Firaxis+Microprose=BHG

[MarkG]

Replying to a newsgroup post, I browsed the Big Huge Games(BHG) site. I wanted to see how many ex-Firaxis people joing BHG. Here's the interesting result:

Brian Reynolds, Jason Coleman, Tim Train, David Inscore, Doug Kaufman and Jason Bestimt went to BHG from Firaxis

Bill Podurgiel, Nathan Wright and Rob Cloutier have a Microprose past.

And only one man in BHG, Paul Stephanouk, does not have anything to do with Firaxis or Microprose!

[TCO]

test

[Narck]

Well, isn't that something that could have been expected? These people all knew each other and decided to create a new company. Now, what would have been really strange is when they would have all come from different companies

[TCO]

test complete

[Zealot]

Well, I belive that two great companies are competing for the best strategy games. Firaxis for TBS and BHG for RTS. Good for us, addicts!
Nevertheless, Microprose alone (well, Bullfrog too...) published the best Strategy games for the first half of the 90's. I'll never forget games like Civilization, Master of Orion, X-COM and Pizza Tycoon (I never played Railroad Tycoon :P)! So I hope that quality games continue to appear like those (above) created by geniuses who worked for microprose!

[lord of the mark]

IIUC, also all of these firms are in the Baltimore area. (when sid and Brian left MPS they stayed in the area, and when Brian and Tim Train left Firaxis they stayed in the area)

This would partly account for the hiring pattern at BHG. Far easier to hire someone to a new enterprise who already lives in baltime than to hire someone from elsewhere (eg Ensemble Studios in Texas)