Company History (Hub)

Reader Note: This is basically our site's Wikipedia-style page for the company history of 270sims, and thus will be laid out as such. Please refer to the References section at the end of the page for the direct sources for each section.

## *Hotpot Software* Era (2000-2004)

The very first iteration of *270sims,* *Hotpot Software* was launched sometime before the year 2000 and would make it's mark on political-electoral simulation titles with the first game in the company's history, *President 2000*. While there is no physical evidence when President '00 was truly released, the earliest we know of it being around is August 15, 2000. Earliest known screenshots of a 270sims-origin product in *President 2000* also originate from this website, as the "Preview" page shows several. Besides HPS's earlier work, "Game of Work" (which has no information on it that we as a website can personally confirm), no other HPS games were released, although there were supposed rumors of a second Game of Work game before April 2001. With the next jump in time to April 21st, HPS's next game, Crumby & Co, would already be released. Crumby & Co can be personally searched through by the website owners, so it has a fully-fledged out page here, unlike older 270sims products (if we ever decide to expand it, lol). The very first reference archived to a *Forever* title was on December 24, 2003-with the update on the HPS website to the newest product, President Forever. This would bee the last release of a HPS product before the next iteration of the company that summer.

According to the "About Us" page on *Eighty Dimensional Software'*s website, Hotpot Software was founded by Anthony Burgoyne and Raven Kopelman in 2000, and the following games were made by the studio before the transition to EDS/80soft: *Game of Work* (2000), *President 2000* (2000), *Crumby & Co.* (2001), and *President Forever* (2003) before the rebranding and transition to Eighty Dimensional Software in 2004.

## *Eighty Dimensional Software* Era (2004-2007)

Although following the Hotpot Software along to Eighty Dimensional Software's website would lead one to believe that the first origin of the company came in July of 2004, the real first archival date of EDS was on June 19, 2004. From here on out, we will refer to the company as either 80soft or "EDS" - the former was known well as it appears on the website header.

On both iterations of the site, the news ticker for the company was proud to announce the official release of the first non-American Election Simulator, Prime Minister Forever - Canada, which mainly focused on the 2004 Canadian Parliamentary elections. The home page as of June 20 mentioned that "...An Australian version is slated to be released in mid-July.", referring to an Australian-based release of *Prime Minister Forever*. This would also hearald the first time *President Forever* would be given a number after the name, referring to the next election that fall in the United States with the new name of "President Forever - 2004". This would also mark a total flip-flop on the naming convention, a mark which would continue to follow the company until the modern day. By June 30, there were official Updates sections for the two main 80soft properties, which could be found at the bottom of the page just above the "About Us" link. A note should also be made that, as the months dragged on from June, a promised Australian expansion for PM4E-Canada was pushed further back into the coming fall, and these delays were noted as each month approached and passed.

The day of release would finally come for 80soft's next product, and with it came a slight redesign for the site. Only noticeable if you were carefully studying the site each day, this change only added headers for Welcome, a slight rewrite for that section, and other small changes. However, one big change was clear: the release of *Prime Minister Forever - Australia*, which was released on September 23, 2004. Being the second non-US election simulator (and according to the images on the home screen), PM4E-Australia was a reskin of Canada, with a copy-and-paste of the Parliamentary System debuted in Canada. In what would become a weird regular staple for future releases, the devs threw in a free Canada - 2004 scenario into each purchase of PM4E - Australia.

The first big change for 80soft website-wide came on October 10, saved in the President Forever page. This would reflect the later design of the 2010s-era 270soft website, where a main banner-thread would occupy the upper portion of the website, which would simplify navigation of an ever-growing catalog of products created by the company. Also of note is that this marked the first time the Forums for the company were first advertised directly on the website. The Forums were around at least by September 1st (although there is evidence that the forums existed at least one week prior to 9/01/04). A limited supply of pages can be found on Wayback starting here.

## *270sims* Era (2023-present)

With the rebranding of 270sims would also occur the complete rebranding of the website, Forums, and Campaigns website.

1. ↑ Hotpot Software Home Page, August 15, 2000.
2. ↑ President 2000 Preview Page, August 17, 2000.
3. ↑ Hotpot Software Home Page, April 21, 2001.
4. ↑ Hotpot Software Home Page, December 24, 2003.
5. ↑ About Us - Eighty Dimensional Software as of June 20, 2004.
6. ↑ 80soft.com Home Page, July 23, 2004.
7. ↑ 80soft.com Home Page, June 19, 2004.
8. ↑ Prime Minister Forever - Canada Home Page - June 19, 2004.
9. ↑ 80soft Home Page as of June 30, 2004.
10. ↑ 80soft Home Page as of September 24, 2004.
11. ↑ President Forever Main Page as of October 10, 2004.
12. ↑ 80soft Forums as of September 1, 2004.