EA holds Maxis close

EA is reeling Maxis in to one of the recently completed facilities at its Redwood Shores headquarters in California, the uber-publisher revealed this week. Apparently the 300-strong development team is getting rather cramped in its Walnut Creek offices 30 miles west of the EA stronghold, and the move also reflects the publisher's desire to bring internal studios together at hub locations so they can make better use of its expensive production facilities.

"Maxis was running out of space at Walnut Creek," EA said yesterday, confirming that the senior management team and "the majority" of the 300 staff will relocate to Redwood Shores, and that anybody left out has already been notified and offered a severance package. A spokeswoman declined to tell Reuters how many employees were being offered the deal.

As for Sims creator Will Wright, he will be splitting his attention between the Sims teams working at Redwood Shores whilst also overseeing a small, dedicated team who will remain at Walnut Creek to work on one of the designer's as-yet unnamed pet projects.