EA – Page 6 – Bluebellflora

EA closes another studio, RIP Maxis Emeryville

Published on March 4, 2015 by BluebellFloraLeave a comment

Maxis Emeryville, the studio behind Spore and the 2013 SimCity reboot, has been shutdown.

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

SimCity was the very first computer game I ever played on a Mac, back in 1989. I thought the 2013 reboot was great. Yes there were and still are controversial issues with SimCity, most notably, initially always having to be online when playing, not having a single player mode when launched, and small maps. The first two issues were resolved in a patch but the small maps continues to be a bone of contention with scores of players.

Sadly Electronic Arts, Inc. have a history of closing great studios. Buy them up, chew them up, and spit them out. I’m only hypothesising here but I can’t help but think that Maxis Emeryville were probably hampered at every turn by suits in big offices who didn’t have the first clue about game development and what gamers actually want.

Good luck to all those who have just lost their jobs, I’m sure you’ll find employers who really value your talent and inspire you to do even greater things 😀

The Sims 4 available for Mac, EA fall at the first hurdle

Published on February 17, 2015February 17, 2015 by BluebellFlora1 Comment

Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t EA make a Sims 4 Technical Discussion forum available for Windows users BEFORE the game was actually released? So bugs, patches and all the important stuff relating to actually getting the game to work was available straight away? Yep, that’s what I thought, of course they did.

So why are they so useless and not bothered with the Mac equivalent? I started this thread 17 days ago and 2 days later, with much support from the fabulous blunote00, SimGuruBChick responded:

Two weeks later where are we? Absolutely nowhere. EA have failed YET AGAIN, with their “beloved” Mac folk. No sign of any dedicated TS4 forum. Now, before anyone reading this starts yelling at me about demanding a Mac forum, consider this – do you really want us clogging up the Tech. forum with a myriad of posts about Macs? No, didn’t think so. Currently EA are moving all Mac related posts to The Sims 3 Mac Forum anyway so the TS3 forum is getting clogged up with TS4 threads.

Not off to a great start are we EA?

Edit – an hour after the game goes live and we have a Mac forum:

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/categories/the-sims-4-on-mac-discussions

Finally!

Sims 4 Mac Forum

Published on February 1, 2015 by BluebellFlora5 Comments

I recently Tweeted a guru and the main Sims Twitter accounts, asking if we would be getting a dedicated Mac forum for The Sims 4. Ten days later and I’m still waiting for a reply for all those “beloved” Mac folk, as they so patronisingly referred to us on the Sims 3 Mac Forum.

I’ve just asked the same question in the Forum Ideas & feedback section over on the Officials. No doubt that will probably be ignored as well but let’s try and keep it active until they ~~move/delete~~ respond to it. You can find the thread here:

Will there be a Sims 4 Mac Forum?

I am fully aware that those with nothing better to do and an average IQ of about 12 will probably troll the thread with the usual ‘Macs aren’t gaming computers’ rubbish 🙂