For those who spent hours building their own SimCities and enjoyed destroying them, this is going to hurt. Electronic Arts confirmed on Wednesday that it is closing down Maxis, the developer behind SimCity and other Sim-related games.
EA sent a statement to Polygon after several employees who were laid off reported the news on Twitter. The company said that the Sim brand will live on, though, with SimCity and The Sims development continuing under EA Studios. Still, the Maxis offices in Emeryville, California will be closed.
“These changes do not impact our plans for The Sims,” EA’s statement reads in part. “Players will continue to see rich new experiences in The Sims 4, with our first expansion pack coming soon along with a full slate of additional updates and content in the pipeline.”
While EA didn’t give specifics on how many employees were affected, the company said that some will be given an opportunity to take other positions within EA.
The SimCity brand took a hit in 2013 when an online version was hit with plenty of bugs that annoyed users, notes Kokatu. That game, along with The Sims 4, was not a success, so it’s likely that this played into EA’s decision to shutter the studio.
Will Wright and Jeff Braun found Maxis in 1987 and launched SimCity in 1989. When EA bought the company in 1997, Wright began developing The Sims, which was released in 2000.
News of the closing was first reported by Beyond Sims, which noticed a tweet from SimCity lead gameplay scripter Guillaume Pierre.