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    Will Wright

    Person » credited in 44 games

    An award-winning game developer and one of the most influential individuals in the industry. He's best known for founding Maxis, and subsequently developing SimAnt, SimEarth, SimLife, SimTower, SimCopter, and the SimCity, Sims, and Spore franchises. Wright collects artifacts from (and is a general expert on) the Soviet Space Program.

    Will Wright Leaves EA

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    Ryan

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    Edited By Ryan  Staff
    Join the Stupid Fun Club today, Will!
    Join the Stupid Fun Club today, Will!
    MTV Multiplayer is reporting that Will Wright--famed designer behind such popular and influential franchises such as SimCity, The Sims, and Spore--has left EA, the company that has published the lion's share of Wright's games, effective today. He'll now be focusing his energies full time on Stupid Fun Club, a Berkeley-based venture that Wright has been involved with for several years now. Part of what makes this move particularly interesting is that Stupid Fun Club is not a game-development house in a traditional sense, having produced bizarre robot-based short films and hidden-camera experiments in the past. Stupid Fun Club describes itself as “an entertainment development studio” whose ideas may manifest in “video games, online environments, storytelling media and fine home care products.” Considering the interest that Wright has openly expressed in exploring non-traditional entertainment formats, the Stupid Fun Club manifesto seems fairly indistinguishable from his own vision. 

    This, however, doesn't mean that Will Wright will be cutting his ties with his former publisher completely. EA and Wright both have equal financial stakes in Stupid Fun Club, and EA will have first-look publishing rights for any games it might produce. Personally I hope Wright's newfound autonomy will allow him to chase some of the smaller, stranger ideas he might have bouncing around inside his curious brain.

    UPDATE: If you want to see some of the awesomely incomprehensible stuff that Stupid Fun Club has gotten up to in the past, check out its YouTube channel.
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    Ryan

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    #1  Edited By Ryan  Staff
    Join the Stupid Fun Club today, Will!
    Join the Stupid Fun Club today, Will!
    MTV Multiplayer is reporting that Will Wright--famed designer behind such popular and influential franchises such as SimCity, The Sims, and Spore--has left EA, the company that has published the lion's share of Wright's games, effective today. He'll now be focusing his energies full time on Stupid Fun Club, a Berkeley-based venture that Wright has been involved with for several years now. Part of what makes this move particularly interesting is that Stupid Fun Club is not a game-development house in a traditional sense, having produced bizarre robot-based short films and hidden-camera experiments in the past. Stupid Fun Club describes itself as “an entertainment development studio” whose ideas may manifest in “video games, online environments, storytelling media and fine home care products.” Considering the interest that Wright has openly expressed in exploring non-traditional entertainment formats, the Stupid Fun Club manifesto seems fairly indistinguishable from his own vision. 

    This, however, doesn't mean that Will Wright will be cutting his ties with his former publisher completely. EA and Wright both have equal financial stakes in Stupid Fun Club, and EA will have first-look publishing rights for any games it might produce. Personally I hope Wright's newfound autonomy will allow him to chase some of the smaller, stranger ideas he might have bouncing around inside his curious brain.

    UPDATE: If you want to see some of the awesomely incomprehensible stuff that Stupid Fun Club has gotten up to in the past, check out its YouTube channel.
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    Death_Burnout

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    #2  Edited By Death_Burnout

    This is good.

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    Hamz

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    #3  Edited By Hamz

    If it means we get more of the abstract or unusual stuff Will Wright comes up with, then I'm all for it!

    Goodluck to him :)

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    ElectricHaggis

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    #4  Edited By ElectricHaggis

    Madness.  Good luck to him.

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    deactivated-57b1d7d14d4a5

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    #5  Edited By deactivated-57b1d7d14d4a5

    Bittersweet.

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    MattyFTM

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    #6  Edited By MattyFTM  Moderator

    Yeah, in reality nothing has changed. He still develops with EA, and they still publish his games. All that has changed is that Will Wright can now enter the world of movies, TV and god know what else, which will be interesting to see.

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    LiveOrDie1212

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    #7  Edited By LiveOrDie1212

    the Man needs to spread his wings, he can't do that working for EA

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    TomA

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    #8  Edited By TomA

    That's quite exicting really,Will Wright is awesome and this just sounds rad.

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    LordAndrew

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    #9  Edited By LordAndrew

    I want to join the Stupid Fun Club.

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    sparky_buzzsaw

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    #10  Edited By sparky_buzzsaw

    Although I've loved most of Wright's games under EA, I hope he finds his new venture to be fun and exciting.

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    MattyFTM

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    #11  Edited By MattyFTM  Moderator
    LordAndrew said:
    "I want to join the Stupid Fun Club."
    I know. It sounds like stupid fun. And everyone knows that's the best kind of fun.
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    logson

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    #12  Edited By logson

    As I read this, I got the same feeling I get whenever I hear about a great college sports coach leaving a school: Things won't reaaallly change, but this is awful for the recruits. There are lots and lots of people that came to EA with the hopes of being able to work with/for/under/in the same building as Will Wright, and while that's not an impossibility now, that chance has taken a serious hit.
    For everyone else, this is great.

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    lordofultima

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    #13  Edited By lordofultima

    This is good news for sure, he would have inevitably be tied to do sims sequels for all of eternity otherwise.

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    Diamond

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    #14  Edited By Diamond

    I guess we'll soon find out if it was EA or Will Wright that made Spore not so good.

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    JoelTGM

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    #15  Edited By JoelTGM

    weird

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    Scorched

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    #16  Edited By Scorched

    crazy

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    RHCPfan24

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    #17  Edited By RHCPfan24

    Wow, glad to see he is doing his own thing.

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    REDRUN

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    #18  Edited By REDRUN

    Good Luck Will, glad you made the move. :)

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    ToxicFruit

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    #19  Edited By ToxicFruit

    Good for him. he has my support !

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    SuperMooseman

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    #20  Edited By SuperMooseman

    Indeed, good luck to Mr. Wright and here's to hoping more awesome games from him.

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    Linkyshinks

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    #21  Edited By Linkyshinks

    Good for him, perhaps now he can enjoy his Care Bears in peace and tranquility.

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    darkstorn

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    #22  Edited By darkstorn

    Berkeley...

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    MrKlorox

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    #23  Edited By MrKlorox

    Excellent. I loved what his games are deep down. Just hated the excessive commercialism EA coated them with.

    If this means more freedom for Wright to try new things, bring it on. Best of luck to him.

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    McQuinn

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    #24  Edited By McQuinn

    weird, well I hope he has stupid fun.

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    plagueseason

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    #25  Edited By plagueseason

    I wonder if this has anything to do with the Spore DRM fiasco. Either way, good news and best of luck to Will. He seems like one of the more creative minds in video game development.

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    MeatSim

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    #26  Edited By MeatSim

    EA will still milk The Sims and Spore till the end of time though.

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    Ferginator4k

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    #27  Edited By Ferginator4k

    I'm not surprised yet shocked at the news.

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    Media_Master

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    #28  Edited By Media_Master

    This is Stupid Fun!

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