Access Software was founded in 1982 by Bruce Carver and Chris Jones. The company became popular for developing the "Links" and "Tex Murphy" series, as well as other critically acclaimed games. In 1999, Access was acquired by Microsoft and became part of Microsoft Game Studios under the "Salt Lake Games Studio" name. In 2003 it was renamed again to "Indie Games".

In October 2004, Microsoft sold the development studio to Take-Two Interactive and it took on the name Indie Built. In April, 2006, Take-Two shut down the studio without stating any reasons.