Sims-Creator Will Wright Might Go Back to Making Games Soon

[Greg Tito]

Sims-Creator Will Wright Might Go Back to Making Games Soon

The esteemed designer is free of a legal battle with the cofounder of his latest startup.

Chances are you've played a game designed by Will Wright. From SimCity to the The Sims to the more recent Spore, he's had his fingers on a lot of classic games. He famously left Maxis - now owned by EA - in 2009 and began a startup called HiveMind in 2011 with a man named Jawad Ansari. HiveMind's plan was to create mobile or social games that used personal biographical information, but before anything could be produced, Wright replaced Ansari with a different CEO. Ansari sued, Wright countersued, and the whole thing was a mess. This week, both sides of the conflict have come to amenable terms and Wright can now go back to designing games rather than litigation strategies.

Wright says the pair reached "a friendly and respectful resolution." His statement obviously doesn't go into details, but it's clear that making games is now his focus again.

He plans "to pursue opportunities in the dynamic online game industry," but whether that means with the HiveMind team that's assembled or if he plans to move on remains to be seen.

For what it's worth, I think we deserve a remake of Raid on Bungeling Bay. That game was the shit back in the 80s. But hey, I'd settle for one of the most influential game designers of our generation go back to, you know, making games.

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/180823/Hivemind_founders_finally_resolve_their_differences.php?]

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[AzrealMaximillion]

Hopefully he doesn't focus on mobile and social games. Will Wright is too smart for that. It's why I can't stand to give Warren Spector any credit for making the Epic Mickey games after doing Thief and System Shock.

 

[Nimcha]

It's so sad to see whenever an innovative person in the games industry decides to focus on casual shit.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Hopefully he doesn't focus on mobile and social games. Will Wright is too smart for that. It's why I can't stand to give Warren Spector any credit for making the Epic Mickey games after doing Thief and System Shock.

Wait a minute...Warren Spector made Epic Mickey? With the horrible platforming, level design, and erratic camera? The bait & switch "this one's not for kids" buildup? By Odin, I need to lie down.

 

[antipunt]

Is it true that he worked on Sims 2 but not 3?

I dunno..maybe I'm just trying to rationalize why I didn't really like the 3rd nearly as much as the 2nd

 

[Pinstar]

Is it true that he worked on Sims 2 but not 3?

I dunno..maybe I'm just trying to rationalize why I didn't really like the 3rd nearly as much as the 2nd

That is very true. In fact, he stopped directly working on the Sims 2 after the "University" Expansion pack (the very first one). So ALL of Sims 2 EPs after that plust ALL of the Sims 3 are without his brilliant touch.



I don't care what kind of games he's working on. Casual, hardcore. Doesn't matter. As long as we get a game with Will Wright's TRUE unfiltered un EAed touch...I think it'll be good.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Hopefully he doesn't focus on mobile and social games. Will Wright is too smart for that. It's why I can't stand to give Warren Spector any credit for making the Epic Mickey games after doing Thief and System Shock.

Wait a minute...Warren Spector made Epic Mickey? With the horrible platforming, level design, and erratic camera? The bait & switch "this one's not for kids" buildup? By Odin, I need to lie down.

Yeah, Warren Spector lost a lot of my respect when he decided to make that game. The original concept art made the game have a dark steampunk look. Then it came out and looked like a Kingdom Hearts rip off.

And people on this site give Cliffy B shit for making the Gears series...

 

[ASnogarD]

The question here is ...

Will he make a GAME or another DLC download package that acts like a game ?
The Sims is more about its DLC each time than the main game.

 

[Evil Smurf]

It's so sad to see whenever an innovative person in the games industry decides to focus on casual shit.

define "Casual shit" Not only FPS can be fun.

 

[ASnogarD]

The question here is ...

Will he make a GAME or another DLC download package that acts like a game ?
The Sims is more about its DLC each time than the main game.

The Sims is a game defined by its expansion packs (They are bigger than DLC) and if you buy the game without knowing that and get pissy about it, then shame on you.

Well aint you a nice little customer... sure EA is really pleased with you.

The Sims 2 then 3 were both barely short of scandelous, both having a minimalistic core game where DLC / Expansions filled in the shortcomings.
The orginal Sims one can understand, they put out a game and it was madly popular where customers demanded more and more... 2 and 3 were simply exploiting the popularity by holding back much of the popular content, using information gathered from the original.

As to getting pissy, well yes I am a customer and entitled to to moan and groan... though I am not entitled to getting all the content for free.
I am free to bemoan anti consumer practices...

... I guess someone was happy to pay for a full price AAA single player title (actually it was more expensive than most of the other AAA titles on the new games shelves), a title that had micro-transactions to buy content and a trainload of 'expansions'.

 

[Formica Archonis]

For what it's worth, I think we deserve a remake of Raid on Bungeling Bay. That game was the shit back in the 80s.

Lode Runner. Raid on Bungeling Bay. Choplifter. If you were putting the screws to the Bungeling Empire, it was a good day. And a good game.

Wonder who's got the Bungeling IP now? A half-interested Wikipedia glance narrows it down to Ubisoft or an Irish developer that doesn't even spell "Brøderbund" properly.

 

[Groenteman]

Well isnt that a pity, the guy finaly goes back to working his magic and then he does it on the kind of game I realy do NOT care about.

And now the I think about it hes not the only famous developer who switched to developing crappy social games...

 

[Racecarlock]

You know why we never see people defending social games on here? It's because the people are too busy playing and enjoying their game to give a fuck about you guys calling them casual or posers or whatever.

There have also been less defending call of duty threads lately. Know why? It's because they're playing the game, rather than complaining about games. Maybe all of you should find some games you like and do what they're doing.