 "EA to shut down three Facebook games developed by Maxis")
Electronic Arts is shutting down some of its Facebook games. The company has announced on its website that it will be shutting down The Sims Social, SimCity Social and Pet Society. Other games, including Bejeweled Blitz, Solitaire Blitz and Plants vs Zombies Adventures aren’t being shut down. Only the games developed by Maxis are being affected.
EA seems to be shifting its focus from Maxis’ Facebook games to the ones developed by PopCap. The company will be transitioning players of the games being shut down to PopCap’s games. “For players who have enjoyed our games, we will be making a special offer to introduce you to a PopCap game,” states the company. “You’re a valued fan and we want to make sure you get a smooth transition to PopCap. More details about that offer will appear in-game soon.”
The games are still up for some time, though. They will go offline on June 14. The company is encouraging players to spend any in-game currency they might have in these games, such as SimCash in The Sims Social, Diamonds in SimCity Social, or Pet Society Cash in Pet Society, as the in-game currencies will become invalid when the games are shut down.
SimCity Social is among the three Maxis games being shut down
This has been a continuous trend for Facebook games. Due to games losing popularity, many companies have shut down some of their games. For example, back in December, Zynga had shut down 11 of its games in an attempt to focus development time on more profitable titles.
The games shut down by Zynga included Petville, Mafia Wars 2, FishVille, Vampire Wars, Treasure ISle, Indiana Jones Adventure World, Mafia Wars Shakedown, Forestville, Montopia, Mojitomo and World Scramble Challenge.
EA’s reason for shutting these games down has been because of the fall in the number of players. The players, on the other hand, have been placing the blame squarely at EA’s feet. These players list the company’s refusal to fix many of the game’s issues as one of the major reasons for the player drop-off, which, in turn, has led the company to shut the games down.
It is very likely that EA is pulling out Maxis’ games so that the development team can better focus on SimCity, especially after the recent controversy fan backlash.
Maxis has been continuously at work in an attempt to fix issues that gamers have had with SimCity. The company had to switch off some of the game’s features, including achievements and the Cheetah game speed so that it could fix issues with the game’s servers.
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