Sad News. Maxis Emeryville Shut Down.

[medopu]

I am quite curious as to why the Studio was shutdown, Simcity did have good sales numbers for a PC exclusive. I have to imagine the rocky launch played a large role but even EA had to know that the reason was in large part due to EA shoving Origin down our throats. It is a very bittersweet thing for me as Simcity has provided me hundreds of hours of enjoyment over the years yet Cities:Skylines is poised to overtake it. Hopefully everyone over at Maxis lands on their feet.

good in sales can still be "not good enough".

I doubt EA closed Maxis as a revenge for rocky launch. I'm speculating, but i'm thinking more in the terms of EA closing Maxis because they don't forsee Maxis covering developement and publishing expenses with any future sequels or even new titles.

Thank god Collosal Order has only 13 employees, which translates to relatively low salary expenditures for Paradox, and most importantly: lower expectation to deliver great sales and revenue. This, alongside with Paradox (which is IMO certainly one of the best publishers today) gives me good hope that it's very unlikely that closure of CO would happen in any forseeable future

 

[FXben]

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.

Looks like I'm late again to the conversation, PMSL, damned 7DTD, hehe.

I agree though and after reading this I looked up how many hours I put in to this game. (never looked before) It totalled 521 hours sooo yea ermmmmm I must of enjoyed something about it.

Feel sad for Maxis, Shame on EA. end

 

[Greygor69]

I forgot about the sewage... watching Poop agents is so useful.

Heh, Poop Agents, new on NBC, Fall 2015

 

[BStyles]

It'll be right up there on my list of things to watch, along with Real Housewives of EA.

 

[Inge Jones]

Someone likened The Sims 4 to The Stepford Wives, due to the way they all have that same dopey grin no matter what sort of fake Emotion[tm] (actually no more than extra short-lived buffs) they are meant to be experiencing.

 

[charlesnew]

Oh wow...
That's all I can say.

 

[desiriel]

You're the leading game publishing power; you get to release the next generation city-building game under the most iconic brand in the industry; you ask for it the premium price of AAA products on the market; yet you deliver a bug-ridden product with a defective game engine and fake features. Well, I can't think of a better justice than seeing it falling piece by piece.
Unfortunately, honest workers will pay the price again. My sympathies are for them and their families.

 

[kosh22]

It is indeed a sad day as Maxis are part of my childhood history. Not only the simcities, all of which I played but their A-train version which I adored on my Amiga. But business does not stop for anyone. Big names come and go and that is the way of the world.

 

[the cool guy]

EA shoving Origin down our throats.

Actually Origin didn't cause the launch issues. The Origin servers are amazing and a place where EA actually didn't screw up. The issue was that they made downloading and playing the game run on the Simcity servers and those are terrible.

Also EA is giving out jobs to the Maxis people that just lost them.

 

[The Boss]

+ Pandemic Studios (developer of Star Wars Battlefront, Saboteur, Mercenaries) closed in 2009.

 

[Sinbuster]

Sigh, I miss Westwood. Dune, Lands of Lore, Blade Runner, Red Alert - I loved their games so much. That picture reads like the tombstone of my childhood.

 

[Person012345]

A bunch of the ex-westwood developers recently made a new game. It's called Grey Goo. It's pretty good.

 

[ByLeven]

As far as I'm concerned it died spring 2013. I'm glad I never fell for that obvious cash cow.

 

[Sinbuster]

A bunch of the ex-westwood developers recently made a new game. It's called Grey Goo. It's pretty good.

Interesting. I've added it to my wishlist (probably wait for a summer sale). I'm really falling behind on all these games nowadays. My wishlist on Steam and GOG is way too long, and my backlog of games is equally so. CSL is at the top of the list but I don't have time for it either. Doh.

 

[Susanna]

I mourned Maxis long ago. These days I'm just looking forward to Cities Skylines, and hoping that someone in the business takes a crack at a life simulator, because there are a lot of simmers out there unhappy with the current direction of that franchise.

It'll be right up there on my list of things to watch, along with Real Housewives of EA.

I think you mean "Real Housebros of EA."

 

[Iki_balam]

let's be honest, this was inevitable. incredibly sad though. its kinda like the arsenic laced icing on the cake

 

[RagnarokZ]

Maxis died years ago, all that's left since Simcity4 was the Sims division vomitting forth expansions and new versions, same as the previous one sans expansions.

 

[Old Joe]

old school gamers migration

 

[MN121MN]

Damn....... That's sad .....

Anyways, Colossal Order might benefit a bit when looking for able-bodied developers in the city-building genre....