Sad News. Maxis Emeryville Shut Down.

[Starfist]

https://twitter.com/MaxisGuillaume/status/573203901081509888

There's a lot of strong feelings about that Sim City series on this forum, but a long-standing studio shutting down and it's employees being out of a job is never a good thing.

Let's be honest - Sim City was likely a huge inspiration for the game we're all excited about. Without seeing what worked in Sim City and what didn't, we might not have as great a game on our hands as we now do come March 10th.

Best of luck to the hard working employees.

 

[Ldude893]

And the game publishing equivalent of the Roman Empire kills another developer.

 

[Mav12]

I only have on thing to say right now on behalf of probably everyone.....EAAAAAA (probbably needs more A's)
also may Sim City and ect all RIP

 

[Gibbins]

EA throwing other people under a bus for their own mistakes, nothing new here.

 

[Simcity5]

No sympathy here.

 

[Zed68]

I've got a message for EA :

Picture removed. -Letar

 

[Dizman7]

Is Emeryville all of Maxis or just one of it's offices? Still sucks, got to know some of them working on the closed beta and the after launch dev beta. Just curious, if the Maxis name is dead or just a large portion of it.

I worked with Guillaume a bit on both betas, great guy! He was extremely deciated to the game/fans. He made several mods for the game for things the fans wanted (like ped paths), after it was clear EA cut funding for patches/updates/dlc, but he put in his own time and effort to make the mods for the community.

After the upcoming success of CSL maybe CO will be expanding and hire some of these guys I'm sure they'd have a LOT more freedom to do what they wanted in a game like this! <wink, wink>

 

[Starfist]

Is Emeryville all of Maxis or just one of it's offices? Still sucks, got to know some of them working on the closed beta and the after launch dev beta. Just curious, if the Maxis name is dead or just a large portion of it.

I worked with Guillaume a bit on both betas, great guy! He was extremely deciated to the game/fans. He made several mods for the game for things the fans wanted (like ped paths), after it was clear EA cut funding for patches/updates/dlc, but he put in his own time and effort to make the mods for the community.

From the Maxis wikipedia:

EA Maxis as a subsidiary, label and brand, now includes: Maxis (Emeryville), The Sims Studio (Redwood Shores), EA Salt Lake (Salt Lake City) and Maxis Helsinki (Helsinki, Finland), a studio focused on The Sims for mobile platforms.

It'd appear that the Maxis name itself still lives on in Maxis Helsinki (neighbors to our beloved Colossal Order!)

 

[Letar]

From the Maxis wikipedia:



It'd appear that the Maxis name itself still lives on in Maxis Helsinki (neighbors to our beloved Colossal Order!)

It seems Maxis Helsinki has also produced Simcity Buildit (i.e. Simcity for mobile).

 

[Zed68]

It seems Maxis Helsinki has also produced Simcity Buildit (i.e. Simcity for mobile).

Don't start me on that thing...

 

[Bjorn0305]

Well - that sucks. I wish the guys all the best of luck and hope they find employment again soon.

 

[Metalpuritan]

Bad businesses deserve to fail and they should fail. This allows room for others who have better business models to take their place. It is called progress. It is when bad businesses do not fail or are not allowed to fail that problems occur. Example, bank bailouts, auto industry bailout and etc., bailing those guys out only ensures another collapse down the road because they have bad business models, they are destined to fail.

 

[consi]

Maxis brought this by themselves. EA throws them out of the window at the first opportunity. Yes, this is business and when you cannot satisfy your customers, you cannot survive either. I hope the grotesque example of a city-builder fades away quickly to walk on a better future of city-builder genre.

 

[Simcity5]

Yeah, the worse thing is though its EA blaming someone else for something they caused. Instead of EA changing they just sack the worker drones. EA have not learned.

 

[Zed68]

Yeah, the worse thing is though its EA blaming someone else for something they caused. Instead of EA changing they just sack the worker drones. EA have not learned.

+1

 

[Inge Jones]

Thing is, it wasn't really THAT bad! Yes it was a complete fiasco at the beginning when loads of excited new owners couldn't even play for several days, but after that lots of us had hours of fun. I at least played long enough for it to earn its price - I tend to think if a game has cost me 50P per hour of play, it's earned its way, as that is a fraction of the price of that same hour in a pub, restaurant, or cinema.

 

[raresteak]

Should have had the balls to leave and take his career to greener pastures when he saw EA coming to wreck Maxis with Simcity. Instead he feared or remained ignorant.

Nothing to empathise with here.

 

[CaraRota]

Well i'm not happy about this at all; having no competition at all means that we will be the loosers in the future; for obvious reasons..
SimCity was what made this game possible; it is and it will be the father of this genre. I cannot avoid feeling nostalgic and sad, very very sad.

 

[Ne0Que]

Let this be a lesson for both Paradox and Colossal Order: Only sell you company if you have absolutely no other choise. you see, Maxis sold their soul because of being afraid for closing down: Now its closing down. What's the difference? Better close down when you're on your high. Now Maxis goes down with the memory of SC5.

 

[lemonsquid]

Lol nice cartoon, I only miss Westwood, the C&C nostalgia is real