Microïds: Information from Answers.com

Microïds

Type	Corporation
Founded	1984
Founder(s)	Elliot Grassiano (Microïds 1984)
Headquarters	Montrouge, Paris, France Montréal, Canada and formerly Milan, Italy
Key people	Emmanuel Olivier (CEO of MC2 France)
Industry	Computer and video game industry
Employees	150+ (95 in Montréal) (as of Feb 2004)^[1]
Parent	MC2 France
Divisions	Microïds Montreal Microïds Paris
Website	The official Microïds website

Microïds (also known as MC2-Microïds) is a French software company who publishes and develops video games. Since 2003 they have been part of MC2 France, and the Microïds brand was relaunched in late 2007.

1 History
- 1.1 MC2 France
2 Games
3 Former logos
4 References
5 External links

History

Microïds was founded in 1985 by Elliot Grassiano. For the first 10 years, Microïds was a development house, but in 1995 they expanded into publishing and distribution as well.^[2] Microïds France at this time was located in Vélizy (near Paris), France. The company also then expanded worldwide with a publisher in Milan, Italy (Microïds Italy), distributor in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom (Microïds Ltd) and a developer in Montréal, Canada (Microïds Canada Inc.).

MC2 France

Main article: MC2 France

In 2003, Emmanuel Olivier (founder of Index+) created a new company called MC2 France which subsequently merged with Microïds. In September 2003 MC2-Microïds acquired Wanadoo Edition as part of a deal with the French government for Microïds to emerge from bankruptcy protection. As part of the deal, Wanadoo also became a 12% shareholder of Microïds.^[3] Emmanuel Olivier became CEO when Elliot Grassiano left the company.

In March 2005 Ubisoft announced their intention to acquire MC2-Microïds (Microïds Canada) and to integrate it into Ubisoft's Montreal studios.^[4] This deal only included fifty of MC2-Microïds' employees and technical equipment^{[verification needed]}; however, the agreement did not include any transfer of intellectual property.^[5] Microïds Italy split off from the company in 2005, turning into the Italian publisher Blue Label Entertainment.^[6]

On November 28, 2007 MC2 France officially relaunched the Microïds brand^[7], with all of the company's future productions to be released either under the MICROÏDS Montreal or MICROÏDS Paris brands. The headquarters of the company are in Montrouge a suburb of Paris and they have a development studio in Montreal, Canada, hence the two brands. In December 2007 they opened an online store, powered by Metaboli.

On 20 October 2008 Microïds acquired the brands and intellectual property of Cryo Interactive, who had been declared bankrupt in 2002.^[8] On 5 November the Microïds online store was improved and relaunched.^[9]

On 23 November 2009 Anuman Interactive announced that they were acquiring the mark of and all the associated licences of Microïds.^[10] The Microïds deal with MC2 will be complete on 1 January 2010.^[11]

Games

Main article: List of Microïds games

MC2-Microïds is well known for the development of the adventure games including Syberia, Syberia II, Post Mortem and its sequel Still Life. Other notable games that Microïds has produced include Far Gate and the Nicky Boum series of action games for the Commodore Amiga.

In 2007 Microïds announced that it was working on a number of games in collaboration with various development studios such as Elektrogames, Kheops Studio, Mzone Studio, TOTM Studio, and White Birds Productions. Still Life 2 was also announced to be developed by GameCo Studios. New games are also being developed for Apple Macintosh computers.^[12] In 2008 Microïds announced they had entered into a publishing agreement with Encore (part of Navarre Corporation), where Encore would publish Microïds entire catalogue in North America.^[13] This deal was extended in August where Legacy Interactive would distribute Microïds adventure video games as digital downloads in North America.^[14] A deal with cdv Software Entertainment to distribute games such as Still Life 2 in France was announced in April 2009.^[15]