Maxis

Background

Maxis is a California-based game developer, founded by Will Wright in 1987. Maxis specializes mainly in simulation games, including the incredibly successful SimCity and The Sims series. The studio was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997. Its Emeryville studio was shut down in March 2015.

1st Logo (1987-1992)

Logo: TBA.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Rare. Seen on Amiga games from the company.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (1992-April 26, 2011)

Logo: There is a crescent, facing towards the upper-left. The name is placed over it, reading "M A X I S".

FX/SFX: Mostly none, but some games have custom animated variants.

Variants:

• On SimCity 3000, the text appears first, and then the crescent appears afterward, before they both fade out. This is all set on the opening scene of the game.
• On the PlayStation version of A-Train: Trains, Power, Money, the word ''Presents'', in a gray 3D font, appears under the logo.
• On Sid Myer's SimGolf, the EA Games logo rotates to the Maxis crescent as the word appears letter-by-letter from the left. This is all set in a cloudy scene. It then fades out as a blimp with the Fraxis Games logo flies from the right. The byline appears below in a tiny font.
• On Sims titles from The Sims Superstar to The Sims 2: Pets, the logo is in 3D. On The Sims 2 and all expansions until Pets, the logo is much larger than the byline.
• On Spore, after the EA logo turns into a black hole, various items associated with the game get sucked into it, including the Maxis logo.
• On the Nintendo DS version of Spore Creatures, the logo is blue.
• On DarkSpore, the logo is formed on an old machine of sorts.
• There is an early animated logo, which shows the Earth with "MAXIS" unfolding over it, and the Moon coming to leave the crescent.
• From 2000 to 2006, the byline "Maxis is an Electronic Arts Brand" appears on the bottom of the logo.

Music/Sounds: None, or the opening theme of the game. On The Sims (from the Livin' Large to Unleashed packs), a crowd cheering is heard over this and the EA Games logo.

Availability: Seen on multiple simulation games, including SimCity 2000, The Sims, SimCity 4 and The Sims 2 (until the Pets expansion pack). The last game with this logo was Darkspore.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (June 25, 2012-)

Logo: On a white background, we see a white sphere which opens up as various colored particles come out, alongside the maxis text. The sphere then turns into the cresent, which is different from the last logo, being formed to the upper right direction instead of the left and the I being part of it.

FX/SFX: The logo forming.

Variants:

• On SimCity 2013, the EA logo turns into the sphere and the animation then plays as normal. The logo then zooms into the opening.
• On The Sims 4, it's the same animation as above, but the logo simply fades out as the logo for the game then appears.

Music/Sounds: TBA.

Availability: Seen on the infamous 2013 reboot of SimCity, The Sims 3 from Patch 50 onwards and The Sims 4.

Editor's Note: None.