Firaxis Games is an American video game developer based in Sparks, Maryland. It was founded in May 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds as Firaxis Software, following their departure from MicroProse, which Meier had co-founded. The company was renamed to Firaxis Games in July 1997 prior to releasing any titles. It produced seven games primarily for Microsoft Windows personal computers over the next nine years through multiple publishers; these games include wargames such as their first title, Sid Meier's Gettysburg! (1997), and 4X turn-based strategy games, all with the prefix "Sid Meier's" in their official titles. Three of the games were part of the company's flagship Civilization series of 4X games, which was originally begun by Meier at MicroProse. In November 2004, Take-T