Will Wright leaves EA. Joins Stupid Fun Club.

[Queasy]

MTV Multiplayer

The top game designer in the United States ? maybe the world ? has left one of the biggest publishers in the industry. And he?s already got a new job.

Will Wright, famous designer of ?Sim City,? ?The Sims,? and ?Spore? is leaving Electronic Arts, his publisher announced today. Wright will be running the Stupid Fun Club, an organization he started in 2001 with EA and had used for robot experiments, TV pilots and other offbeat ideas for years.

Wright had been part of EA since the publisher bought Maxis, the studio where Wright made ?Sim City? in 1997.

Wright?s effectively done at EA today, Lucy Bradshaw, vice president and general manager at Maxis told MTV Multiplayer in an interview about the news earlier today. No one?s taken Wright?s office yet, but she imagines someone will occupy it. For aspiring Maxis employees with eyes on that space, note that it has windows and ?fittingly for Wright ? a ?smoker?s patio.?

Wright explained his departure in a press release: ?The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change,? he said in the release announcing his career change. ?Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms. In my twelve years at EA, I?ve had the pleasure to work alongside some of the brightest and most talented game developers in the industry and I look forward to working with them again in the near future.?

Bradshaw said Wright will be working on ideas for a range of media formats at Stupid Fun Club, which will be jointly owned by Wright, EA ? both holding an equal stake ? along with an unnamed third investor who holds a smaller stake. ?EA has first right on options to any games in development [from the Stupid Fun Club],? Bradshaw said. She noted that the career change was Wright?s idea. ?At no point was there resistance,? she said. ?There was a lot of collaborative dialogue about how the partnership would move forward.?

Bradshaw said that the development of Wright-created franchises owned by EA such as ?Sim City,? ?The Sims? and ?Spore? will continue without Wright, steered, as they have been in recent years, by top creators in the company. And beyond that, she emphasized, EA is stocked with top creators. ?Yes, Will is one of our amazing creators,? she said, ?But EA did spend time thinking and investing in its own [intellectual property] and we?ve got a number of creators within the umbrella of Electronic Arts ? Greg and Ray at BioWare, Alex Ward at Criterion doing ?Burnout? ? that you?ll continue to see EA innovate and continue to take in new directions.?

Asked whether Wright could be hired by another game publisher like Activision, Bradshaw emphasized that EA gets first look at any game projects that could spin out of Wright?s Stupid Fun Club work. When asked for clarification about whether that meant Wright was contractually prevented from working at another game company, she said she didn?t have the specific details on that but didn?t think that was possible: ?Essentially it is a partnership with Stupid Fun Club that would dissolve if he was not the primary owner there.?

No game projects are currently in development at the Stupid Fun Club.

The Stupid Fun Club is based in Berkley, not far from Maxis. ?I think we?ll see him here from time to time,? Bradshaw said.

A 2002 Newsweek article described the Club as an incubator for wild idea:

The two-year-old stupid Fun Club is organized around the interest in robots, shared by Thorpe and filmmaker Mike Winter, Wright?s partners in the club. Their first TV pilot, called ?M.Y. Robot,? features six-inch-high puppets, a roaming robot and a 16th-century Japanese village that has been altered by alien technology. In postproduction, anime-style graphics were overlaid onto the footage to communicate with viewers in a secret script. Wright explains that he was appropriating Japanese visual styles in the same way the Japanese shows reinterpret American cultural mores. ?As far as we know, nobody has done this,? he says.

Regardless of how much non-gaming work will be happening at the Stupid Fun Club, don?t presume that Will Wright is retired as a video game creator. ?I think Will will continue in the games space,? Bradshaw said. ?It?s something that?s very natural to him? I think what gamers might see is other directions Will might take on as well?

Last year, Wright told MTV Multiplayer he already knew what he was working on next. It would be something ?pretty grandiose.? Today, it seems, we can also count it being stupid. And fun.

 

[Maximilian]

I think that might be a backlash from the whole spore thing, hes realised his typically creative, innovative and usually fun games will always be dumbed down by EA. They killed simcity its only a matter of time before the sims and spore franchises bite the dust as well. Keeping them at arms length like valve does seems like a good plan.

 

[mindcycle]

Wright then explained the true reason for leaving after the EA spokespeople left. "This is a drug... for the world... to give worms to ex-girlfriends. You just don't get it here! Huhoooo!"

I apologize in advance if you don't get the reference.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Can you blame him? Spore was his baby, then EA goes and fungles it all up, puts the most horrible DRM ever into it, and it turns into a big fiasco with customer outcry and lawsuits and all that. He had to be extremely angry at how EA handled Spore. Being the big name designer that he is, he probably said, "Screw this. I'm Will Wright. I don't need to tolerate this!"

 

[mindcycle]

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Can you blame him? Spore was his baby, then EA goes and fungles it all up, puts the most horrible DRM ever into it, and it turns into a big fiasco with customer outcry and lawsuits and all that. He had to be extremely angry at how EA handled Spore. Being the big name designer that he is, he probably said, "Screw this. I'm Will Wright. I don't need to tolerate this!"

Yes, I would assume that's the underlying reason as well.

 

[TidusZ]

I love how when someone quits a company to join another the reason they tell the press is because the old company is awesome and they love them and the new company is also great. Why not an honest answer, comon now.

 

[racolvin]

For all the effort that was put into Spore just to have EA screw the pooch with the DRM, etc, I couldn't blame him a bit for taking his marbles and going somewhere else to play.

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Can you blame him? Spore was his baby, then EA goes and fungles it all up, puts the most horrible DRM ever into it, and it turns into a big fiasco with customer outcry and lawsuits and all that. He had to be extremely angry at how EA handled Spore. Being the big name designer that he is, he probably said, "Screw this. I'm Will Wright. I don't need to tolerate this!"

Well the fact that the game itself was no fun doesn't help also.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: TidusZ
I love how when someone quits a company to join another the reason they tell the press is because the old company is awesome and they love them and the new company is also great. Why not an honest answer, comon now.

Don't burn your bridges?

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: TidusZ
I love how when someone quits a company to join another the reason they tell the press is because the old company is awesome and they love them and the new company is also great. Why not an honest answer, comon now.

EA also has a stake in his "new company" equal to how much he has, so he really ought to not piss them off .

 

[rivan]

Originally posted by: Newbian

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Can you blame him? Spore was his baby, then EA goes and fungles it all up, puts the most horrible DRM ever into it, and it turns into a big fiasco with customer outcry and lawsuits and all that. He had to be extremely angry at how EA handled Spore. Being the big name designer that he is, he probably said, "Screw this. I'm Will Wright. I don't need to tolerate this!"

Well the fact that the game itself was no fun doesn't help also.

I think that's what he's saying my 'fungling' it up. Implying that Wright had a gem and EA kept him from polishing it the way he wanted. We ended up with a rock.

 

[coloumb]

Originally posted by: Golgatha

Originally posted by: TidusZ
I love how when someone quits a company to join another the reason they tell the press is because the old company is awesome and they love them and the new company is also great. Why not an honest answer, comon now.

Don't burn your bridges?

Exactly my first thought

 

[BladeVenom]

He's still under some contractually obligation to EA. They could F*** him over if he pisses them off. They even have first refusal rights to what he produces.

 

[mindcycle]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
He's still under some contractually obligation to EA. They could F*** him over if he pisses them off. They even have first refusal rights to what he produces.

But only if it's a video game from how I interpreted it. Sounds like he wants to get out of the game industry and build robots.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
He's still under some contractually obligation to EA. They could F*** him over if he pisses them off. They even have first refusal rights to what he produces.

Why would you sign a contract that gave a company power to limit what you can and cannot do after you no longer work for them? I can understand not using IP developed at EA, but if Will comes up with another brilliant idea and decides to run with it, the fvck EA.

 

[QueBert]

Spore sucked, and that wasn't due to EA's use of DRM, the game just wasn't fun. People who blame EA for Spore sucking are pretty dumb if you ask me. It's just as much his fault as theirs.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: QueBert
Spore sucked, and that wasn't due to EA's use of DRM, the game just wasn't fun. People who blame EA for Spore sucking are pretty dumb if you ask me. It's just as much his fault as theirs.

QFT. Spore got pretty boring after the cell stage - I couldn't make it past the "civ" stage. It just seemed like a game for 8-year-olds. Except tedious and unrewarding.

 

[Coldkilla]

I want a new Sim City

The new one sucked horribly. My only hope is that since they never called Societies "Sim City 5", the formula (hopefully) will be similar..

 

[lupi]

sucks for EA that this happens just after the rearrange their business so 1/4 is based on Sims stuff.



or maybe it doesn't

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante

Originally posted by: QueBert
Spore sucked, and that wasn't due to EA's use of DRM, the game just wasn't fun. People who blame EA for Spore sucking are pretty dumb if you ask me. It's just as much his fault as theirs.

QFT. Spore got pretty boring after the cell stage - I couldn't make it past the "civ" stage. It just seemed like a game for 8-year-olds. Except tedious and unrewarding.

QFT. I got bored after Cell stage, played one entire play through and haven't touched it since- what a waste of money . Shitty game, I don't think hes the messiah people make him out to be anymore.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante

Originally posted by: QueBert
Spore sucked, and that wasn't due to EA's use of DRM, the game just wasn't fun. People who blame EA for Spore sucking are pretty dumb if you ask me. It's just as much his fault as theirs.

QFT. Spore got pretty boring after the cell stage - I couldn't make it past the "civ" stage. It just seemed like a game for 8-year-olds. Except tedious and unrewarding.

QFT. I got bored after Cell stage, played one entire play through and haven't touched it since- what a waste of money . Shitty game, I don't think hes the messiah people make him out to be anymore.

Agreed it was a complete waste of $60.00, major hype and simply boring game play. How could someone not have mentioned this during development? I'm sure someone wanted to but everyone was afraid to upset Will. The DRM had no impact on the boring game. Bah now I'm pissed off.

 

[acheron]

EA dumbed the game down from Will's design, they did more than just adding the DRM. Check out some of the earlier previews, the game should have been cooler than it was.

 

[zerogear]

Originally posted by: rivan

Originally posted by: Newbian

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Can you blame him? Spore was his baby, then EA goes and fungles it all up, puts the most horrible DRM ever into it, and it turns into a big fiasco with customer outcry and lawsuits and all that. He had to be extremely angry at how EA handled Spore. Being the big name designer that he is, he probably said, "Screw this. I'm Will Wright. I don't need to tolerate this!"

Well the fact that the game itself was no fun doesn't help also.

I think that's what he's saying my 'fungling' it up. Implying that Wright had a gem and EA kept him from polishing it the way he wanted. We ended up with a rock.

Except there were delay after delays for 'polishing'

 

[skace]

"Bradshaw emphasized that EA gets first look at any game projects that could spin out of Wright?s Stupid Fun Club"

That line cracked me up.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: zerogear

Originally posted by: rivan

Originally posted by: Newbian

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Can you blame him? Spore was his baby, then EA goes and fungles it all up, puts the most horrible DRM ever into it, and it turns into a big fiasco with customer outcry and lawsuits and all that. He had to be extremely angry at how EA handled Spore. Being the big name designer that he is, he probably said, "Screw this. I'm Will Wright. I don't need to tolerate this!"

Well the fact that the game itself was no fun doesn't help also.

I think that's what he's saying my 'fungling' it up. Implying that Wright had a gem and EA kept him from polishing it the way he wanted. We ended up with a rock.

Except there were delay after delays for 'polishing'

AKA 'dumbing it down so even a paraplegic retard can beat the game.'