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Games => General Gaming => Topic started by: MysterD on Wednesday, March 04, 2015, 05:40:27 PM

Title: EA shuts Maxis Emeryville down
Post by: MysterD on Wednesday, March 04, 2015, 05:40:27 PM
PC Gamer -> EA shuts Maxis Emeryville down, the original Maxis Studio. (http://www.pcgamer.com/electronic-arts-closes-simcity-studio-maxis-emeryville/)
Kotaku -> Updated list of studios EA has shut down (http://kotaku.com/an-updated-list-of-studios-ea-has-bought-and-then-shut-1689498614?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow)
Kotaku -> History of Maxis (http://[url=http://kotaku.com/a-history-of-maxis-thanks-for-simcity-1689490370?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow)
Title: Re: EA shuts Maxis Emeryville down
Post by: K-man on Wednesday, March 04, 2015, 07:49:06 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/ePDRmLN.jpg)
Title: Re: EA shuts Maxis Emeryville down
Post by: idolminds on Wednesday, March 04, 2015, 08:06:47 PM
Not unexpected after SimCity, but still a bummer. They were one of the big ones.
Title: Re: EA shuts Maxis Emeryville down
Post by: Quemaqua on Thursday, March 05, 2015, 06:41:45 AM
I can't bring myself to feel much about it. They haven't been relevant for a long time, and I've had zero interest in their games since Spore, which was a big disappointment. It's a shame, but I don't think they've produced anything worthwhile in ages. It was probably time for them to exit the scene. Just a shame it had to be on such a low note.
Title: Re: EA shuts Maxis Emeryville down
Post by: MysterD on Sunday, March 08, 2015, 04:49:16 AM
I can't bring myself to feel much about it. They haven't been relevant for a long time, and I've had zero interest in their games since Spore, which was a big disappointment. It's a shame, but I don't think they've produced anything worthwhile in ages. It was probably time for them to exit the scene. Just a shame it had to be on such a low note.

Sims 3 was a major improvement in the Sims series w/ its one seamless open game-world w/ the neighborhoods + downtown areas and whatnot. They weren't split-up.
Of course, back when it came out - that pretty much made one long load-time; and could hurt performance (on older rigs).
Any expansions just really added more content to the greatness.

Sims 4, which I haven't played, is known for going backwards - making everything modular again; and (worst of all) removing things normally found in each iteration's base-game.
While S4 supposedly performed much better technically than Sims 3 (b/c they went modular), "bleh" at idea of instead having tons of loading screens when you do something (travel to another house, to downtown, etc).
I prefer the idea of The Sims 3 seamless open game-world.
You'd think, maybe they could've found some middle ground here.
I still have it Sims 4 added when it gave out Free Game-Time (for 48 hours trial, whenever you decide to use it) - so, I should give it a chance when I need something to play and have tons of time to do so (i.e. such as on a weekend).

Title: Re: EA shuts Maxis Emeryville down
Post by: Quemaqua on Sunday, March 08, 2015, 10:38:05 AM
Sims 3 wasn't even developed by Maxis. They separated the studio into its own thing. It was reintegrated back into Maxis in 2012 apparently, only now to be folded along with it, it seems. I imagine the franchise's popularity has been waning for some time, and I'd also bet that the clunkiness of Sims 4 probably pretty well telegraphed Maxis' irrelevance and death.
Title: Re: EA shuts Maxis Emeryville down
Post by: MysterD on Thursday, September 24, 2015, 06:45:07 PM
Polygon -> Maxis boss Lucy Bradshaw is no longer with Maxis; and Maxis is being moved over to join the EA Mobile division. (http://www.polygon.com/2015/9/24/9392697/ea-maxis-lucy-bradshaw-departs-mobile)