EA Closing Down Maxis's Main Studio

StewShearerOld

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Jan 5, 2013
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EA Closing Down Maxis's Main Studio

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/MaxisGuillaume/status/573203901081509888]

In an a move to consolidate its studios Electronic Arts has announced that it will be closing down Maxis.

One of the sad truths of the video game industry is that game studios close down and disappear all the time. That being the case, there are still moments when you see certain names coupled with the words "shut down" and can't help but feel a bit saddened.

Case in point, Electronic Arts has announced at GDC today that it will be closing down <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/ea%20maxis?os=ea+maxis>Maxis Emeryville in an effort to fold its staff and projects into other development houses under the Maxis brand. Recognizing that this consolidation will lead to many of the studio's staffers losing their jobs, EA stated that former Emeryville employees "will be given opportunities to explore other positions within the Maxis studios and throughout EA." The publisher also intends to work with employees leaving wholesale "to ensure the best possible transition with separation packages and career assistance."

Prior to this news, the Emeryville office was in many ways the most important studio bearing the Maxis name. The former haunting grounds of studio co-founder Will Wright, it was the driving force behind major franchises including Spore, SimCity and, most recently, The Sims 4. EA, in its statement, also affirmed that the closure will "not impact our plans for The Sims" and that players "will continue to see rich new experiences" coming to the game in the form of expansion packs and "additional updates." The publisher offered no comment as to whether or not this closure was related to the disastrous launch of 2013's <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/7053-SimCity>SimCity or the arguably lackluster reception critic and fans have given to <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/reviews/12201-The-Sims-4-Review>The Sims 4.

Source: <a href=http://kotaku.com/ea-shuts-down-simcity-developer-maxis-1689454903>Kotaku


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008Zulu_v1legacy

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Well their plan to bury The Sims should it fail to meet expectations was their plan, so technically it's true that closing Maxis won't impact their plans.
 

Bat Vader

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Hopefully they the devs that are let go are able to find work or are able to open their own studio.
 

Pyrian

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I would love to know how many of the decisions that blunted the appeal of the latest SimCity and Sims offerings - thereby dooming the studio - were handed down from EA "suits" in the first place. Are they out of work because they didn't do well? Or did the responsibility merely fall on the wrong heads?
 

Alma Mare

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Great news. That studio has done nothing but shitting its breaches for the last few years. Time to shuffle and deal again.
 

List

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the people of the studio should found their own one and make a proper SimCity or Sims game. Since I'm pretty sure they're capable enough. And without Suits telling them to cut the games to DLCs and stuff. I know it's unlikely but it would be funny to show off to those guys at EA.
 

Atmos Duality

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I'd mourn their loss if Maxis wasn't already a shambling husk of a company.
Its last real ambition left the company with Will Wright, right after EA all but strangled Spore in the crib.

If anyone leaving the company had an ounce of talent and ambition in them, I hope they land on their feet somewhere where they can put it to good use. Otherwise: Nothing of value was lost.
 

Kotoriii

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Next int line:



RIP Maxis. SimCity 3000, The Sims and 2, etc. will be dearly missed. Thanks EA, keep being the jerks you've always been.
 

gamegod25

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The EA business model:

Step 1:Buy up talented studio and/or IP
Step 2:Use every method possible to wring money out of them until it's utter shit.
Step 3:Close down studio and/or abandon IP
Step 4:Move on to another one and repeat process.
Step 5:In the meantime release another recycled Madden again cuz idiots eat that shit up every year.

Better watch your back, Bioware, because EA is running out of lambs to sacrifice...
 

Michael Tabbut

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Kotoriii said:
Next int line:



RIP Maxis. SimCity 3000, The Sims and 2, etc. will be dearly missed. Thanks EA, keep being the jerks you've always been.
gonna add this here.



I fear that if Bioware fucks up at all in the near future they'll be next on the chopping block...and on that day i'll cry tears of blood and rage!

 

Bat Vader

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OverEZ said:
Thanks again, EA. BioWare, watch your backs.
Honestly when EA does decide to retire Bioware I feel that the Bioware staff are talented enough that they could open their own studio or they would get hired by Bethesda, CD Projekt Red, and/or Obsidian. The writing staff is pretty darn good at writing characters that people care about so I'm pretty sure they would be safe. Imagine having Bioware written characters in something like Skyrim. That would be awesome.
 

Metalrocks

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best sim city is still 2000. afterwards it wasnt any good. even when EA did improve a bit by offering specials, free games and more or less fix things, they still have to do things that make them look bad.
im really curious who will win the worst company award this time.
 

Amaror

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List said:
the people of the studio should found their own one and make a proper SimCity or Sims game. Since I'm pretty sure they're capable enough. And without Suits telling them to cut the games to DLCs and stuff. I know it's unlikely but it would be funny to show off to those guys at EA.
Well there will allready be a proper SimCity. It's called Cities:Skylines, releases on the 10th and is pretty much everything SimCity 2013 should have been. There are allready tons of streams and videos on youtube, so you can check it out.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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Sep 8, 2011
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Another studio gone because EA doesn't know how to run a proper business. They couldn't just make The Sims 4 and SimCity like normal games. No, they had to mess with the formula that works by making those games into money milking soulless products. They've been voted the most hated company in America twice for fuck sake. How can someone be so blind and stupid?
 

Dr. Thrax

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Adam Jensen said:
They've been voted the most hated company in America twice for fuck sake. How can someone be so blind and stupid?
That's easy, they just don't give a shit.
Despite their "WE DON'T WANT TO BE THE WORST" whine a few months back, they don't really care.
People will still fork over cash for their stuff, all they'll have to do is find a new corpse to dig up or something else to hook up to the milking machines.
 

Coreless

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Why are we even blaming EA for this? The Maxis GM and the development team was 100% at fault for the online only DRM, the smaller cities and broken simulation. Every decision that completely destroyed the game was their fault alone, in this case EA didn't have to do anything.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/SimCity-Lucy-Bradshaw-Defends-Always-DRM-Says-EA-Didn-t-Force-It-Them-53694.html
 

Demagogue

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Mar 26, 2009
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Aww... someone already beat me to the graphic of EA shooting bioware out back behind the barn. :(

Good luck to all the Maxis peeps with the job search :( I did really enjoy your games, when they worked.
 

Notshauna

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Coreless said:
Why are we even blaming EA for this? The Maxis GM and the development team was 100% at fault for the online only DRM, the smaller cities and broken simulation. Every decision that completely destroyed the game was their fault alone, in this case EA didn't have to do anything.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/SimCity-Lucy-Bradshaw-Defends-Always-DRM-Says-EA-Didn-t-Force-It-Them-53694.html
I don't buy that one bit. To believe that the Devs are given that much creative control goes completely against EA's modus operandi because every single developer they've assimilated becomes more and more into the EA slime, with online DRM (funny thing is Dragon Age Keep is perhaps the best version of DRM that they've came up with), tacked on multiplayer aspects and "freemium" bullshit/DLC vehicles.