Will Wright leaves EA

By Robert Purchese Published 9 April, 2009

To run Stupid Fun Club.

SimCity, The Sims and Spore creator Will Wright has left EA to run Stupid Fun Club, an "entertainment think-tank" pursuing new IP.

EA has made an equity investment in the studio and is the principal shareholder. Furthermore, the publishing giant reserves the right to develop game concepts that spring from Stupid Fun Club's collective brain.

"The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary 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," said Wright in a statement.

"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."

Stupid Fun Club was formed in 2001 as a side-venture for Wright, who was making robots for Robot Wars. This soon flourished, turned creative haven and started sprouting interesting ideas.

"I think there are going to be things coming out of the Stupid Fun Club that clearly reflect the lineage of games I made in the past, especially gaming experiences. But there are going to be some things that feel like they're out of the box, kind of neat ways of looking at entertainment," Wright said to GameSpot. "Stupid Fun Club is more meant to be just off the wall and odd."

Wright said his goal will be creating core IP brands like LEGO, which he describes as a "style": "There have been games done with it, and in some sense it's inherently playful and involving. So when I talk about a brand, I'm thinking more in that sense than in the, 'Let's develop a fictional world of characters that we can develop a movie about or do a TV show with' sense," he said.

Wright revealed he and EA had been discussing Stupid Fun Club for over a year, and, after seeing the enthusiasm for the project, he was happy to let the publisher become the partner that could turn his IP into videogames. Wright hopes to find other companies similarly adept in their fields to explore avenues like television and film.

There's no word on what Wright is up to with Stupid Fun Club, but there may be room for an announcement at E3, which takes place in June.

"Give me a few months and I'm sure you'll hear something," Wright, the tease, told Kotaku.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • TPCG_Russ #1 3 years ago

    In Soviet Russia Stupid Fun Clubs YOU!

  • ChthonicEcho #2 3 years ago

    So... he left EA to work for EA? Makes sense.

  • monkeylite #3 3 years ago

    Stupid and anything but fun.

  • asphaltcowboy #4 3 years ago

    "I look forward to working with them again in the near future."

    WILL WRIGHT IZ IN UR STUDIO STEALIN UR DEVELOPAZ!

  • dr_faulk #5 3 years ago

    The ad for Godfather II on the right of the page is murdering all sense of wonder and excitement.

    Also, Commander ROFLZ @ TPCG_Russ

  • Super_Zee #6 3 years ago

    So his job is to sit down with a cup of tea and think up ideas for games, with EA chomping at the bit to develop them? Sounds like the best job ever.

  • Spekingur #7 3 years ago

    I'm kind of hoping that EA was the cause of how Spore ended up to be. Going by things like 'customers don't want this and that' and poll group thingies taken from a thousand people in some backwater town in the US.
    Seriously, most of the time when money people get involved in something that's original they won't allow it to stay that way. I would have wanted Spore like it was supposed to be from the start. I wanted to play a civilization game when at the civilization stage, for example. And a civilization game can take hours. Not minutes, like it did in the game. And where is the danged plant editor/creator tool?! *sigh*

  • Grayvern #8 3 years ago

    I don't like Will Wright due to some of his viewpoints on videogames and really I doubt this changes much of his relationship with EA, maybe well end up with the will wright or stupid fun club logo on a number of EA games like the tom clancy insignia on many ubi games.

  • Kerome #9 3 years ago

    Hey, one mega-franchise in two attempts ain't bad. Spore was a brave attempt, tho a bit of a missed opportunity in the end. But still, best of luck to ya Will, I hope you know what you're doing... what do you reckon the chances are of EA dropping him like a stone if nothing good comes out in a year or so.

  • Farzlepot #10 3 years ago

    Technically, if the name on the top of his paycheque has changed from "Electronic Arts" to "Stupid Fun Club", he's left EA. To work for a company owned, run and exploited by EA nevertheless, but the name change is the important part, damn it!