Firebird (software label)

Telecomsoft was the computer software division of British telecommunications company British Telecom. It was the owner of the Firebird and Rainbird labels, under which it sold video games.

Telecomsoft was founded in 1984 when computer games were the fastest growing sector within the computer software market at the time.

Three publishing labels were initially established within Telecomsoft, each with its own marketing strategy, although some of them would later fragment to form a number of sub-labels. The Firebird label would be Telecomsoft's primary identity. Although initially set up to publish a range of budget titles, Firebird later evolved into a full price label. As a consequence the Silverbird label was formed to continue publishing the budget range. As the Atari ST and Amiga home computers grew in popularity, the Rainbird label was established to give the more complex 16-bit titles a unique brand identity, although it was also used to publish a number of high-profile 8-bit games and application software. In 1985 Telecomsoft opened the US operation which published product under licence on IBM PC. Apple II and IIe, C64 as well as Atari and Amiga titles. The US operation was opened who published the first UK product 'Elite' to the No1 spot on the Billboard charts in May 1986.

Telecomsoft was viable for only a short period of time and was acquired by MicroProse in 1989. The US-based publisher sold the Silverbird label soon after acquisition, but continued to use the Rainbird and Firebird labels for a short period..

Firebird was the first computer game label to be set up at Telecomsoft. It had earlier been named Firefly Software, but was then renamed by James Leavey, shortly after he arrived from mainstream BT to take over as the label's marketing and PR manager. Leavey did this because he found that the original name was not fully protected.

Initially there were two prices: Firebird Silver would release budget titles priced at £2.50 whereas Firebird Gold would release more prestigious titles at £5.95. The Firebird label was aimed at a teenage market, hoping to entice young spenders to spend their pocket money on good quality, low-priced games rather than records and comics.

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