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Strategic Simulations, Inc.

Moby ID: 80

Overview edit · view history

When wargame giant Avalon Hill and then-current computer game publishers were not interested in his first title, Joel Billings had to found his own company to publish and distribute his computer wargames. SSI was the dominant force in computer wargames from then (1981) into the early 1990s, holding its own against Avalon Hill's own efforts and other competitors.

In the mid 1980s, two of SSI's more prolific developers left to form their own company, SSG. The split appears to have been at least as much a result of the two living in Australia as of any business or creative reasons.

In the late 1980s, SSI signed a deal with TSR, Inc., to publish official Dungeons and Dragons computer games. The "Gold Box" D&D games took the company in new directions. Although SSI never stopped publishing war games, the D&D license quickly became the main source of income and produced their best-known products.

The loss of the D&D license to Interplay was the swan song for SSI as an independent company. No longer dominant in their original wargame market and suddenly without their primary franchise, the company was acquired by Mindscape in 1994. It changed hands several times after that - from Mindscape to The Learning Company, Mattel Interactive, The Gores Group and finally to Ubi Soft. Ubi Soft used the SSI logo and name on some of their titles, including Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor and Destroyer Command, but has retired the brand around 2002.

Credited on 242 Games from 1980 to 2023

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Wargame Construction Set III: Age of Rifles 1846-1905 + Campaigns (2023 on Windows)
FlatOut (2004 on Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox...)
Destroyer Command (2002 on Windows)
Silent Hunter II (2001 on Windows)
Panzer General III: Scorched Earth (2000 on Windows)
Warlords: Battlecry (2000 on Windows)
Earth 2150 (2000 on Windows)
Close Combat: Invasion - Normandy: Utah Beach to Cherbourg (2000 on Windows)
Reach for the Stars (2000 on Windows)
Close Combat: The Battle of the Bulge (1999 on Windows)
Flanker 2.0 (1999 on Windows)
Panzer General 3D Assault (1999 on Windows)
Warhammer 40,000: Rites of War (1999 on Windows)
Fighting Steel: World War II Surface Combat 1939-1942 (1999 on Windows)
Imperialism II: The Age of Exploration (1999 on Windows, Macintosh)
The Warhammer Universe Strategy Game Collection (1999 on Windows)
Ultimate Wargame Collection Volume 2: World War II (1999 on Windows, DOS)
Ultimate Wargame Collection Volume 3: Modern Warfare (1999 on DOS, Windows)
Luftwaffe Commander: WWII Combat Flight Simulator (1998 on Windows)
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate (1998 on Windows)

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History +

1994

Purchased by Mindscape.

1987

The company acquires the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) license from TSR.

1979

Company founded by Joel Billings.

Trivia +

The company website was formerly located at http://www.ssionline.com/

Location and Contact information in Dec. 1994:

S.S.I.

675 Almanor Avenue, Suite 201

Sunnyvale, CA 94086-2901

Tel: 408-737-6800

Related Web Sites +

  • The History of SSI Games
    An SSI fansite which offers a bibliography of the company's releases, accompanied by summaries from the original product catalogs, as well as information on the SSI/TSR collaboration, a commentary on the company's tenure, and other additional information.

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