Thread 11897891

Why did the SIM franchise die?

>>11897891 (OP)
they dont work well on consoles

>>11897891 (OP)
Whoever is behind this should be hung in the streets. Spore is a disgusting abomination but they way they tried to casualize simcitt they really deserve to get trapped by a pack of wild StarCraft triggers

Sims sold more and simcity died in mediocrity

>>11898046
SimCity and Sims both got infected by EA but since the target audiences differed SimCity died because it was shit and men dont accept that where as the Sims thrived because women are willing to waste thousands of dollars on garbage since they dont know any better.

>>11897891 (OP)
>In 1997, Maxis agreed to be acquired by Electronic Arts by means of a stock swap which valued Maxis at $125 million.[9] In a press release, Maxis stated it agreed to the acquisition in order to take advantage of Electronic Arts' strong distribution channel.[10] The transaction was complete on July 28, 1997, and triggered major changes at the company. Jeff Braun left, having received a sizeable amount of money during the purchase, and nearly half of the Maxis staff were laid off.[11][7]

>>11898086
>Maxis stated it agreed to the acquisition in order to take advantage of Electronic Arts' strong distribution channel
What was so strong about it? I remember seeing Maxis games featured front and center in every computer store in the 90s before EA bought them. What more could they possible need?

>>11897891 (OP)
Will Wright left Maxis after Spore

>>11897891 (OP)
Maxis was always inferior to Bullfrog, and by the way, Sim Tower wasn't even their game.

>>11897891 (OP)
It got replaced by the Sims.

>>11898091
It wasn't. That was just a BS reason that was given so the owner could sell the company and cash out.

>>11898091
Maxis was on the verge of bankruptcy due a bunch of bad and mediocre titles they made/published. They tried to go big too quickly and stretched themselves thin until they nearly snapped. It was either take an EA buyout to close up shop.

This wasn't unique to Maxis, a bunch of other PC-only devs were facing similar issues in the 90s.

>>11897891 (OP)
because PCfags are piratefags who refuse to buy their games

Sim ant is one of my all time fav games ever.
I also really like Sim city 2k.
The helo and streets being able to use your own cities was mind blowing for a younging faggot anon (me).

I never got into sim tower, but apparently everyone loved it. Sim health was meh and out done by that later hospital game.

My best friend had sim earth and it wasn't that good some how. We just never got into it.

It's sad it died, I think Sim has a phone game and a free one/rebrand ?

>>11898381
You are utterly retarded.

>>11898295
I think a lot of people don't realize just how volatile PC game dev was in the 90s and 2000s

I fucking loved Sim Ant, Sim Town, Sim Tower, and to a lesser extent Sim Safari

I have no idea how that type of game stayed mostly dead for so long, as a kid learning about these concepts was fun as fuck, especially Sim Ant colony stuff

SimTower is not part of the Sim series and was branded with the “Sim” name by Maxis when they published it in the West for marketing purposes. In Japan it was released as The Tower and was developed entirely independently.

>>11897891 (OP)
EA.
>>11899251
I had a kids pack of some Maxis games including Sim Town, Sim Safari, Sim Park, Widget Workshop, and my personal favorite: Sim Tunes.

EA and shareholders.

Does anyone remember El-Fish? It was published by Maxis, but for some reason they didn’t call it SimFish, even though it surely would have been much more popular that way. I spent countless hours generating fish in it.

Reminder that Will Wright competed in the US version of Robot Wars with his daughter in the 90s. And one of their robots, Kitty Puff Puff, became the lightweight melee champion, by wrapping its opponents in tape. Pretty cool.
https://youtu.be/Mphup3nVz3I?feature=shared

>>11897891 (OP)
The Sims happened

Is SimGolf the rarest PC game of all time? I've been trying to complete my collection of big box Maxis games and not once has it ever come up for sale in the 3 years I've had an eBay alert set for it, except for one listing where the box was in such beat up shape that it wasn't even worth it, and it still instantly sold for like $200.

>>11899554
>SimGolf
i don't know how rare it is but the fact there's a later game called Sid Meier's SimGolf which is a golf course management sim and not a golf simulator like the original, makes it even more confusing

>>11899567
That one isn't rare at all. New listings of it show up daily in my eBay alerts, which is annoying because I have no way of excluding a game with the same exact name.

>>11897895
PC centric games still exist though like civ and cities skylines
>>11898061
Sims 3 was great. Can't defend 4 though

>>11898381
steam exists now where tf have you been anon

>>11897891 (OP)
It's entirely because of EA cucking and later destroying Maxis. Big loss for vidya

>>11899604
and steam has made it easier than ever to pirate games. there's even a built in system that hides the fact you're playing cracked games by saying you're playing some other game instead.

>>11898381
Yeah, for years they laughed at people that were "stupid enough" to pay for games but were too dumb to realize companies stop making games when nobody's paying for them.

>>11900529
90% of those companies were on the verge of bankruptcy before the EA acquisition.

>>11900529
What a fantastic game.

>>11899323
This sounds fun, I'll try to track it down.
i loved Odell Down under that was fun AF.

anyone play simtower? i love how it looks

>>11900812
Unfortunately it doesn’t offer much gameplay. It’s basically an aquarium designer and fish breeding simulator, but it’s so unique that I think it’s definitely worth trying.

>>11901373
It’s not bad, but Yoot Tower, the second installment, is even better.

>>11897891 (OP)
EA ran off all the talent and replaced them with EA goons.

>>11897891 (OP)
>SimHealth
I remember getting this one because the screenshots made it look like a more in-depth SC2K. needless to say my little mind died a bit back then.

>>11901373
I played Project Highrise and got bored with it after a couple days, as it lacks the depth I was expecting.

>>11897918
>EA
It's right there

>>11898249
>>11898046
>>11898249
>>11899436
congratulations you have outed yourselves as tourists.

>>11897891 (OP)
Those box covers are sexy

Never played simearth but a friend claimed to have it and said it's basically simcity but on s world wide scale ether you would go into different cities and fix them. Sounded like bullshit

As someone said already, after SC2K, they went crazy and tried to do a lot of bunch, which either was decent to underwhelming (Streets of SimCity) or got cancelled, and they cancelled a lot of projects by that time. The original idea for SC3K wasn't getting anywhere and Maxis almost died, then they managed to sold it to EA, fired all the executives that almost killed the company and cancelled shit and redid SC3K. Then The Sims got them new life (which didn't last long after EA became turbo trash). A bunch of those cancelled games can be seen in trailers included on some deluxe editions of old Sims games.

>>11897891 (OP)
For me I only played Sim City and SC2K. Quite a fun game but I can't imagine the rest of those games were all that good. Even Sim City got boring after awhile. I wouldn't mind playing it right now if it were like a browser game but I'm not going to go out of my way to play it again. Never had the itch to.

I think the SIM franchise just doesn't have enough of a mass normie appeal. Its clearly for niche audiences. So that is it really.

>>11897891 (OP)
Console peasants were gatekept from them, so they gradually disappeared as the market pushed gaming to be more cross-cultural from PC to console and vice versa.

There aren't enough people over 100IQ.

>>11900529
Why is it legal for a company to do this?

>>11897891 (OP)
>>11905765
Honestly, aside from SimCity, none of their games offered much replay value. I got bored with all of them after just a few hours. If they’d focused more on that, they might still be around today.

>>11899554
based collection nonnie

>>11906065
Because IP has value in capitalism, if you think what EA did was unbelievably bad, just look at the car and aerospace industry.

>>11905665
yeah that's BS it's basically a climate simulator

>>11897891 (OP)
The Electronic Antichrist bought-out Maxis and enshittified them over the course of nearly two decades culminating in a very shitty SimCity reboot that was overshadowed by Cities: Skylines and forgotten.

>>11899554
Nice collection. Not as cool but I have quite a few of the budget DVD box re-releases inc. Sim Golf

>>11905421
Okay, smart guy, why did the SIM franchise die then?

>>11906547
>if you think what EA did was unbelievably bad, just look at the car and aerospace industry.
Explain.

>>11900208
steam games are profitable enough I doubt this is hurting them much

Ea killed the golden goose once it had their fill of eggs

>>11897918
>Spore is a disgusting abomination
I like it, but it's not a good "sim" game

>>11897891 (OP)
You'd hate to hear it but most Maxis simulators are essentially slop, the kind of shit that shouldn't cost more than five dollars on Steam nowadays.

>"slop"-poster
Irrelevant "opinion"

>>11907326
He did.
>just look at the car and aerospace industry

>>11905421
You know it's true

>>11908353
That isn't an explanation.

even non-Maxis sim games died
the sim genre is dead

>>11909379
I see a bunch of them, Planet Coaster got a sequel and zoo spinoff, and the Two point series is doing well for itself, Cities Skylines seems to be doing good.

>>11911574
Those are tycoon games, not sim games.

>>11913579
tycoon games are sim games

Are the Germans the uncrowned kings of this genre?

>>11913593
Yes.

>>11913593
The sheer autism coming from -largely Germans but you have ETS, Farming sim, train sims are coming back too. :3 among other stuff I am here for it

>>11905421
>no argument
OK retard

>>11897891 (OP)
They were never fun. Eventually you could load up zsnes on the school computer and had no more use for sim ant or whatever

>>11913954
Filtered

>>11913954
It's spelled ZEDSNEZZ.

>>11913579
>>11913902
there's some kind of shift in the designation though. back then SIM games were "simulation" as in a diorama where you can observe and control aspects of it. nowadays it refers to hands-on experience in the sense of a "simulator".

>>11898091
Will Wright needs more money to burn in the pitfire that was Dollhouse before it turned into The Sims. Maxis was already bleeding money with stupid ventures nobody likes with Streets of SimCity and the like while also tried too hard to bring SimCity to 3D before the average consumer PC aren't powerful enough to run even the tech demo. Maxis going bankrupt was sadly self-inflicted and EA acquiring them ironically saved them before turning them to a zombie studio focusing too much on their current cash cow which is The Sims

>>11913579
A good portion of the sim games were practically tycoon games