Firebird

Firebird

Founded	1984
Closed	1989
Headquarters	London, UK
Manager	Britisch Telecommunications plc.
Employees
Key People (choice)
Turnover
Sector	Computer and video games
Website
Information	1989: Takeover by Microprose.

Firebird, Rainbird, Firebird Silver and Silverbird are labels of Telecomsoft (British Telecommunications plc.) with this address: "Silverbird Software, 1st Floor, 64-76 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1PS".

Firebird was founded about 1984 by Telecomsoft, who didn't want to miss out on the computer games market. With the Firebird labels Telecomsoft zeroed in on the pocket money of the young target audience. In this target group Firebird was very successful. The quality of the Firebird games was consistently good. Even games that were released as budget titles, were often very good games. Firebird achieved a high profile with the game Elite. In 1989 Telecomsoft was taken over by Microprose.

Firebird[edit | edit source]

Firebird published its games over two labels Firebird Silver and Firebird Gold. Firebird Silver stood for budget games while Firebird Gold stood for full price games. One hoped to be able to make a name for oneself below the younger target group by selling cheap but good games. The Firebird Silver games were offered for £2.50 in Great Britain and for about 9,95DM in Germany. The Firebird Gold games had a starting price of £5.95 in Great Britain.

Firebird was accepted so well that the prices for the Gold publications were raised to £9.95. In 1986 Firebird Silver publications were offered as Firebird Super Silver for a short time at a price of £1.99. Later the label Firebord Hot was added, under which the expensive Firebird games were published once again in the middle price segment. After the takeover by Microprose the Firebird label was closed a short time later.

Rainbird[edit | edit source]

In 1986 Rainbird was founded. In contrast to the many arcade games of the 8-bit area, Rainbird tried to create complex games, mainly for the Amiga and Atari ST. For 8-bit computers, Rainbird released some high-class games and applications.

Rainbird developed good contacts with game developers within a very short time, which resulted in a constant flow of games. Microprose published some games under the Rainbird label after the takeover before the label was closed.

Silverbird[edit | edit source]

In 1987, the whole concept was thrown out. Firebird Silver became Silverbird and the games from the middle price segment and full price segment were now offered by Silverbird. Silverbird games for 8-bit computers were offered for £1.99 and £2.99. 16-bit titles were partially offered for up to £9.99. The price could already be recognized by the packing. Silverbird reissued previous full price titles as budget offerings.

The label Silverbird was sold to the British publisher Tudor Enterprises after the takeover by Microprose. They published a games collection with known Silverbird titles and a handful of further games before Silverbird was closed.