World War II Special

World War II was once a topic for games that were aimed at a limited group of fans. There were two main categories, war games and simulators. SSI, a publishing company now owned by Ubi Soft, dominated the market for quite a while with its Panzer General (1994) and Steel Panthers (1995). The competition was timid. Avalon Hill, famous publisher of war games based on maps and individual soldiers, adapted its V for Victory games for the PC, and Talonsoft launched Battleground Bulge, the first episode in a series that would abandon World War II for the conflicts of the nineteenth century. It was not until 1997/ 98, with the publication of East Front, West Front, Rising Sun and then the fabulous

Operational Art of War that Talonsoft posed a real challenge to SSI. Yet, to universal surprise, it was Microsoft that opened the way to the mass-market war game with Close Combat in 1996. The game was taken over by SSI, which had not issued a major strategy game for quite a while, after the fourth episode. The war game genre for specialists was not dead, as more were to come, such as Steel Panthers World At War (Matrix Games), which is now celebrating its 7.1 version, and Airborne Assault, published by Focus Home Interactive, which has just hit the stores.

With series such as Steel Panthers and Panzer General, SSI long dominated the market for PC-based war games.