EA has closed another of its studios. This time around, it’s Maxis, the folks behind SimCity and creators of The Sims. The word comes from several developers around Twitter, but the one with the Tweet that’s taking off is Guillaume Pierre. EA hasn’t made any announcements regarding the closure yet. They also haven’t indicated what they have in mind for the Sim franchise, though it’s certainly valuable enough to keep around. I imagine the publisher will shift all things Sim to another studio. Before the most recent SimCity, Maxis had a great track record. Hopefully the developers from the studio find work quickly. Hey, maybe they’ll make a city sim without the restrictions they had in place for their last effort. Good luck to those affected.

--------------------- EAs statement------------------------------------------------

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.

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That sucks but the studio wasn't delivering the goods. SimCity 3000 was one of my first PC games. http://www.technobuffalo.com/2015/03/04/ea-closes-maxis/

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RIP! I used to play SimCity so much when I was a child! Soo many good memories T_T

All fine by me. I am not going to blame EA for shutting down Maxis.

Shame, I really enjoyed Sim City 4 and The Sims 2.

Hopeful someone makes competing series as lately EAs handling of them has been terrible.

Wow sad to hear, but they kinda dropped off the radar after Will Weight left for me.

Will always be one of the most important devs of my childhood though. Sim City and Sim City 2000 ate up far too many hours of my life.

Hey is it Wednesday already?

That's sad, Sim City 2000 was one of the first games that I played on a PC, but I didn't play the ones after Sim City 4.

Seems like all EA owned franchises that I liked as a kid are dead now.

EDIT: it only seems to be Maxis Emeryville (Sim City, Spore), not the ones that make The Sims.

So looking at their statement...they're not shutting down Maxis :P

Wooops.

Pity EA+Maxis botched Sim City so badly, and good thing Cities Skylines is around the corner.

they are not EA franchises but bought up by EA and closed down by EA