Every Sid Meier game: 106 in the credits, but he only led the first numbered Civilization

Sid Meier is credited on 106 games, going by MobyGames. He designed 34 of them himself, alone or with one partner, between 1982 and 2015. The rest are games that carry his name as a brand, or Firaxis games where he is listed as creative director. Civilization is the clearest case: of the seven numbered entries, he personally led only the first one, from 1991. That is his own account, not mine. On 31 July 2026 he told Variety that every Civ game "has been really led by a different designer", because after one of them "your brain is fried".

Below is every game in order: what Meier actually did on each one, who led it, how critics and players received it and where you can buy it today. I checked the roles against MobyGames credits and the Wikipedia pages of the individual games. Review scores come from Metacritic, Steam reviews and prices were taken on 8 October 2026. The full table and three charts are near the end.

1982-1986: 15 games in five years, mostly about planes

Meier studied computer science at the University of Michigan and worked as a programmer at a company that made cash register systems. That is where he met Bill Stealey, a former Air Force pilot, and in 1982 the two of them founded MicroProse. His first commercial game actually came out through another publisher: Formula 1 Racing for the Atari 800, released by Acorn Software. Stealey counts Hellcat Ace as the first MicroProse game, Meier has named Chopper Rescue. Both are from 1982.

Then came a production line. Spitfire Ace, Floyd of the Jungle, NATO Commander, Solo Flight, Air Rescue, F-15 Strike Eagle, Silent Service, two war strategy games with Ed Bever (Crusade in Europe and Decision in the Desert) and Conflict in Vietnam. On most of them his name is alone in the credits: design, code, sometimes graphics too. According to his memoir, Silent Service was the first time he brought an artist, Michael Haire, onto one of his games.

Gunship (1986) often gets credited to him in full. He was one of three programmers there; the design was by Arnold Hendrick and Andy Hollis. On Kennedy Approach his credit reads "Product Concept", which means the idea and not much more.

Pirates!, 1987: the first box with "Sid Meier's" in the title

The name on the box was not Meier's idea. Bill Stealey told Kotaku in 2013 that at a Software Publishers Association dinner, Robin Williams advised him to turn Sid into a star and put his name on the cover. "And that's how Sid's name got on Pirates, and Civilization," Stealey said. Sid Meier's Pirates! from 1987 was the first game with the prefix, and the prefix has had a life of its own ever since.

Pirates! threw everything in at once: sea battles, sword fights, trading, hunting for lost relatives and courting governors' daughters. The shot below is from Pirates! Gold (1993), a remake for newer computers. Its designer is listed as Paul Murphy; Meier is credited only for the original.

1988-1990: F-19, Covert Action and Railroad Tycoon

1988 brought two games at once: F-19 Stealth Fighter, where he was lead designer, and Red Storm Rising, based on the Tom Clancy novel and co-designed with Hendrick (the C64 version even credits him for music and sound effects). Of F-19 he later said that everything he thought was cool about a flight simulator had gone into that game. F-15 Strike Eagle II in 1989 he already made together with Andy Hollis.

On Sword of the Samurai (1989) Meier's credit is "Additional Programming"; the design is Lawrence Schick's. 1990 gave us Covert Action, a spy game with lockpicking, wiretaps and codebreaking that he designed with Bruce Shelley, and Railroad Tycoon. That one he wrote himself, and you never fire a shot in it: you lay track and count money.

Covert Action sells on Steam as a Classic edition for $6.99 ($1.04 on sale on 8 October), with 90% positive reviews out of 171. The 1990 Railroad Tycoon is not sold anywhere.

Civilization, 1991: one year and three people

The first Civilization prototype was not turn-based. In the same Variety interview, Meier recalls that it was "much more SimCity-ish": you zoned areas and watched what grew. By his account the game was made "in a year with three people", and he shared the design with Bruce Shelley. Civilization came out on DOS in 1991, later on Amiga, Atari ST, Mac, SNES and PlayStation.

The first Civilization has no Metacritic score, because the site did not exist in 1991. Steam and GOG do not sell it. The closest thing today is the free Freeciv, which grew out of the first two games.

1993-1996: his name keeps travelling without him

Around 1990 Meier and Stealey had argued about whether MicroProse should move into arcade machines. Meier sold his half of the company to his partner but stayed on. In 1993 MicroProse merged with Spectrum HoloByte, and games with his name started arriving in batches. Pirates! Gold and Railroad Tycoon Deluxe (1993) are remakes. The Deluxe credits do list him for design and programming, but Wikipedia states outright that he had nothing to do with that version. Most likely the lines were carried over from the original.

Colonization (1994) is also usually filed as his game. Brian Reynolds led and programmed it, with Meier as co-designer. On Steam it is now the best-loved game in this whole story: 96% positive out of 1,159 reviews, for $6.99. His own project from those years was something else entirely. C.P.U. Bach for the 3DO (1994) generates Bach-style music on the fly; he built it with Jeff Briggs and got a patent for the music generator. It sold poorly.

Civilization II arrived in 1996. Brian Reynolds led it with Douglas Kaufman and Jeff Briggs, and Meier's credit is "Original Civilization Design". Reynolds described Meier's input as sitting down, brainstorming and hashing out ideas, "that's about it". In 2026 Meier admitted to Variety that he had argued with Reynolds about mods, thinking his game was perfect. Then: "He was right, and I was wrong."

Firaxis, 1997-1999: Gettysburg!, Alpha Centauri and Antietam!

In 1996 Meier, Briggs and Reynolds left MicroProse and founded Firaxis. The studio's first game was Gettysburg! (1997), a real-time tactics game about the Civil War battle, with Meier as lead designer and lead programmer. It holds a 92 on Metacritic, though from only seven reviews. Antietam!, about another battle of the same war, followed with an 82. It came out on 13 December 1999, not in 1998 as some lists say. Neither game is on Steam or GOG today.

Alpha Centauri (February 1999) is almost always called a Meier game. Reynolds was lead designer; Meier wrote prototype code with him and is credited for design and programming. It scores 92 on Metacritic from 19 reviews, and plenty of people still rank it above any Civilization. It only reached Steam in 2024: the Planetary Pack with the Alien Crossfire expansion costs $4.99 and sits at 90% positive.

2002-2008: SimGolf, the new Pirates!, Railroads! and Revolution

The early 2000s may be Meier's most personal stretch. SimGolf (2002) he came up with together with Bing Gordon of EA: you build a golf resort, design holes and watch your guests play. It scored 84 on Metacritic and is not sold digitally. Pirates! (2004) is a remake of his own 1987 game, and this time he is back as designer and programmer. The PC version has an 88 on Metacritic and 94.5% positive out of 7,594 Steam reviews, for $9.99.

Railroads! (2006) was his return to trains after 1990. Railroad Tycoon II and 3 in between were made by PopTop and do not carry his name, although the credits of the second one mention the original design. Railroads! got 77 on Metacritic and 71% on Steam, the weakest of his railroad games.

Civilization Revolution (2008) he made for consoles, and 2K sold it as "Sid Meier's first game for next generation consoles". It is a Civilization you finish in a couple of hours, rated 85 on PS3 and 84 on Xbox 360. There has never been a PC version.

2011-2015: CivWorld, Ace Patrol and Starships, his last own game

CivWorld (2011) was Civilization for Facebook, with Meier as designer. It shut down in May 2013. Ace Patrol (2013), turn-based World War I dogfighting, launched on iPhone first and then on PC. He told PocketGamer.biz that he did most of the gameplay code himself, and the credits also list him as "Face Talent", which means his face was used for one of the characters. The PC version has a 71 on Metacritic, the iOS one an 80.

Ace Patrol: Pacific Skies (November 2013) is often listed as his design, but in its credits he is only creative director. Civilization Revolution 2 (2014) was made together with 2K China, and his design line there refers to the first Revolution. I count both as uncertain.

Sid Meier's Starships came out on 12 March 2015, and it remains the last game where he is designer, programmer and writer at once. Turn-based fleet battles between planets, 64 on Metacritic, 50% positive out of 2,475 Steam reviews. No new Meier game has come out since, and as of 8 October 2026 there is no public announcement either.

Civilization III-VII: who actually led them

Every numbered game after the second was led by someone else. Civilization III (2001) by Jeff Briggs and Soren Johnson, IV (2005) by Soren Johnson, V (2010) by Jon Shafer, VI (2016) and VII (2025) by Ed Beach. Beyond Earth (2014) by Will Miller and David McDonough. In the credits of these games only Meier's job title changes: "Original Civilization Designed By" in III, "Chief Creative Officer" in IV, "Creative Director" in V and VI, "Director, Creative Development" in VII.

These are the games at the top of the Metacritic list: 94 for II and IV, 90 for III and V, 88 for VI. The sequel rule Meier describes in interviews is Firaxis's "one-third, one-third, one-third": a third classic mechanics, a third improved ones and a third new.

Civilization VII launched on 11 February 2025 on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One and Switch, on Switch 2 on 5 June that year, and on Apple Arcade on 5 February 2026. On Steam it sits at 47% positive out of 62,519 reviews, the worst of any Civ game that is on Steam. Firaxis keeps working on it: on 19 May 2026 the free 1.4 update, Test of Time, let you play a whole match as a single civilization without switching ages. The first paid expansion, Earthrise, is announced for 2027.

XCOM and Midnight Suns: not on the box, but in the credits

There is also the reverse case. Meier is credited as creative director on XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012), Enemy Within (2013), XCOM 2 (2016), War of the Chosen (2017) and Chimera Squad (2020), and Marvel's Midnight Suns (2022) gives him the same title he has on Civilization VII. None of them has his name in the title. Lists of "Sid Meier games" usually skip them, even though on paper his involvement is the same as on Civilization V or VI.

Then there are the thank-you lines. He appears under special thanks in Age of Empires, The Sims and Freeciv, and MobyGames counts those too. That is how you get to 106.

Games people wrongly credit to him

Even Wikipedia's category "Video games designed by Sid Meier" includes Civilization IV-VII and Beyond Earth, although the articles about those games name other designers. Lists built from that category inherit its mistakes.

How he explains his own games

His best-known line is that a game is a series of interesting decisions. He first said it at GDC in 1989, and in 2012 he gave a whole talk about it. The recording below is from the GDC channel. If you watch only one video from this article, make it this one.

In 1994 Computer Gaming World wrote that Meier keeps the fun parts of a simulation and throws out the rest. That is the easiest way to see why his own games are so different from each other: a submarine, golf, Bach, pirates. What ties them together is not the genre but the fact that you are choosing something every minute.

The full table: every Sid Meier game

The table leaves out re-releases, expansions, the 2008 mobile licences and games where he only appears under special thanks. Years are for the first platform.

Charts: decades, Metacritic and Steam

The first chart counts only two groups: games of his own design and games that carry his name but someone else's design. The XCOM creative director credits and Civilization Revolution 2 are not included.

The Metacritic scores below are for the PC versions. The older games have few reviews (seven each for Gettysburg! and Civilization II), so treat a comparison with Civilization VII and its 105 reviews with care.

Where to start if you want his own games

More from this series: every Hans Zimmer game, where the credits also list more than he wrote himself, and every Steven Spielberg game, the man who came up with Medal of Honor.

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