Wright leaves EA

[deathman20]

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090408-713244.html

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Influential video-game designer Will Wright said Wednesday he is leaving Electronics Arts Inc. (ERTS), a likely blow to the company for which he created best-selling hits like "The Sims" and "Spore."

Wright, who is in his late 40s, said in a statement he was resigning from the Redwood City, Calif., game maker to concentrate on Stupid Fun Club, an entertainment think tank he founded in 2001. Wright had been at Electronic Arts for 12 years. A company representative didn't comment when asked if there were any additional reasons for the departure.

Electronic Arts and Wright will own an equal share of Stupid Fun Club, with a third, unnamed investor owning a much smaller share. Electronic Arts will also have the right of first refusal to commercialize any concepts the think tank generates. It didn't disclose the amount of its investment.

"This is definitely a loss of talents for Electronic Arts," said Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald. "He was one of their most well-known and respected elders there, and was responsible for its most profitable franchises."

Wright's departure comes as Electronic Arts struggles with its product lineup. Though the game maker has established franchises in sports titles, like the "Madden NFL" series of football games, Electronic Arts has had trouble developing new games with mass appeal, increasingly important to game companies as the development of titles becomes more and more costly.

The news shook Electronic Arts shares, which went from trading 2.5% higher to falling 0.2% to $19.14 in the minutes after the news was released. They were last trading up 1% to $19.56. Shares are down more than 60% from a year ago, which is worse than rivals' share performance.

Electronic Arts continues to count on games Wright developed for a significant part of its annual sales, particularly "The Sims." Electronic Arts has already sold more than 100 million copies of "The Sims" franchise for a total of more than $1 billion.

Lucy Bradshaw, general manager of game-development company Maxis, where Wright was chief designer, expressed confidence in the company's future performance. "Will is such a unique person, so nobody can take his shoes," she said. "We have incredible talent at the studio, and we continue to invest in those individuals."

Wright founded Maxis along with Jeff Braun in the mid-1980s, and rose to prominence after releasing the first of "The Sims" games. The games were novel at the time because they can't be won or lost; rather the game play is in managing characters interactions with other characters.

Maxis, a publicly traded company, was bought by Electronic Arts in 1997 in a stock-swap deal valued at $125 million. The company then published "The Sims" in February 2000, which remains Wright's biggest success. It appears Wright's last significant game developed for Electronic Arts will be "Spore," which has sold more than 2 million copies since it was released last September.

Wow

 

[Hardin]

It's about time. He probably couldn't have imagined EA hurting Maxis like it has when they first bought it.

 

[iLoki]

Probably not. I say good for him. EA had this coming. I just hope he doesn't stop developing games. The man is brilliant.

 

[lordkosc]

Sim City 5 plz. or a new Sim Ant.

 

[deathman20]

Sim Tower FTW A proper Sim City would be nice.

 

[Shiggity]

Sim Farm!

Sim City 2000 and Sim Tower were also two of my favorites.

 

[ratbuddy]

Probably not. I say good for him. EA had this coming. I just hope he doesn't stop developing games. The man is brilliant.

EA has a way of doing that.. Look what happened to Origin and Richard Garriott

 

[u1tra]

He left... maybe now EA will produce something a million times better?

 

[SteveLord]

EA has a way of doing that.. Look what happened to Origin and Richard Garriott

Right on. They also took up BioWare. So I think Bethesda is the only true RPG maker out there now.

 

[flixotide]

Well, taking a look at WW's new team, we might be looking forward to some even weirder games than Spore :S

One thing's for sure, EA will be harvesting the brands that they gobbled up with Maxis.

Its a shame. The good old days of Sid Meier, Will Wright ander Peter Molyneux are certainly gone.

 

[ShadowPho]

A proper civ4 please?

 

[Shelnutt2]

Don't forget when EA bought Westwood is slowly split the teams up and now there is no longer any original Westwood guys.

If EA would just be the publisher, and let the other guys develop. Everyone would win!

 

[FudgeNuggets]

Reading comprehension FAIL guys

Electronic Arts and Wright will own an equal share of Stupid Fun Club

.

The only way working FOR EA differs with working WITH EA is that they can't veto him if he wants to do something, yet at the same time they can deadlock him or override him depending on the opinion of the yet to be named 3rd party. They can also screw him by pulling funding.

 

[Leviathan41]

A proper civ4 please?

Civ4? Are you thinking of Sid Meier?

 

[burningcpu]

After Spore, I am just not that interested in this guy.

 

[Shiggity]

A proper civ4 please?

Turn based games don't do it for me anymore.

And +1 to what burningcpu just said in #15.

 

[SniperXX]

Don't forget when EA bought Westwood is slowly split the teams up and now there is no longer any original Westwood guys.

If EA would just be the publisher, and let the other guys develop. Everyone would win!

I was going to mention that reading this thread.