EA Shuts Down SimCity Developer Maxis

[Zorua]

EA has shut down Maxis Emeryville, the main Maxis studio and longrunning developer behind SimCity and Spore, among other games. Though the Maxis brand will carry on, the studio that most people knew as "Maxis" is no more.

"Today we are consolidating Maxis IP development to our studios in Redwood Shores, Salt Lake City, Helsinki and Melbourne locations as we close our Emeryville location," an EA representative said in a statement.2

Kotaku

Welp. This isn't much of a surprise after the fiascos that were Sims 4 and SimCity. RIP Maxis.

 

[smilodon]

Spore could have been one of the best simulator game ever. EA killed it.

Sim city 5 could have been one of the best city builder ever. EA killed it.

Maxis could have been one of the best company ever. EA killed it.

 

[Sicklyboy]

Maxis could have been one of the best company ever. EA killed it.

Let's not say things we can't take back, now...

 

[stanleyopar2000]

WOW...because Maxis's projects failing were TOTALLY their fault.

someone is passin' the fuckin' buck for their multiple goddamn mistakes.

 

[raulpica]

Gotta admit, the best The Sims was the first. The Sims 2 was okay, The Sims 3 a good rehash and The Sims 4 is just the same old story.

People can't bait for the same stuff 3 times in a row.

Except for FIFA, Madden and Call of Duty, I suppose.

 

[Vengenceonu]

People can't bait for the same stuff 3 times in a row.

Except for FIFA, Madden and Call of Duty, I suppose.

You forgot any game that uses breasts physics.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Pretty much what rauly said. Early Sims games were pretty good, but they lost their charm ages ago.

Though I will say I enjoyed Spore a ton, so that's a shame it might not get any follow up titles. But meh, oh well.

 

[raulpica]

You forgot any game that uses breasts physics.

There's no need for such a question if you already know the answer. Everyone likes boobs.

 

[migles]

Spore could have been one of the best simulator game ever. EA killed it.

Sim city 5 could have been one of the best city builder ever. EA killed it.

Maxis could have been one of the best company ever. EA killed it.

why you skipped sims 4 could be the best life simulator but ea killed it..
that shit is so incomplete, well i was to make a joke but nothing is more higher than "ea published it"

 

[Taleweaver]

It's the best decision, really. I know EA is the usual scapegoat because all of the issues, but let's be blunt here: maxis agreed on those. And whether it's because they didn't knew better or were downright forced into it by EA doesn't really matter when the end result are games that are strictly worse than their predecessors (I'm talking both about simcity and the sims here).

It's certainly sad for the developers, but I doubt they'll remain unemployed for long (if at all). In the worst case, we'll see a simcity or the sims clone (with a different name 'cause EA own it) on kickstarter within a year.

I'm curious what kind of lessons EA will learn of this. Surely they'll understand that their yearly sports/COD 'update' won't remain a gold mine forever.


Oh, and...aren't there plenty of decent city building games by now? Cities XL, cities in motion, Anno, tropico...I'm not too familiar with these kinds of games, but I'm sure the loss of a future simcity game isn't much to mourn over when there are plenty of alternatives available (not sure about the sims, though).

 

[Bladexdsl]

yeah who cares about simcity it's replacement will be here soon