If you follow gaming news at all you’ve probably already heard this: the headquarters of Maxis has been shut down by their corporate overlords at EA. Some satellite studios remain but it’s unsure what that means for the future of Maxis.
It’s a sad moment particularly for those of us who have been gaming on the PC for decades. Maxis have been around since 1987, and first brought us the famous game of civic planning, Simcity. It spawned a number of sequels, and I remain a fan Simcity 2000, which somehow has the right mix of retro isometric-view charm, accessibility and attention to detail. The next two were, I believe, quite well received. The last outing was more controversial, due to small city sizes and the requirement to be online even for single player.
Meanwhile their other most well known line was the Sims, which proved that the ordinary everyday life of a family can turn out to be source material for a game. I never got into it myself but it shas clearly been very popular. Although the wife tells me the last installment had some problems. Meanwhile, Maxis did also, between these big names, bring out a bunch of other titles. Some of these are little known historical curiosities such as Simfarm. They also brought us Spore, with its rather ambitious goal of letting players guide an alien race all the way through its development from primitive life to cities to interstellar colonies.
EA have a bit of a history of buying up respected developers then later closing them down. In 2004 they killed off Origin, who created landmark PC series Wing Commander and Ultima. In 2003 they did it to Westwood, the guys who were enormously influential in shaping the realtime strategy genre. Now I think about it, this was the fate of Bullfrog also. Maybe EA had their financial reasons for this latest culling, maybe the fan ire towards the latest sim and simcity games played a part, but still I imagine a lot of fans are rather pissed off today.
This is making me think that, to properly pay tribute to Maxis, I should return to simcity 2000. I never did quite figure out how to best integrate a rail network into the growing metropolis of Stootopia…
Posts
Well, it’s at times like these where I am uncertain whether to feel sad or – as strange as it might sound – relieved. Just like with LucasArts a couple of years ago, I cannot name one single game of them from recent times which I liked, or come to think of it even considered playing. Actually the last Maxis title I bought was Sim City 4, and even that one didn’t quite live up to it’s legacy. Their heydays, when the SimSomething was a certain sign of quality and creativity, were long gone. But I guess you can be sure that there will still be a Sims 5, 6 or 7, because if there is one thing EA is good at (besides exploiting game studios), it’s spawning endless sequels.
March 7, 2015 @ 7:41 pm
Maxis was already killed in 2009: Will Wright left, EA closed it down. They only revived the name later again, using it for their EA Play Brand.
Also it’s funny how people always only mention Origin, Westwood and Bullfrog (killed in 2001) when the talk is about EA taking over and then destroying companies. The list is actually a whole lot longer: Phenomic, Pandemic Studios, Kesmai, Manley & Associates, NuFX, Playfish, Danger Close Games (previously known as DreamWorks Interactive LLC), Bright Light, Victory Games, Mythic Entertainment and DICE Canada (which was closed like 3 hours after taking over DICE) and now Maxis.
15 Companies so far.
I wonder how long Bioware has left, i’m pretty sure they’re the next to be killed off (well they’re kinda dead anyway after the founders left and the studio turned into “we release pseudo-rpg crap for retards now!”)
March 14, 2015 @ 1:47 pm
So When I first got into PC gaming, first games that I plays are Simcity classic(besides underrated SimFarm and SimEarth) as well Simcity 2000(too bad I only plays it’s demo version) as well another underrated historical cuirosities like Klik n Play and point and click adventure game about Greek Mythology named Wrath of the Gods(again, I only tries their demo versions) where these games are have in common: they all made by Maxis
My personal favorite simcity game is Simcity 3000, Simcity 4 makes me left Simcity series, and Spore are my most favorite Simulation Game from Maxis
The Sims series are my least favorite Maxis Sim game since I’m just not a fan of a game about ordinary everyday life of a family
And that’s how the Grox joins LAA
August 28, 2015 @ 3:02 am