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Studio behind SimCity and The Sims series closing

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Studio behind SimCity and The Sims series closing

http://www.pcgamer.com/electronic-arts-closes-simcity-studio-maxis-emeryville/
from Stardock Forums

From PC Gamer article at http://www.pcgamer.com/electronic-arts-closes-simcity-studio-maxis-emeryville/ -

 

Electronic Arts has closed down SimCity studio Maxis Emeryville. The news was revealed on Twitter by SimCity lead gameplay scripter and designer Guillaume Pierre, and confirmed in a statement by EA.

"Well it was a fun 12 years, but it's time to turn off the lights and put the key under the door. #RIPMaxisEmeryville," Pierre tweeted earlier this afternoon. In subsequent tweets, he clarified that "the shop is closing down," and "Everyone's out of a job."

 

 

Just out of curiosity, does anyone keep track of how many great game franchises EA has killed? :/

239,221 views 36 replies
Reply #26 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting RyanSumo, reply 24

Cities:Skylines is releasing soon, made by the creators of Cities in Motion.  I'm super scared to try it though as it might own my life.

You should stay away from it then. :thumbsup:

(It's really good)

Reply #27 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting GFireflyE, reply 25

I don't buy EA games specifically because they buy out successful software companies and tank them. EA is a cancer.

IIRC Maxis was anything but succesful for years when EA aquired them, which was the reason they sold to EA in the first place.

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #28 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting OsirisDawn, reply 27


Quoting GFireflyE,
reply 25

I don't buy EA games specifically because they buy out successful software companies and tank them. EA is a cancer.



IIRC Maxis was anything but succesful for years when EA aquired them, which was the reason they sold to EA in the first place.

 

What are you talking about? Ever heard of the sims?

 

EA ripped that franchise from maxis when they bought them and made a new business unit. If you take the most profit generating product out of a studio and then point the finger at them saying "you're not justifying your existence" you arrive at the fact that EA is Cancer.

 

Sim city 2013 had mistakes in it, but it was also a great game.

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Reply #29 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting OsirisDawn, reply 27

IIRC Maxis was anything but succesful for years when EA aquired them, which was the reason they sold to EA in the first place.

Quoting maniakos, reply 28

What are you talking about? Ever heard of the sims?

Yes, Sorry OsirisDawn,  Maxis was successful prior to EA's takeover buyout. Prior to EA's buy out they had released the Sims and were in the process of releasing SimCity 3000 which was relatively successful.

Quoting maniakos, reply 28

Sim city 2013 had mistakes in it, but it was also a great game.

SimCity (2013) had it's positives but, had more negatives mainly because of the restrictions and poor handling of expected results and lack of listening to it's customer base.  Main positives were...

  • Multi-player
  • City run businesses
  • Resources
  • Placement advertising (real world buildings/businesses)

Negatives were...

  • Poor anticipation of players time spent on game servers (30 minutes at a time) [taken from posts by devs on their forums]
  • Servers unreliable upon release. (even though they had forced time frame beta tests on servers)
  • Small Cities.
  • Bottle necked traffic on one or two connections per city.
  • Required Internet connection and, stated required for the game to work.  (later proven false and patch released a year after release)
  • Inflated population
  • Not addressing customer concerns.  (Not listening to their fan base or how their fan base plays their game.)

All of the above negatives Stardock does an excellent job doing :)  Thanks Stardock for being there for your customers.

Reply #30 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting maniakos, reply 28

Quoting OsirisDawn,
reply 27






Quoting GFireflyE,

reply 25


I don't buy EA games specifically because they buy out successful software companies and tank them. EA is a cancer.



IIRC Maxis was anything but succesful for years when EA aquired them, which was the reason they sold to EA in the first place.



 

What are you talking about? Ever heard of the sims?

 

EA ripped that franchise from maxis when they bought them and made a new business unit. If you take the most profit generating product out of a studio and then point the finger at them saying "you're not justifying your existence" you arrive at the fact that EA is Cancer.

 

Sim city 2013 had mistakes in it, but it was also a great game.

Sim Tower and Sim Copter were not succesful (financially) games AFAIK. SimCity was already in development, but, and i might remember wrong here, cash ran low.

 

Reply #31 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Seilore, reply 29

Quoting OsirisDawn,
reply 27

IIRC Maxis was anything but succesful for years when EA aquired them, which was the reason they sold to EA in the first place.



Quoting maniakos,
reply 28

What are you talking about? Ever heard of the sims?



Yes, Sorry OsirisDawn,  Maxis was successful prior to EA's takeover buyout. Prior to EA's buy out they had released the Sims and were in the process of releasing SimCity 3000 which was relatively successful.

...
 
 
The Sims (Release 2000) came years after the buyout (1997).
Reply #32 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

ooops, Double. Sorry.

Reply #33 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting OsirisDawn, reply 31


Quoting Seilore,
reply 29




Quoting OsirisDawn,

reply 27


IIRC Maxis was anything but succesful for years when EA aquired them, which was the reason they sold to EA in the first place.







Quoting maniakos,

reply 28


What are you talking about? Ever heard of the sims?



Yes, Sorry OsirisDawn,  Maxis was successful prior to EA's takeover buyout. Prior to EA's buy out they had released the Sims and were in the process of releasing SimCity 3000 which was relatively successful.



...

 

 

The Sims (Release 2000) came years after the buyout (1997).


 

It was already under development though.

Reply #34 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting OsirisDawn, reply 30

Sim Tower and Sim Copter were not succesful (financially) games AFAIK. SimCity was already in development, but, and i might remember wrong here, cash ran low.

Okay You may have gotten me on the time frame of the EA take over and the release of The Sims and SimCity 3000.  I admit that, however, were in development by Maxis and most of their team prior to the EA merger...

As far as SimTower, that was a successful game for Maxis, they purchased the rights and published it worldwide in November of 1994.  They also bundled the game with the original SimCity and SimIsle(which wasn't successful).

The problem with EA does not have an immediate impact on the studios as typically they will let them finish what they are doing or current projects, and then start forcing out sequels as fast as possible and build off the success.  That part as a whole is fine if done correctly.  Unfortunately this isn't when it comes to EA, they tend to push out half completed projects with little testing and try to scrape out as much as possible with the name.  Look at Westwood Studios (creators of the Command and Conquer Series).  They did the same with them, the first few games after the buy out (which happened after they over extended themselves with the second C&C game), they put out a few good games RA2 and various expansions and even Generals wasn't horrible.  After that they just squeezed everything out.

Anyways, I won't be purchasing anything "New" from EA, I may purchase older games or games that are a low price but, I learned my lesson with SimCity 2013 after dropping $90 on the game.

Reply #35 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Seilore, reply 34

...
Anyways, I won't be purchasing anything "New" from EA, I may purchase older games or games that are a low price but, I learned my lesson with SimCity 2013 after dropping $90 on the game.
 
And we totally agree on that! ^_^
 
 
It is just that, hearing and reading from developers (and some laid off Maxis Devs), EA seems to be changing for the better. SC13 was just badly designed from the start and EA wasnt keen to start and invest all over after testing revealed that the agent system was heavily flawed. Can you fault them for that? I dont know. As far as  i read either Maxis didnt plan for enough engineers to start with, or EA wasnt willing to budget for more. Not sure about that.
 
What i do fault EA for, is building so much hype for a game, that they knew wasnt up to it. I too fell for it ... but thats entirely my fault. ;P
Reply #36 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting OsirisDawn, reply 35


Quoting Seilore,
reply 34




...
Anyways, I won't be purchasing anything "New" from EA, I may purchase older games or games that are a low price but, I learned my lesson with SimCity 2013 after dropping $90 on the game.

 

And we totally agree on that! ^_^

 

 

 

 

 

It is just that, hearing and reading from developers (and some laid off Maxis Devs), EA seems to be changing for the better. SC13 was just badly designed from the start and EA wasnt keen to start and invest all over after testing revealed that the agent system was heavily flawed. Can you fault them for that? I dont know. As far as  i read either Maxis didnt plan for enough engineers to start with, or EA wasnt willing to budget for more. Not sure about that.

 

 

 

What i do fault EA for, is building so much hype for a game, that they knew wasnt up to it. I too fell for it ... but thats entirely my fault. ;P


 

It wasn't your fault because that's what their marketing is all about.