EA closes down SimCity dev Maxis Emeryville

UPDATE: EA confirms the closure.

Reports are trickling in that EA has shut down Maxis Emeryville, the developer of SimCity.

Kotaku spotted a Tweet from SimCity designer Guillaume Pierre, which seems to indicate that the studio is shutting off its lights for good.

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

— Guillaume Pierre (@DesignGuillaume) March 4, 2015

This doesn’t appear to mean anything for The Sims franchise, as that’s handled by The Sims Studio (a separate division of EA that’s part of the Maxis brand, as I understand it), but Maxis Emeryville were the studio behind both Spore and the recent SimCity reboot – neither of which were received quite as well as people hoped.

There’s no official statement yet, but we’ll keep you posted. RIP Maxis, 1987 – 2015.

UPDATE: EA has posted up a confirmation of the closure, which you can read in its entirety below.

“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.”