MicroProse Software, Inc.

MicroProse Software, Inc. was founded by Sid Meier and Bill Stealey in 1982, after the two had met working at General Instrument, a large electronic component manufacturer. They shared a passion for games, and Meier would design the games while Stealey would take care of marketing and administrative duties.

In the initial years, the company focused on combat flight simulators and military strategy games. 1990 marked an important turning point with the release of Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon, the first non-destructive god game for the company. This contrasted with the military-oriented view of the other founder, Bill Stealey, who wanted to enter the market of home game consoles and arcade video games, which Sid Meier did not like. In the meantime, Stealey had bought out Meier and Sid Meier had become a private contractor, working exclusively for the company. He received money up front, more when the game delivered and royalties on each sold copy.

MicroProse continued to back Sid Meier's games, yet they wanted him to work on other types of games as well, delaying the release of Sid Meier's Civilization, which Sid was working on most of the time. When the game was finally released, favorable reviews and some great marketing by Fred Schmidt, VP Marketing, gave the game a major boost, surprising management and the creators themselves.

In the meantime, the firm was sinking into a hole of debt. They released 2 arcade games in the 1990s which did not fare well, leading to an IPO for cash. In 1993, Stealey approached Gilman Louie, head of Spectrum Holobyte, Inc., and asked him to buy MicroProse rather than letting it fall into unknown hands. After the acquisition, eventually Bill Stealey left and founded Interactive Magic in 1994. After a major staff cut in 1996 and consolidation of internal studios (including the disbanding of the MPS Labs division), Sid Meier left the company with Brian Reynolds and Jeff Briggs and founded Firaxis Games. Soon afterwards, Spectrum Holobyte would rename itself MicroProse (possibly known internally as MicroProse Alameda).

Noted legal issues occurred in 1997 over the Civilization license, as the company Avalon Hill published the board game of the same name in North America. MicroProse would acquire the board game's rightsholder, Hartland Trefoil, on 2 December 1997, solidifying their ownership of the license. However, at the same time, they would dispute with Activision due to the latter's Civilization: Call to Power game that was in development. The issue was settled on 14 July 1998, permitting Activision to use the Civilization name for only one game and preventing Avalon Hill any further licensing.

On 5 October 1997, GT Interactive approached to acquire MicroProse, but the deal was cancelled on 5 December 1997 over disagreements in handling financial compensations to developers. On 12 August 1998, the company received a tender offer for acquisition by Hasbro Interactive, which was completed on 15 September 1998. The company name was retained under Hasbro Interactive's ownership. On 7 December 1999, the Alameda and Chapel Hill studios were shut down as part of Hasbro Interactive's restructuring; they were working on Master of Magic 2 and X-COM: Genesis, respectively, both of which were cancelled.

MicroProse ceased to exist as a label when Hasbro was acquired by Infogrames in 2001. However, the internal development studio in Hunt Valley would release two more games, X-COM: Enforcer and Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes, before closing on 5 November 2003.

The company used the publishing label Microplay Software for externally-developed games.

The name and brand were acquired by Interactive Game Group in 2007, eventually bought and reused by MicroProse Software Pty Ltd as of 2019. They would only acquire select intellectual properties of the original MicroProse (including Carrier Command, B-17 Flying Fortress and eventually Falcon).