Electronic Arts is closing Maxis, the studio behind the SimCity franchise, EA confirmed with a statement to the public yesterday, following reports on Twitter from now-former staff of the large game publisher.
Development on SimCity and The Sims will now be continue at EA’s studios in Redwood Shores, California; Salt Lake City; Helsinki; and Melbourne, Australia. However, the Maxis home offices in Emeryville, California, are now being closed.
Here’s the official statement from EA:
[quote style=’1′ cite=’EA Games’ title=”]Today we are consolidating Maxis IP development to our studios in Redwood Shores, Salt Lake City, Helsinki and Melbourne locations as we close our Emeryville location. Maxis continues to support and develop new experiences for current Sims and SimCity players, while expanding our franchises to new platforms and developing new cross-platform IP.
These changes do not impact our plans for The Sims. 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.
All employees impacted by the changes today will be given opportunities to explore other positions within the Maxis studios and throughout EA. For those that are leaving the company, we are working to ensure the best possible transition with separation packages and career assistance.
[/quote]
An Ea representative declined to specify what percentage of workers will be stricken by the closure of Maxis HQ.
Maxis was sprung into life in 1987 as Maxis Software by Will Wright and Jeff Braun. The studio’s initial game, SimCity, debuted in 1989 and set out to be among the foremost beloved series in gaming. Ea bought out Maxis in 1997, and Wright shifted to developing The Sims. released to the world in 2000, The Sims became another huge franchise for EA. The publisher later split off the Sims team into The Sims Studio, moving development of that franchise to the EA offices in Redwood Shores and Salt Lake City. the foremost recent entry in the virtual-doll house series, The Sims 4, launched last fall. Maxis had also brought back SimCity with a rechristening in 2013, SimCity; that game was hampered by severe online issues that persisted long beyond the launch.
As initially speculated by insiders of Sims, longterm Maxis staff member Guillaume Pierre tweeted yesterday that “it’s time to turn off the lights and put the key under the door,” in conjunction with the hashtag #RIPMaxisEmeryville:


Pierre began his career at Maxis over a decade ago in April 2003, and served as a designer and also the lead gameplay scripter on 2013’s SimCity. In response to a matter concerning Maxis shutting down, Pierre Affirmed the closure and aforementioned, “Everyone’s out of a job.” He told the public via Twitter that he could not offer additional details “beyond that the studio is shutting down.”
Barrie Tingle, who had worked as a live producer on SimCity, additionally tweeted regarding Maxis’ conclusion. “Maxis Emeryville closes as of today,” he said. during a later tweet, Tingle denote a photograph of the refrigerator at the studio, revealing it’s “stocked for the day” with “cheap malt liquor.”