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? :/
This is sad news for a company that created some of my favorite games in my early years like SimCity 2000. Unfortunately, it's not unexpected. While I enjoyed some of the mechanics of Spore and SimCity. Ultimately they weren't that great because of major flaws under the sheets. RIP Maxis.
Too many, they killed the Command & Conquer Series (Westwood Studios)
Simcity they killed by not listening to their fan base and not caring to concerns (Maxis)
[quote who="Illauna" reply="1" id="3528151"]This is sad news for a company that created some of my favorite games in my early years like SimCity 2000. Unfortunately, it's not unexpected. While I enjoyed some of the mechanics of Spore and SimCity. Ultimately they weren't that great because of major flaws under the sheets. RIP Maxis.
The problem with EA is they never look at the big picture. They are like so many other companies that look short term and what can we get out of something right now. Don't care about how they are going to sustain themselves years from now.
With SimCity they had so much potential there. They rushed the production, hyped the game and failed to understand the average SimCity gamer.
With Maxis, they obtained all of their other games that they could have expanded and grew or used synergy with the larger games.
As far as my first point with Westwood Studios. They had great potential there as well with games such as C&C and various versions through the second installments of Red Alert and C&C, as well as Dune. Once again EA was all about squeezing out the game and not about the depth and therefore I've never really played anything after Generals. (Although do own copies of the latest games that remain unplayed or less than an hour of game time.)
Overall I do own many EA games, however, the latest games dwindle on time spent on them overall compared to games created by the original Studios prior to EA's involvement or with limited EA input.
With all this being said go Stardock. Show the big boys how it's done. This opens the door for you
Games I still hope eventually are produced.
A space SimCity type game, taking player feedback into consideration. (Many, many hours dedicated to SimCity 4)
A Tower type game, similar to SimTower. (Still play on sometimes on my 32 bit machine) [Unfortunately doesn't play on 64 bit]
Offtopic
A Railroad Tycoon type game (more involved than Offworld Trading Company [longer game]) [still play game to this day]
I really enjoyed SC2K, 3k was OK, but after that it was a death spiral.
What's really sad, is that the next most popular city builder Cities XL/XXL is so oversimplified and dumbed down, it can't even compare favorably to SC2k, except, maybe graphic-wise.
RIP Maxis, but that I suppose was a foregone conclusion after EA became involved.
That said, probably some great people to hire now on the market!
Meh. They haven't made a good game for years now. And while i am no fan of EA they have been, by all accounts pretty hands of regarding SimCity.
I dont think EA is 'The Evil' ... in this special case at least.
The greatest creation of Maxis in the last decade was the Creature Creator, which was unfortunately better than the actual game it went with.
That's about right....2000 was a fun diversion...
The only thing CitiesXL has going for it is its not as bad as the final iteration of SimCity. :/
Heck, I even enjoyed Sim Ant back in the days. They days of old now appears like pure gold...
Once EA was a sign of published goodness, like the Bard's Tale, or even Arctic Fox and Skyfox, now they have turned into the the heralds of entropy, nothing seems to escape their closed system, and the inevitable decay. *Looks at humongous SWTOR box* There is a process larger than any of us at work, but it is still easy to assign the blame, when the target is so visible, and lonesome in the sea of whales, once filled with smaller fish. The fish could go anywhere, these whales tend to get stuck. And that is when you point a finger at them I guess. A monstrous creature is hard to miss!
Have you guys seen Cities: Skylines? It's released next week, and looks very promising. Hopefully it doesn't fall on its face.
May be good, we'll see
The problem with EA is they never look at the big picture. They are like so many other companies that look short term and what can we get out of something right now. Don't care about how they are going to sustain themselves years from now. With SimCity they had so much potential there. They rushed the production, hyped the game and failed to understand the average SimCity gamer.
As far as my first point with Westwood Studios. They had great potential there as well with games such as C&C and various versions through the second installments of Red Alert and C&C, as well as Dune. Once again EA was all about squeezing out the game and not about the depth and therefore I've never really played anything after Generals. (Although do own copies of the latest games that remain unplayed or less than an hour of game time.)Overall I do own many EA games, however, the latest games dwindle on time spent on them overall compared to games created by the original Studios prior to EA's involvement or with limited EA input.With all this being said go Stardock. Show the big boys how it's done. This opens the door for you Games I still hope eventually are produced.A space SimCity type game, taking player feedback into consideration. (Many, many hours dedicated to SimCity 4)A Tower type game, similar to SimTower. (Still play on sometimes on my 32 bit machine) [Unfortunately doesn't play on 64 bit]OfftopicA Railroad Tycoon type game (more involved than Offworld Trading Company [longer game]) [still play game to this day]
BTW try Sim Farm. That actually surprisingly killed a good portion of my childhood. Fun game.
Honestly the whole online only thing had one major flaw. There was no reason it had to be online only. Anno 2070 doesn't require an online connection but you are missing out if you play just offline. IMHO a far better city builder. Even though it's not really a simulation game that Sim City tries to be.
I fell for the hype and pre-ordered SimCity 5 Digital Deluxe. I had such great expectations for a game I have enjoyed since the mid-90's. The game still doesn't work without downloading mods from 3rd party developers (bless them all). EA killed a beloved franchise, and it's not the first or the last. When the new Dragon Age came out last Fall I almost bit again, but no more. Anything with EA stamped on it is banned from my house. No more of my money, and more importantly, time, will be spent on their products.
I hope more companies borrow the interface from SimCity though. I think it's hands down the best interface of a city builder I've ever seen. You can find so much information on how your city is doing. Unfortunately, the same interface also made it very easy to see how poor the systems functioned.
Well, if EA hadn't made all of this studio's games shitty, maybe they'd still be open, and I'd actually buy their games. Their old-school games are amongst some of my favorites. Their newer games are great, in theory, but in practice they're all pretty much crap to play.
Too bad, but no surprises here.
-tid242
I dunno why anyone was surprised SC5 failed at launch. Continuous Internet Connect Required = FAIL LAUNCH. It /always/ fails when a game launches, and that isn't just an EA thing.
Why do so many keep encouraging dev studios and publishers to keep pushing this anti-paying-customer garbage by pre-buying or launch-day buying? Because gamers -- and yes I know I point at myself here too -- are stupid and impulsive, and too many forget too quickly the lessons of the past. Fight the impulse, READ the 'requirements' before you order or pre-order, stay absolutely clear of any game that should be single player but requires a constant internet connection. Never, ever, ever give a game publisher or dev studio one /penny/ of your hard-earned money for perpetuating a time-and-time-again-proven-fail anti-paying-customer-DRM like this ... it fails as DRM (because hackers or modders have little trouble eventually hacking around it, so it absolutely does nothing to stop piracy which means its only effect is anti-paying-customer), and will render what could otherwise be a fantastic game as unplayable.
I think Brad is well known for his Gamer's Bill of Rights. I hope to heck Stardock will stick by it ... I know Stardock has gotten bigger since then, and its frustrating to me but understandable Stardock has caved to market pressure by selling on Steam, but I hope there's an absolute rule that games that are, at their heart, single player will never get the heavy anchors of obtrusive DRM attached that only have the effect of frustrating legitimate paying customers but software pirates will find their way around.
Congratulations, EA Games. You just rebranded yourself to Grim Reaper Games. Snuffing out one studio at a time.
But...they've been doing that for 10 years or so at this point
If Stardock had removed the one-time activation of their games from the Steam versions, I'd have purchased them again from Steam.
Sad, some of the best games I ever played, and the studio is closing. I thought the sims was made by the same people though? Not that i follow these things but.They really lost the plot with this latest incarnation of sim city though, but I guess they were taking a risk, and risks sometimes fail. I can't fault them for trying, but I can fault them for taking out so much of the game that it became unrecognizable as sim city, and also for that absolutely beyond terrible launch we had. It was worse than the old Everquest, Ultima Online, WoW days, where you expected a mess to greet you at first. All we seemed to get from support was, problems, what problems? Everything is fine! As the building burned down around them.
I fault gamers for pre-ordering and zero-day buying games with 'constant Internet connection required' DRM crap. :/ Keep shelling out money for it, publishers will keep delivering it, doesn't matter to them if you can't play because they already have your money and thanks to their lobbying buying legislation, they don't have to fulfill any promises and don't have to refund your money when their product is defective and does not work as promised.
Sorry to hear ttheir closing. I liked sim city 2000. I would like a reboot of mutant legue football. Make it madden like. Maybe they should take all those failed games, and put them under gnu on linux, so they maybe might to be able to fix these games.
Can stardock buy spore, and rise of nations from microsoft. The reason i suggest rise of nations with any expansions is they are more likely to sell that than empire earth. Virtual village, and combine this with sins of a solar empire with all its expansions.
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.
I don't buy EA games specifically because they buy out successful software companies and tank them. EA is a cancer.
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