Maxis Emeryville is no more.
According to Kotaku, owner EA is closing the main location for Maxis, the studio behind the SimCity and The Sims franchises. Other Maxis offices will remain open.
“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,” EA told Kotaku. “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.”
EA also said that employees impacted by the closure will be given opportunities at other EA studios, including the remaining Maxis locations. EA also promised that this closure will not change content plans for The Sims 4.
Maxis released a new version of SimCity in 2013 that received plenty of criticism due to connection errors related to its always-online requirements. Last year’s The Sims 4 also received criticism for lacking content from its predecessors.