Items tagged with Maxis
Word is out that Electronic Arts has closed down Maxis Emeryville, the studio responsible for the buggy SimCity remake and, more recently, The Sims 4. Guillaume Pierre, a designer and lead gameplay scripter for SimCity, first revealed the news on Twitter saying, "Well it was a fun 12 years, but it's time to turn off the lights and put the key under the door. RIP Maxis Emeryville." Subsequent tweets would clarify that yes, "the shop is closing down," followed by confirmation from EA once the news spread. The timing really couldn't have been worse, as EA dropped the bombshell right in the middle of the Game Developer Conference (GDC), an annual event where developers and game studios from around...
Read more...
The modern version of SimCity just can't seem to enjoy a smooth launch. When it was released to Windows PCs back in March, users complained about the lack of offline play and problems connecting to overburdened servers. Now several months later, SimCity launches to the Mac platform, and once again, gamers are having trouble. Several posts on EA's forums detail issues gamers are having getting the game to run properly. The complaints aren't limited to a single system, either, but a range of Macs, including brand new Retina MacBook models. One user complained of having to reinstall Origin five times just to try and attempt to run SimCity (unsuccessfully), while another said the game was "totally...
Read more...
Would-be mayors gaming on an Apple Mac were promised a version of SimCity for their platform of choice on June 11, though as it goes with politics (and game release dates), you can't always believe what you hear. If you had hopes of spending your summer vacation playing SimCity on your Mac, you'll have to resort to plan B, if you have one, because Maxis made the decision to move the release date to August. Apparently it wasn't an easy one to make. "We have made this tough decision because we do not believe it is ready for prime time yet," Maxis stated in a blog post. "We want to ensure the Mac is a great experience for our players and that is why we are taking more time." That's too bad for Mac...
Read more...
Maxis is prepping the first "major" patch for SimCity, which is set to launch this coming Monday at around 1PM PST. While I'd argue that it's bizarre to issue a major update to a game in the middle of the day like this, this particular patch looks to be well worth it. In addition to a slew of bugs being fixed, the HUD has been improved for colorblind mode and mayors will now drive their fanciest vehicles around - cars, helicopters, limos and sports cars. Ahh, to be king. Taking care of complaints that casinos are not profitable enough, those have been improved upon with this patch. Unfortunately, you'll need to bulldoze and rebuild your casino in order for the enhancement to trigger. In addition...
Read more...
EA CEO John Riccitiello has resigned from his post after six years as the top man and the previous seven as COO. In all, Riccitiello has been with the company since 1997, but he’s leaving under a cloud. The company missed its financial goals of the last year and also this quarter, but most will point to the ill-fated launch of SimCity as the reason that he’s leaving--or at least, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The launch of SimCity earlier this month was a total fiasco from start to finish, top to bottom. EA and its subsidiary Maxis did not have the back end ready for the online game, and the company’s servers crashed under the weight of its many paying...
Read more...
For the past nine days, Maxis has been caught in a firestorm of epic proportions. Having failed to beta test the game appropriately or account for actual server loads, Maxis' SimCity servers disintegrated under the onslaught of people wanting to play a game they paid for. Since launch day, company executives and representatives have remained steadfast on one point -- the game must be played online. "With the way that the game works, we offload a significant amount of the calculations to our servers so that the computations are off the local PCs and are moved into the cloud. It wouldn't be possible to make the game offline without a significant amount of engineering work by our team." Maxis general...
Read more...
It's been a long time since we've last been able to play a proper new release of a SimCity game, with SimCity 4 having been released a staggering 10 years ago. If you happen to feel lenient and place SimCity Societies in the running, then it's still been a full six years since we've been able to indulge in our city-building addictions with a modern release. Fortunately, our wait is almost over, with the latest SimCity game, simply dubbed "SimCity", set to launch in March. Since March is still a little ways away, EA is allowing us to whet our appetites with an open beta set to take place during the weekend of January 25 - 28 (Friday - Monday). However, in order to participate, you...
Read more...
