That's right EA has shut down the Maxis studio who produced games that I grew up with. Let's be honest, everybody LOVED Sim City, that is until EA got their paws on it and ruined the last iteration of the game. The studio has just closed its doors for good.

Honestly, both EA and Maxis messed up with the latest version of SimCity bigtime with their constant Internet connection requirements, very limited map/city sizes, and then when the game launched paying customers were forced to queue for server access for 30 minutes or more, and that’s if you got that far. The problems continued, though, with the always-on DRM letting you destroy other people’s cities and then EA decided it wanted $9 to add airships and balloons to your game. SimCity obviously didn’t sell anywhere near as well as expected. Guillaume Pierre, designer at Maxis, has confirmed the news for them on Twitter, stating

“Well it was a fun 12 years, but it’s time to turn off the lights and put the key under the door. #RIPMaxisEmeryville.”

Maxis managed to release 31 games (and published 11) over a 27 year period, many of those games have Sim in the title. They gave us a number of great SimCity games as well as The Sims and Spore. It’s just a shame they have gone out this way and leaving such a bad taste in gamer’s mouths due to “that SimCity game.” However, I’m sure many blame EA as much, if not more for that debacle. EA has confirmed that the Maxis studio has closed in Emeryville. The IP for its games is being transferred to other studios and Maxis employees are being given the opportunity to apply for other jobs within EA.

It's a darn shame I tell you, what a waste of talent.