Maxis, de studio verantwoordelijk voor de De Sims-spellen, wordt samen met EA Mobile gevoegd tot EA Worldwide Studios. Samantha Ryan zal verantwoordelijk worden (of eigenlijk blijven) voor de leiding van de studio na het eerdere vertrek van Rachel Franklin bij de Maxis-tak. Andrew Wilson, CEO van Electronic Arts, schreef hierover het volgende:
By Andrew Wilson, Chief Executive Officer
The world is changing around us – games are now a part of the lives of nearly three billion people, while a convergence of technologies is opening up even more ways to play. Now more than ever we have a responsibility to put our Players First. We have already made a number of important changes over the past year that have helped reshape marketing and publishing, and launch new initiatives in competitive gaming. Today, we are announcing additional updates to our organizational structure that are designed to strengthen our studios and technology platform:
- The formation of EA Worldwide Studios. At a time when players are engaged in games across more devices, the tenets of making great HD and mobile experiences are converging. Our ability to blend our strengths to deliver amazing games across genres, geographies and platforms, in a networked environment, is central to our future success. EA Worldwide Studios will bring together our top creative talent in all of our great studios to work on EA’s powerful brand portfolio and new IP. EA Mobile and Maxis will join this central studios organization led by Patrick Söderlund. Samantha Ryan, who will now report to Patrick, will continue to lead our Mobile and Maxis teams. Sam will also take on leadership of BioWare, where her love for RPGs and experience with open-world adventure games is an outstanding fit to work with Aaryn Flynn and his great team.
- The Frostbite team joins our Technology organization. Our drive to power everything we do at EA with world-class technology has never been stronger. Players expect innovative, stable and secure experiences, and the strong combination of our Frostbite engine and our digital platform will make this possible. As a result, our central Frostbite Engine team will move to the CTO group led by Ken Moss.
Every day, I am inspired by our work, our achievements, and the opportunity in front of us to accomplish even more incredible things for Electronic Arts and for our players.
Overigens hoeft niemand zich (voorlopig nog) zorgen te maken dat er dingen drastisch gaan veranderen bij De Sims; SimGuruDrake bevestigt namelijk dat ‘zij nog steeds Maxis zijn’. Wat dat voor de langere termijn betekent, zullen we nog moeten zijn.
