Jeff Braun is one of the famous American video game producers and co-founder of Maxis (The American Video Game Developer Company).
This video game producer met Will Wright (Co-Founder of Maxis and Video Game Designer) in a pizza party after successfully publishing Font Packs for Amiga Personal Computer. Jeff Braun already had this project of Jet Fighter simulation game ready to be published. After seeing the Will Wrights SimCity video game he thought of publishing both games as a new publisher will be more beneficiary act. As Will Wright is looking for a publisher for his game he agreed with Jeff Braun’s idea.
At that time Will Wright used to work at Broderbund, so Will Wright and Jeff Braun visited Broderbund to clear the rights of SimCity Video Game. Broderbund executives saw the SimCity game, understood its capacity and urged Braun and Wright to include them in the distribution deal, Jeff wanted to include Jet Fighter game in the deal and made a deal.
Jeff Braun and Will Wright found Maxis Video game developer company in 1987. The word Maxis is derived from his father’s suggestion of having two likewise words and every video games company should have the letter “X”.
SimCity is one of the most successful video games produced by Maxis, later on, they released a few series of SimCity video game.
SimCity, TheSims, SporeSim, SimEarth, SimAnt, SimLife, SimFarm, SimRefinery, SimTower, SimHealth, SimIsle, SimTown, SimPark, SimGolf, SimTunes, Sim Theme Park, SimSafari, SimCoaster, SidMeier’s, SimGolf, SimAnimals, etc… are few simulation video games successfully produced by Jeff Braun.
Jeff started a dedicated sales force to Maxis in taking the company public. In 1995 IPO took place and in 1997 after few setbacks, Maxis was sold to EA Arts for $125 Million, this deal made Jeff Braun the largest stakeholder in EA. Jeff Braun worked as the senior vice president of North America Studios from 1997 to 1999.
After selling Maxis to EA Arts, Braun continued his journey in investing different software and technology companies across the United States of America and Israel like MX Entertainment.
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