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, following the immerse technical failure of the 2013 SimCity reboot.

1st Logo (1987-1992)

Logo: We see "MAXIS" with a protruding "X" on a blue bar on a yellow-orange gradient sphere, with "Presents" in a playful font under it.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

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

2nd Logo (1992-April 26, 2011)

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

Variants:

• An early animated version exists, which shows the Earth with the Maxis wordmark unfolding and "SOFTWARE TOYS" in white fading in and out over it, and the Moon coming to leave the crescent.
• Another animated version has the camera slowly panning past the Earth and the Moon in space, with the Milky Way in its background. The crescent then appears on the Moon as the background fades to black, and the Maxis wordmark appears.
• On Widget Workshop, we see the stacked text "SOFTWARE TOYS FOR KIDS" between two wavy lines. The Maxis logo lands on it and stretches it, then it bounces back. "KIDS" then gets filled with dotted lines.
• On SimTunes, SimPark and SimSafari, the above variant misses the "SOFTWARE TOYS FOR" part and is still.
• On Marble Drop, the logo fades in on a white background, then fades to a chalk-drawn version of itself.
• On SimCity 3000, the text appears first, then the crescent appears afterward, before they both fade out. This is all set on the opening scene of the game.
• From 2000 to 2006, the byline "Maxis is an Electronic Arts Brand" appears on the bottom of the logo.
• On Sid Meier'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 Firaxis 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 all-blue Maxis logo.
• On the Nintendo DS version of Spore Creatures, the logo is blue.
• On the trailer for DarkSpore, the logo is a blue gradient. On the game, it is formed on a computer screen.

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

Music/Sounds: None, or the opening theme of the game.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• On The Sims (from the Livin' Large to Unleashed packs), a crowd cheering is heard over this and the EA Games logo.
• The early animated version has an uplifting orchestral theme playing over it.

Availability: Seen on multiple simulation games, including the original SimCity series and The Sims and its sequel (until the "Pets" expansion pack). The animated versions were seen on SimCity 2000 and Streets of SimCity. The last game with this logo was Darkspore.

3rd Logo (June 25, 2012-2022)

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 crescent, 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.

Variants:

• On the 2013 SimCity reboot, 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.

FX/SFX: The logo forming.

Music/Sounds: A bubbling sound with an ascending whoosh, then an echoing tap and a voice going "Yah!"

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

Editor's Note: With a new logo introduced by Maxis on March 19, 2022, this logo's days are numbered.