awareness and the capturing of full body movement. This entire aside the current generation of VR is still in its infancy with projects still in development and release dates still TBA. It would seem that there is enough momentum behind the VR push this time that it is unlikely to be a flash in the pan. Whether or not it will be a revolution in video game interaction is still out to tender. A quick review of interactive peripherals of video games past doesn’t paint a great picture. Even the evolution of the video game controller has been fairly stagnant for the last decade, although Valve might have something to say about that. The coming years and eventual product launches will offer a clearer idea for the future of Virtual Reality.

By Colm O’Sullivan

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“The games developer Howard Scott Warshaw has openly embraced the attention his game has received negative or not, he’s just happy it’s still talked about.”

The answer as proven by the documentary crew on the 26^th of April, yes Atari did buried the unsold E.T. cartridge among some other titles. Over 700,000 cartridges were exhumed form the landfill site in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The one thing that I can’t get my head around with all the news coverage on this issue is why this is such a big reveal. A company deposing unsold or faulty merchandise in a landfill is not all that unusual. Of course over time the story has been elaborated on and given an altered narrative. The story of a company so ashamed of their failure that in the dead of night they buried the games in the middle of the desert and sealed it off with concrete to forever entomb the worst video game ever made. The real story is far more mundane that sees a company bury merchandise in a standard landfill close to the company warehouse and seal it with concrete to stop local kids trying to dig it up. In fact if the documentary crew had done a bit of research they would have found a New York Times article archived from September of 1983 that reported on the dumping of the cartridges at the New Mexico landfill site. I have to wonder how Fuel Entertainment the documentary crew behind all this is going to produce a full length feature out of it. Microsoft believes in it so much so that they partnered up with the crew for the event and will be releasing the documentary as part of their new Xbox Originals programme series, set to start up next month.

“What couldn’t be sold in 1983 might find some interested buyers in 2014, with the unearthed cartridges planning to be sold off.”

It’s almost comic how excited the video game community was over the discovery of some rubbish Atari threw out over 30 years ago. What’s next the mystery of what happened to all those Nokia N-gage’s that were shipped but never sold or riffling through the dumpster at Valve to find any mention of Half Life 3. Not to say that the documentary crew’s efforts were wasted but why finding these cartridges was such a massive reveal, puzzles me when all that was exposed was a company following standard procedure in finding a cheap way to dispose of unwanted merchandise.

By Colm O’Sullivan

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“Tim and Chris Stamper founded Ultimate Play the Game in 1985; the company would later be re-established under the new name Rare Ltd., producing many memorable games along the way”

Prior to Nintendo’s buyout of the company Rare had been on a development marathon producing over 50 games in a five year period most of them for the NES console. An astronomical development rate by today’s standards but it helped Rare make enough profits to invest in some computer graphics hardware that would benefit the company going forward. The Silicon Graphics workstations that they purchased allowed them to create advanced 3D models and push the bounds of what was possible for video game graphics at the time. After the buyout they were tasked by Nintendo to use the new technology to create a 3D CGI game that game would become Donkey Kong Country. Due to the limitations of the 16-bit era of console gaming there was no way Rare could make a true real-time rendering 3D game so like others at the time, pre-rending the assets was the way to go. Myst was one of the first games to pioneer this method of creating a pseudo 3D game with pre-rendered graphics. The process for Donkey Kong Country involved modelling and animating the main characters and enemies on their graphics workstations. Then they would save of a series of image stills and turn them into 2D animated sprites that had the appearance and lighting of 3D models. The Finnish developers Bloodhouse had used a similar technique for their 1993 game Stardust. The limitations of the hardware also made it difficult when implementing some of the games other graphical elements. The games 3D backgrounds also taxed the SNES consoles limited memory so the team had to carefully arrange backgrounds that repeated elements but trying to make them appear as natural as they could. These techniques helped the game stand apart from most of its competitors and rivals when the game went on the market in November of 1994.

“It was the work by Rare on Donkey Kong Country and the team at Cyan Inc. with their Myst that helped push forward the era of 3D gaming.”

Nintendo’s 16-bit SNES console was always under pressure from its main rivals Sega who boasted 32-bits and a CD-ROM drive with their SegaCD console. Nintendo needed a title that would show off their consoles hardware potential and compete with their high memory rivals. The launch of Donkey Kong Country helped them do just that with the game becoming an instant hit with the gaming community. The game would go on to reach over 9 million in sales and pick up a host of video game awards along the way. It helped Rare gain international status and cement the relationship between them a Nintendo that would carry on for the next number of years. The Donkey Kong franchise now given a new lease of life would continue to see regular video game releases over the following decades with an iconic look that is still influenced by Rare’s original character designs.

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Myst

“The Myst franchise is still alive and kicking today, with the recent successful Kickstarter campaign for Obduction. Set to be the spiritual successor to the Myst series.”

The game started as an idea by two brothers Rand and Robyn Miller who had founded their own video game studio Cyan Inc. in 1987. The pair started out by making adventure games aimed at a younger audience, Myst however was the game that would bring their company to the attention of the industry. The initial development started in 1991 with the brothers working out the puzzles and the level design with the narrative storyline coming later. Sound was also quite low on the list of priorities with the brothers feeling that any sort of soundtrack would distract from the core gameplay. Upon play testing the game with the music added it was soon became clear that not only did it not interfere with gameplay but actually made the game as a whole better. The games most notable feature was its graphical capabilities that stood out against previous attempts at creating 3D visuals. The technique to implement the high resolution graphics was to pre-render all the games environments, the resulting images and videos linked together by scripting commands. Essentially acting as an interactive multimedia slideshow, the regular jokes over the games “slideshow” mechanics would later lead Cyan Inc. to develop a fully immersive open world version of the game in 2000. The method of pre-rendering the games visuals was not pioneered by Myst but helped popularizes the technique and influenced other game developers follow suit. Myst also helped boost the sales and popularity of CD-ROM drive that was a requirement for anyone wanting to play the game.

“The game received its very own comic parody in the form of the 1996 release Pyst, even featuring the acting talents of John Goodman.”

When the game was released in September of 1993 it was met with instant critical acclaim and financial success. The reviewers at the time saw Myst as an evolution for the medium with its engaging visuals and interactive morally driven storyline. That critical praise helped Myst become the best-selling PC game, racking up 6 million in sales to date. It record only broken in 2002 when it was surpassed by The Sims. Cyan Inc. would continue to work on the Myst series producing follow up titles over the subsequent years but none of them reaching the same commercial and critical heights as the original. Receiving various sequels and multiple platform ports the Myst series all in all would end up selling 12 million copies. Earning its place in the annals of the video game industry as a title that attempt to break new ground and usher in a new age of graphical technology for video games.

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“The lead designer Ted Peterson had initial worries about the games development after talking to fellow industry peers who doubted Bethesda ability to deliver on such an ambitious project.”

The original development briefs outlined an arena combat fighting style game. The player would travel around from town to town fighting with a team in gladiatorial like battles. The idea of side quest available outside the arena combat was only secondary to the initial planned gameplay. However as the development progressed these side quest started to take more precedence over the arena combat, with the explorable world expanding out to vast cities and multiple dungeons beyond in the wilderness. It wasn’t long before the idea of a medieval gladiator style fighting games was abandoned in favour of a full blown RPG fantasy title. The shift change in the games development was influenced by the games developers’ love of the dungeons and dragons series, with other fantasy games like Ultima Underworld and Legends of Valour also offering inspiration for the development team.

“The team behind The Elder Scrolls series has always seen the importance of establishing a rich and deep narrative. The backstory and lore of the games universe seen as important as gameplay.”

The game was not set to just emulate these influential titles but wanted to surpass them with The Elder Scrolls: Arena. The one design element that set Bethesda’s game apart from the competition was the sheer size of the game world. The entire map outside of the pre-set towns and cities was randomly generated populated by enemies and NPC’s. The game was one of the few in the series to allow the player to explore the entire continent of Tamriel, so large was the map that without the fast travel feature the game was near impossible to play. It could take the player several hours to walk from one town to another or several days to walk to a city in another province. The game was also known for it’s notoriously difficulty for new players, with high level enemies spawning right from the beginning unlike later titles that have enemies level up with the player.

“The Elder Scrolls series is now heading into its 20th year with the release of its latest title Elder Scrolls Online a venture into the MMORPG genre.”

Even though during development the combat fighting elements where replaced with RPG style gameplay, the original title The Elder Scrolls: Arena still stuck. Mainly due to the game’s material having been already printed using the original title. The misleading title and a missed Christmas 1993 launch date led to some early poor sales, only 3,000 units being shipped for the initial March 1994 launch. The subsequent negative reviews and high hardware demands made on the player’s machines didn’t help the flagging sales. The development studio heads worried about the future of the company if the game failed to boost sales, which it managed to do through word of mouth and a rerelease “Deluxe Edition” launching late in 1994. The game soon becoming a cult hit with plans for a sequel in the works in the same year. Bethesda Softworks now had a franchise to establish, with an expanding fantasy universe to explore and build upon.

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“The player takes on the role of a nameless space marine fighting through hordes of the damned set on invaded the realm of man.”

The development for the game began in 1992 after the release of Spear of Destiny the sequel to Wolfenstein 3D. As with the companies previous titles it was the engine that powered the game, which would be as crucial as the game itself. Prior to the start of development Carmack had carried out some research and experimentation for the companies next engine. The result was the ShadowCaster engine that featured improved graphical elements but was too slow for their action orientated games. It was not used by id but was licenced to Raven Software and used in their game titled ShadowCaster. The experimentation would lead Carmack to build out the far superior Doom engine also known as id Tech 1. Differing level heights , full texture mapping, varying light levels and non-perpendicular walls all helped set Doom a field apart from their previous effort Wolfenstein 3D. The level designer could now implement atmospheric conditions and visual aesthetics to improve on what was in some ways a static experience in their previous 3D titles. Wolfenstein 3D was the base on which id built the far more technically and graphically advanced Doom. During the development process a level of conflict arose between the creative director of the game Tim Hall and the rest of the team. Hall was unhappy about the level of violence featured in the game and wished for the company to return to the Commander Keen series of games. Initially opposed to the games themes, Hall conceded and set out to write up a comprehensive design document known as the ‘Doom Bible’. Hall set out in it a highly detail backstory and narrative for the game, however when presented to the rest of the team it was rejected. Carmack feeling that such a detailed plot was unnecessary for what was a fast paced action type of game.  Hall left the company just months before the games release; he would later use material from the ‘Doom Bible’ in his own games such as Rise of the Triad and Terminal Velocity.

“The level of violence in Doom not only lead to the resignation of tier creative director, but also caused some in the medium to question its influence on violent behaviour.”

Hype for the game had been steadily building prior to its release, with even an unauthorized alpha build of the game find its way onto the web. Just as with its previous titles Doom was distributed through the shareware model, with the first part of the game released online on December 10 1993. Although most users just played the free version, over a million copies of the full game were sold. The popularity of Doom was in no question with the game becoming wide spread within a matter of months. It addictiveness with gamers causing some companies to set policies banning the game from the workplace. One company in particular whose employees were utterly obsessed with the game was Microsoft. So much so Microsoft’s owner Bill Gates had contemplated buying id Software, ultimately Microsoft went on to develop a Windows 95 port of the game to help sell their operating system. Bill Gates appearing in a Windows 95 showcase presentation, superimposed into the one of the games levels as part of promotional video. It marked a point at which games were moving beyond their own sphere of influence. Companies and individual not directly linked with the video game industry could now see the growing popularity in the medium. Doom helped video games breach the divide between their own industry and the wider world.

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“Although not the company first game it was the title that brought them to the attention of the wider industry and media alike.”

The history of Wolfenstein 3D is intrinsically linked with the fortunes of the games creators’ id Software. The company was founded by four employees of Softdisk, a publisher and developer of disk based games sold with computer magazines. John Romero, Adrian Carmack, Tom Hall and John Carmack all came together to form id Software in February of 1991. The four had developed and released their first title Commander Keen the previous year and instead of pitching it to their bosses, had used a third party publisher. Scott Miller of Apogee Software had been impressed by the teams work and offered to publish their games through his shareware model. A method were a small part of the game was released for free with the rest of the game sold by mail order. Due to the success of Commander Keen Softdisk soon realised the potential in their four employees and offered to form a new venture with them. The four declined and went their own way with id Software, publishing their future games on the shareware model with Apogee Software. The Commander Keen series would help the company establish it’s self in the early days and gain some level of recognition within the industry. A key part of the company’s business strategy has been the licensing of their game engines that power their various titles. The “Id Summer Seminar” in the summer of 1991 was an event held to find prospective buyers of id Software’s Keen engine. It spiritual successor QuakeCon is the annual event were new information on id’s latest projects and new game engines are announced.

“Commander Keen originally started out as a tech demo by Carmack and Romero, aiming to emulate the side scrolling technology of Nintendo’s Super Mario on the PC.”

As part of the breakaway deal that led to the formation of id Software the company agreed to produced future titles that their former employers Softdisk would publish. Two of these games would have a direct impact on the advancement of video game technology, that paved way for the development of Wolfenstein 3D. Hovertank 3D and Catacombs 3-D both feature a first person 3D perspective that show an evolution in the technology that would eventually lead to Wolfenstein 3D. The games developed began soon after the release of Catacombs 3-D in late 1991, Apogee Software the games publisher offered $100,000 upfront to help jump start the process. The game was based on an earlier set of 80’s titles produced by Muse Software called Castle Wolfenstein. They contained a heavily stealth based gameplay which id had originally aspired to emulate. The gameplay proved to be too difficult to implement and the game evolved into an action based shooter. As with their previous Commander Keen titles, Wolfenstein 3D was released on the shareware model.

“Mecha-Hitler is often cited as one of the seminal video game bosses in the history of the video game industry.”

By the end of 1993 after a year on the market the game had broken all previous shareware sales records, selling over 100,000 copies and garnering much critical acclaim. Even though the game was a massive success within the industry, picking up numerous awards and honours it was not without its own controversy. Due to the games depiction of a SS prison set in WWII and featuring Hitler as the main antagonist the game was banned in Germany. Nintendo decided to heavily edit the game for the SNES version sold in Germany. Removing all references of the Nazi content, including a retextured Hitler renamed “Staatmeister”. Despite this minor setback the game was an outstanding success for the company and laid the tenants that all future First Person Shooters would be judged by. It gave credibility to the shareware business model and boosted the popularity of the pc market. Wolfenstein 3D is without out a doubt a landmark title in the history of the video game industry and cemented id Software’s place within it.

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“Sonic was not just Sega’s mascot he would become the face of the industry; to join the likes of Mario, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.”

The Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) had superior technical specifications over its rival the NES. However the Genesis failed win over consumers with its 16-bit system. What Sega needed was standout title that would get consumers to buy their console. The task was given to their internal development studio Sega AM8, to design and create a video game character that would raise brand awareness. One of the team members Naoto Ōshima drew a sketch of a hedgehog character original named ‘Mr. Needlemouse’. The team soon latch onto the idea and started to develop the game as a side scroller but with a twist. They wanted to make their video game hedgehog the fastest of all the video game characters, renaming their character to Sonic to better fit with his new abilities. This increase in speed caused the developers to think differently about classic side scroller level design. Players would have to traverse loop-the-loops, springs, high fall and long jumps all at a higher speed then they would be normally accustomed too. Development began in 1990 with Sega anxious to get the game to market as soon as possible with Nintendo close to releasing their own 16-bit system the SNES. Sega however believed rightly that they had a hit on their hands with their new Sonic game, so much so that the Sega AM8 development team where affectionately nicknamed the Sonic Team.

“Over the years a host of different characters have been introduced into the Sonic series with some become standout characters, receiving their own video game titles.”

In June of 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog was released exclusively for the Sega Genesis, the game was an instant success. The sales of the Genesis console dramatically increased with gamers buying the system just to play Sonic the Hedgehog. Releasing the game prior to the launch of the SNES console helped the Genesis gain a sizeable amount of the market share, holding over 60% of the North American video game market at one time. Sonic now became the face of Sega with the blue hedgehog front and centre of any of the companies’ promotional material. The Sonic Team was instantly put to work on a sequel, this time Sonic would be joined by his sidekick a flying fox known as “Tails”. Just like Sonic, Tails became an iconic character that Sega could use to promote the brand. The sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released in November of 1992 and again proved to be a hit with gamers, selling 6 million copies on the Genesis console. Since the original game released in 1991 a Sonic themed game has been released year on year. Sonic has also featured in his own animated TV show, comic book series and countless other forms mediums used to promote the Sega brand. Even though Sega are no longer a console manufacturer, Sonic’s role as the company mascot still remains the same. From an initial concept that seemed to ludicrous to ever possibly be a success has now become one of the industry’s most recognisable characters, even reviling Mario in popularity stakes.

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Civilization

“The addition of Sid Meier’s name to the games title was an idea allegedly pitched by comedian Robin Williams when they meet at a gaming conference”

Others had attempted at creating a Civilization video game before Sid Meier. Danielle Bunten who had just finished his seminal title M.U.L.E began work on a Civilization type video game but eventually retire the project to work on other titles. Don Daglow the creator of Utopia which could be viewed as the first incarnation of a Civilization type game, started working on a Civilization game in 1987 but was soon offer an executive position at Brøderbund and would later give the green-light for Will Wright’s SimCity. Sid Meier was next to take up the challenge and managed to follow through with the project, eventually releasing the game in 1991. Sid Meier had already made his name in the video game industry producing numerous flight simulator games and the much admired Sid Meier’s Pirates!, with his company MicroProse founded in 1982 with his business partner Bill Stealey. Sid Meier’s Pirates! Was the first game to affix his name to the title a tradition that would carry on with many of his future games. Although Meier’s drew inspiration from the original board game he also took influence from other sources. When Meier’s saw SimCity he decided to shift his game from a real time strategy to a turn based game, so as not to be too similar to Will Wright’s game. His work on Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon released the previous year, also helped him when developing the gameplay mechanics for the new Civilization game. Meier also stating that the classic board game Risk also played a major part in the design of the game. Meier’s worked with Bruce Shelley during the development process. Shelly a board game veteran who previously worked for Avalon Hill, the company the published the original Civilization board game. It was Shelley’s input that helped form many of the key gameplay mechanics with his years of experience working on board games.

“The Civilization series has become synonymous with the ‘one more turn’ phenomena, due to its addictive gameplay.”

The game got to market in 1991 but not without a struggle. MicroProse had made its name with a slew of flight and military combat themed games. Its president and co-founder Bill Stealey was unwilling to diverge into new territory with Civilization. At the time Sid Meier’s had already left the company and was working as a paid consultant due to the intellectual differences between the two founders members. Eventually Stealey gave in and reluctantly released the game, not believing the game would bring the company much success. So much so that virtually no marketing was spent on the game, but despite this setback the game soon spread via word of mouth and became an instant hit. Although a highly successful sequel was produced five years later MicroProse reliance on its flight simulator titles would eventually lead to its downfall. Meier’s along with fellow MicroProse employees Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds would come together and form Firaxis Games to continue the development of future Civilization titles. Shelley also left MicroProse to work for Ensemble Studio and help develop the Age of Empires series. The Civilization series is now in its fifth incarnation along with many other popular spin off titles and other properties, it has become a standard for other strategy games to be compared with. Sid Meier gaining recognition for his contribution to the video game industry in 1999 when he became the second person to inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame after Shigeru Miyamoto.

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