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As we get the next hotfix patch ready and continue to work on upcoming release V1032, we make a little pause in development for a major announcement: BlackFoot Studios has officially partnered with MicroProse, now the actual publisher for GROUND BRANCH!

Having left a very big mark in the industry, the MicroProse name is no stranger to fans of strategy and simulation—or, in fact, just about any player old enough to remember many of the titles published and developed by the company throughout most of the ’80s and ’90s: from Civilization, Pirates! and X-COM all the way to its myriad combat flight sims like Falcon 4.0.

Founded by retired USAF pilot Bill Stealey and programmer (and now legendary developer) Sid Meier, the company has gone through several acquisitions and changes before being purchased and revived in 2019—almost 20 years after it was last associated with a game—by David Lagettie, owner of TitanIM. You can learn more about MicroProse’s history and revival in this article.

Here is the announcement trailer their team put together with some footage and assistance from our community manager Prowlaz and his UN1T team, as well as creators Karmakut, Controlled Pairs and Ceb Cin. Soundtrack is by community member mrbombastic:

What does this mean for GROUND BRANCH?

Only good things. We’ve had plenty of rough patches over the years, and MicroProse brings us some much-needed stability as development continues in earnest towards v1.0. The MicroProse crew will also be handling a good chunk of the marketing and helping us extend our reach not only to their established community, but also to new audiences out there. That means expanding the player base, generating more funding for development, and getting to where we want to be a little faster.

Is BlackFoot Studios selling out?

Not at all. Even if we had not retained complete creative freedom and full rights to the GROUND BRANCH franchise—which we have!—MicroProse has been taking a pretty hands-off approach to all titles under its brand, ensuring not only the integrity of the developers’ core vision, but also of the company’s legacy:

Sid [Meier] always said you need to make games with limited information, that are time critical with significant outcomes, and reward players that made the right decisions. […] It’s real enough that you feel you actually accomplish something, and not because you got a power-up.

—Bill Stealey (co-founder, former CEO, and currently a consultant for MicroProse) for GamesIndustry.biz

As you can tell from the quote above, GROUND BRANCH fits right into MicroProse’s ecosystem.

Sneak peek: upcoming maps

As part of the partnership announcement, MicroProse has uploaded a whole bunch of brand-new screenshots to their website, including many from a still unannounced map. Below is just a little tease—you can check out the full gallery here.

MicroProse Community

If you’re an old fan of MicroProse or just a big strategy or simulation buff, be sure to join their growing Discord community right here!

To learn more about all of the games currently under the MicroProse brand, follow this link.

We’re thrilled to announce that GROUND BRANCH has finally arrived on Steam Early Access and is now available for everyone to play, get in on development, and help us make it the game we all want it to be.

So if you are among those who have not yet had a taste of GB, go ahead and grab it straight from Steam or—if you would also like to donate or buy multiple keys to gift friends—from our STORE, where you can purchase with PayPal via a secure SendOwl gateway.

We would like to say a huge thanks to all our existing community for all the support and feedback over the years, and to those who are about to join in: Welcome to GROUND BRANCH. We hope you enjoy your stay!