SIMS DIRECTOR LEAVES EA TO MAKE A NEW LIFE SIMULATION GAME!! 😱 

You don't up and leave a job after 18 years lightly... wouldn't be surprised if Grant saw where Sims 4 has been heading and where Sims 5 would be going, and decided to jump the sinking ship that is EA... hurrah for more life sim games... EA should be very worried... they've had the monopoly for far too long...

Good. The more competition for EA, the better. 👍

So, now it's not just us players getting fed up with EA, but seemingly also their game developers! GG, EA, you did it. You pissed off everyone 😂😂😂

The downfall of sims, The beginning of the end

the sims is fuckin COOKED

You know when a leader director leaves the Sims 4 that the EA royally snuffed up.

I'm LOVING all the competition. Sims has had a monopoly on the life sim market for over a decade. Now we have sooooo many new games coming. I'm excited.

LMFAOOO I can’t help but fucking laugh

The more simulation games, the better. We need more to play it! And all them are different and that's super interesting.

EA doesn't care about its employees so they quit as soon as they are able to do it. It's good for cutomers and competition :)

That banning of the Non Compete Clause and the fact the company is in Maryland is how he was able to get this new position.

It's about time. I don't think Sims 5 will be a good game. That's why we need alternatives.

Ah, so they _DO_ know exactly what kind of dumpster fire this has turned into....

I was right. Grant jumped ship because he saw the ship was sinking. Now EA has two ex execs working on competition titles.

Oh the plot thickens 2024-2028 are going to be interesting times in the life simulation realm

After over two decades of The Sims basically standing alone in it's genre, all this competition is more than welcome. I just don't understand why it took this long.

"Why leave Maxis?" Like we don't even know the answer. C'mon, who wouldnt save themselves from a ship sinking each year deep?

EA has been known to be a very toxic workplace. There have been guru's leaving every now and then. I am not a single bit surprised another, big, one left. I do hope they make a better game than the Sims!

At this point I'm all for the good directors and developers leaving the sleazy game companies who have just been taking advantage of the fanbases of their games with at best half-baked and broken games knowing they have little competition. I really hope that the other life sims coming out will blow Maxis and EA out of the water and unless the sims gets very much improved that the game dies like they're making it and new life sims will take up the mantle for the fanbase

GRANT!!!! OOOOO THE TEA IS BOILININGG LMAO!

If I remember correctly, Grant quit Maxis around January.... He said in his goodbye post that he was available for anything that would need someone with his experience.... He said something along the lines of leaving because of creative differences, I think. I'm glad he found something so soon... We was my favourite gourou

i read the caption my jaw dropped literally. the fact he’s been there for so many years to just abruptly LEAVE for another game?! he’s seen the bts and is not messing w it, good for him!

I started playing the sims medieval again and the world feels so alive

Don't forget about Vivaland also, nobody mentions it, but it's under development with the build part of the game available for downloading by the name Vivaland Dream House, with the maker of the Sims 4 multiplayer mod working on it from what I've heard.

Won't be surprised some of the investors are actually Sims players and are pretty much fed up with EA and the franchise 😀

I hope EA have some armbands, a red nose and a wog cus they are absolutely CLOWNING in deep water right now

Grant is really giving both fingers to EA. Honestly, good for him. Keep the competition coming. 👏🏻

Competition is good, might be just what we as Sims Lovers need to happen for EA to get off of their BS. As far as Grant sharing insider info with his new team, that's unlikely, as I'm sure in order to leave EA and start up in a new company he had to sign a NDA.

Their idea is interesting. Create a char, pick a theme, and the gam will create nps to match the story you want to play. They used as example a player wants to play about romance and business, the nps created might be an ex lover from high school and a love interest that might be the owner of a business competitor in town! They said they want to release a demo THIS YEAR!! (there's an article on yahoo with this info)

Maybe they finally played their own game for once and realized how bland and boring it is 😂

The tide is truly changing for EA. The downfall of The Sims franchise is in action. The empire is falling, and i couldn't be happier. They need a rude awakening. :) For now, i'm obsessed with playing Project Zomboid, which is a great alternative to The Sims, if you love it mixed with a zombie outbreak.

Omg yessss! It’s so over for EA - about damn time!

In their Behind The Sims, they did express that Project Rene is NOT Sims 5. It is a spinnoff. The fact that everyone seem to ignore this fact is annoying. We will most likely never have a Sims 5.

I actually needed to look into the noncompete clause that recently got banned and that everyone is talking about: first and foremost the ban isn't going into affect until September 4, 2024, so companies with noncompete clauses can still enforce them up until that date. Also this new ban only applies to new noncompete clauses. As well as it sounds like new and existing clauses can still be enforced on certain senior executives (those that represent more than 75% of their workforce). I'm going to air on the side of EA probably doesn't have noncompete clauses because the ban isn't going into effect until September 2024, so Grant wouldn't have been allowed to quit his job back in January/Febuary if that was the case. Also the FTC did mention that companies are able to get around noncompete clauses with Trade Secret laws and NDAs. I'm almost certain Grant still had to sign an NDA upon taking the job for EA 18 years ago, so I don't think he's sharing EA's secrets to another company...HOWEVER most NDAs just say you can't tell other people about projects of another company, they don't say anything about implementing the same non-patented techniques or ideas into projects of your own. So Grant could be taking the better ideas from sims 4 and project Renee and implementing them into Midsummer Studio's new game. Regardless I'm glad Grant was able to find another job and I hope this one works out better for him. As much as I want to be cynical about the sims 4 and point out the karma, I just can't. I'm actually really sad that they're sinking so quickly. I feel like what would be best at this point for Maxis is to go indie and separate themselves from EA, otherwise it's looking like they're going to be filing for bankruptcy because and EA is going to lose the sims franchise entirely.

I mean.. tbh Grant was part of EAxis' problem, in my opinion, so I'm not holding my breath on whatever he's going to put out, but still.. I'm glad EA will squirm that much more.

I think that EA should lose all rights to The Sims games just like they did with Star Wars games it'd be so damn funny and good well as long as the rights went to a company that would actually treat the games and fans with love and respect like video game companies use to many many years ago i really miss those days

what a good news... EA.. TAKE THE KARMA NOW

am i thinking of the wrong person, or wasn't he responsible for a lot of the awful decisions for TS4?

I sure hope this motivates maxis to fix this game. I've spent a lot of money on The Sims, and switching to another game isn't what I'd like to do, but I will if they don't wake up and get it together. Especially if the competition can produce a better game.

They must have given one heck of a presentation displaying the game and all of its functionalities! The investors said I'm IN!!!! 💰 🤑 💸

This is so exciting for us as the consumer. Can't wait to see everything come out!

I'll keep an eye on this studio. And yeah this says a lot about the bullshit EA has given people. Trust me once I have other options I'm going to them. I barely play sims 4 as it is now.

Grant? The guy that insisted that nobody wanted family gameplay, among other wildly unpopular decisions? That’s a red flag 😂

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this Guru left IMMEDIATELY after the FTC banned noncompete agreements, which previously allowed companies to penalize employees who left to join a similar company.

My fave part of EAs ship sinking is how they’re ignoring it and posting jolly adverts for new content like everyone isn’t laughing at them

Next week: “Will Wright makes a new game, EA dies in a ditch”

I rarely play sims 4 … I’m more into my sims 3

Didn't they make non compete clauses illegal? Maybe we'll see many more leave.

I can't put this into professional words, but all I can say is 'EA, oooh boy! When your big players are leaving, you better watch yourself!' 😏

With SO many people leaving The Sims I really wouldn't be surprised if The Sims franchise was officially about to be over soon…

So many Life Sim games that eventually might hopefully at some point in the future get a release and receive frequent content updates and have zero bugs and compete with EA!

He saw project Rene and said screw this and jumped ship 😂🤣🤣

Good! The more competition against EA the better! 😁

So excited for this new upcoming life game!! 🎉

I was excited until I read they added Grant to the roster. He's gonna mess it up by making it an avatar game instead of a simulation.

I hope he contacts these amazing modders that been holding it down for Sims 4! Because that is talent sitting there doing it all for free!

This is hilarious, it makes me so happy! They have ruined themselves by not listening to us, by not fixing the bugs, by putting out game packs and expansions that are totally crap. I can't wait for LBY, Paralives and Inzoi, and whatever this new studio brings us. Let's face it, whatever it is will be a massive improvement on TS4.

Grant wont be able to share technology, NDAs and copyright etc. If he does, he and the company will get sued to hell and back.

More devs abandoning corporations to actually make games again! Woo! I wanna see more of this. Less layoffs, more devs leaving to better companies!

Maxis didnt deserve their fall

Absolutely wouldn't be surprised if he's the first of many people to start leaving. Sims 4 and 5 are both inevitably gonna crash and burn because of EAs greed, it's kind of bittersweet as someone who's been playing the games for years but at the same time i can't wait for more life sim games

The easiest way to make me interested in a Sims clone is to tell me it will be focusing on drama tbh

honestly its because they know that sims fan base is very loose meaning that they only play because thers nothing else like it and if they make a competitor sim like game but better and focus on the fans they could take the fanbase who are tired of ea money gouging and spaghetti coding

I just can’t help but to remember back near the early days of sims 4 when people were irked about the cartoony appearance and the choice to not include toddlers at first. People were talking about a boycott then but EA said they would scrap the sims altogether if sales weren’t good. As a 21 year old back then, I couldn’t help but to think of how nefarious that was. Well now I say scrap it, something tells me we’ll be just fine.

You took the words right out of my mouth. It IS about damn time that this happened.

Thank god I'm locked out of my game and iv spent so much money that I think this is the end for me. I hate that I have to log in to play yhe games that I freaking bought.

I have completely stopped playing the sims 4. The game is so boring and kiddish, the sims use to be an adult game. Sims 1 was so addicting because the sim life was a challenge. Not to mention the activities for our sims to do outside of the homes we build them.

You forgot Vivaland...well, seriously, sounds like a very interesting lineup. What I wonder is, did the director of Project Rene leave because he yearned to explore new things, or was he afraid of being the captain of a sinking ship? If you see an iceberg up ahead, and all efforts to steer clear of it is for naught, I would be the first one over the side.

YES! Here for it Also it sounds like Sims 5 is about to have longtime simmers up in arms so much more strongly this time. Been playing since 2001 and I’m really excited for the new competition!

this sounds exciting, Krafton makes PUBG which also makes InZoi so if this is the case this could be really cool. I also hope Grant Rodiek brings the goofy aspect to the characters like he did with Sims 3. I am so glad there are different companies trying out the Simulation Genre. So cool!!

I'm old. I hope I live to see all these games come to fruition. It's gross what greed and EA did to the Sims.

Calling Sims a Sandbox Game instead of a Simulation puts something into words that has been bothering me but didn't know how to describe.

definitely don’t think the sims is over and or failing but i do think that having more competition in the life-sim game market could really put some pressure of the higher ups backs to get their f*ckin’ ass up and WORK like put your back into it and FIX this mess.

ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME!! 🥂 Cheers I cannot wait. I’m very excited about about this. They need some competition because they really been getting away with highway robbery 🎉🎉🎉

Ea probably has a NDA for employees if they break it, it would be considered corporate espionage wich would leave the company open to law sutes and actually jail time for the leaker.

I doubt Grant is sharing intel due to legal reasons. Most major corporations legally bind employees from either working in the industry for a competitor and/or sharing company info for a few years after leaving. So, legally, Grant can’t spill any tea for prob around 1-2 years. Im actually shocked he was legally allowed to join another company in the industry so soon.

serves them right, i'm no professional but even I can think of a thousand new things that could be added into a life sim game to make it fun and amazing.

I hope we get a proper working good sims game then? I hope it gives sims 2/3/4 and even 1 vibes in this game cause sims 4 has been shocking

I just don't like Life simulation games to be multiplayer

Well that was very interesting. I am so cheesed off with The Sims 4, I get, if I am lucky an hour's play before the bugs start kicking in. I come out, repair and go back in. Within the hour more bugs rear their ugly heads. So, I am seriously thinking of deleting The Sims, totally. My game is so screwed, it is no longer a pleasurre to play. Will look forward to this new fresh company and giving their product a chance.

Best news in a long time! I look forward to more life sims games being released. The Sims franchise has remained unchallenged in the genre for way to long. Time for a change!

OMG - I hope this plays out well. I'm excited, FINALLY someone who cares about the STORY

Grant?!! GRANT IS BACK?! yaaass!! He is the one who advocated for the T rated content and not the child friendly sims game it melted into today..im glad he found a new place to use his creativity with his vision with a new team. This will be the season of life simulation games

Hate to see the sims go out like this as it was an integral part of my formative years. But alas, this is long overdue. I’m shocked some of the OGs stayed on this long but I understand the loyalty and holding out hope. So happy to see new life sims coming out in the next few years.

I love this! In a way, the saddening development of the Sims franchise into a soulless money driven project has given space to so many new possible games. I'm sure what is happening with the Sims has been utterly frustrating for developers that loved that franchise with all their hearts, but it makes me happy to see that they took that frustration and are translating it into new creative projects!

I figured that’s what was happening, but Grant was also pretty abrasive, if not outright rude, so I’m not really jumping out of my chair with excitement yet either. We’ll see what comes

Didn't Grant leave EA months ago? Why yall acting like he just left when this press release came out? Anywho, I look forward to all the new games.

Crossing all my fingers for the fellas kickoff a new project and wishing them all the best- where do I sent my CV?

the girls are FIGHTING!! 😅😭😭

now THIS is interesting. iirc there were talks about this last year- specifically that an XCOM dev was going to be making a life sim- and i remember being really skeptical about it, but now that we have more details i'm feeling pretty excited about this. here's hoping when we get a game reveal, we see something good

EA is SCREWED.

I wasn’t interested in Life By You, but something tells me it’s gonna be better than Project Rene/Sims 5 👀

The problem with Grant is that he did not like family gameplay, which is what the original Sims embodied and what it was known for and is what the majority of the player base want. From what I read about him and saw in an interview that Lindsay Pearson had with James Turner, he was the reason it took so long to get infant/more family gameplay when we were asking for improved babies etc. I wouldn't hold your breath if you are wanting an actual family style life sim from a company he is leading. That being said, all competition where EA is concerned is good news and MAY make EA open their damn eyes, I may be wrong but I don't want to get my hopes up because of how "I don't like it so no one else is getting it" he was with TS4

Beautiful - I love it !! I am glad that he is onto a better opportunity...

When you work in the industry, it's pretty common to dream of opening your own studio with your friends. I wouldn't read too much into it.

I’m honestly surprised that they didn’t have none complete clauses in their contracts. And I’m sure they would have to have a nondisclosure agreement so they wouldn’t be able to discuss much

You know what, good for them! They really deserve better.

How exciting to see another entry! Gameplay is where Sims 4 falls short. Umpteen packs but I still feel there’s not much to do. Large worlds but all you can do is walk about and take screenshots. The sole gameplay kit, Busted Dust was released broken. If I could control the dust system better, turn off dust bunnies and have some brooms I would have bought it.

I haven’t updated or played the Sims 4 since they added that shopping cart button. I know there’s a mod to remove it, I just don’t CARE anymore. They lost me.

Im SO excited for competition in this space! 😊