News: Maxis Studios Shut Down By Electronic Arts

It’s just not in my heart to forgive them for what they did to one of my most beloved franchises SimCity. When SimCity 2013 came out and destroyed everything that was the SimCity franchise, that was bad enough. But Maxis didn’t stop at just ruining SimCity by dumbing everything down, removing features left and right and reducing the city size to that of a hamlet in the woods. They were actually telling the core gamers of SimCity that they didn’t know what it was that they were enjoying. They had the audacity to tell us that it was multiplayer that we WANTED, that we didn’t want more transportation options or larger city sizes. Their arrogance and inability to understand what sim gamers wanted to play led me to proclaim that I’d never buy a game from them again. And guess what? Now I don’t have to anymore!

Woohoo! Cities Skylines is around the corner, and is looking exactly like the game that we have been waiting for so long. It is almost poetic justice that a week before the launch of that game, EA decides to pull a coup de grace on Maxis. Let me read to you the official statement from EA, that is of course full of idiotic PR lingo:

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.Maxis continues to support and develop new experiences for current Sims and SimCity players, while expanding our franchises to new platforms and developing new cross-platform IP. These changes do not impact our plans for The Sims. Players will continue to see rich new experiences in The Sims 4,with our first expansion pack coming soon along with a full slate of additional updates and content in the pipeline. All employees impacted by the changes today will be given opportunities to explore other positions within the Maxis studios and throughout EA. For those that are leaving the company, we are working to ensure the best possible transition with separation packages and career assistance. – EA Press Release

In other words, many will get fired, some will be allowed to integrate into other EA teams, but Maxis Emeryville as the maker of the SimCity franchise will cease to exist. I think it is safe to say that therefore, the SimCity franchise is dead as a fish. I’m very sorry that this happened so what Will Wright created, but this wasn’t Will’s baby anymore anyway. Even though he voiced his support for SimCity 2013 in the past, I refuse to believe that that was more than 99 money talking out of his mouth.Rest in peace, SimCity. I thank you for the hundreds of hours of entertainment you provided. But to the designers at Maxis who are now out of a job: please consider a career at Starbucks. Your talents in dumbing down long-running series is no longer required with a malicious grin on my face I thank you very much for watching, adieu messieurdames, and see you soon!