Will Wright leaves EA, founds Stupid Fun Club
[UPDATE] Sims and Spore designer leaves longtime home to establish "entertainment think tank" bankrolled by Electronic Arts.
Celebrated designer Will Wright is no longer an employee of Electronic Arts. Instead, he's now partnering with the company that his Sims series helped build into a publishing powerhouse.
The publisher announced today that it is a principal shareholder in Wright's new venture, Stupid Fun Club. The other principal shareholder is Wright himself, with the developer and EA owning equal percentages of the company.
Described as an "entertainment think tank," Stupid Fun Club will develop new intellectual properties across a variety of media. Games, films, TV shows, Web sites, and toys were listed as specific areas of interest for the company.
Last summer, after EA signed with a top Hollywood talent agency, Wright told Reuters that he was in discussions to bring Spore to television and film. "We're basically planting the seeds to spread Spore out to a much wider group of people than would ever play a computer game," he said.
"The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change," Wright said in a statement. "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."
"We believe in Will's vision for Stupid Fun Club, and we're looking forward to partnering with Will and his team long into the future," EA CEO John Riccitiello said in a statement. Riccitiello added that the EA series most often associated with Wright--The Sims, Sim City, and Spore--will continue to be worked on in the future.
Stupid Fun Club is not Wright's first entrepreneurial endeavor. He founded Maxis with Jeff Braun in 1989, achieving success with the original Sim City. Maxis was acquired by EA in 1997, and Wright has spent the dozen years since working for the publisher.
[UPDATE] To learn more about Stupid Fun Club, read GameSpot's in-depth interview with Will Wright .
There's a interview somewhere in the web where Will Wright called Wii players "swinging controller around like a dofus and part of an outdated videogame concept.".
i agree wiv jason, spore was crap, once u got to space stage. it was too repetative. dude their better off wivout u but apparently ea/maxis or whoever makes sims is goin into liqidation :O
i hate him he build spore so bad end games better be good for sims 3
nice name.
I want to see a new Simcity.
Hmmm.. I didn't see that coming either. I think in this case I tend to see where Gob Bluth is coming from... this EA is still a pain in the ***, but it isn't the same monster that nearly ruined itself. The Godfather was pretty terrible, but EA is still EA deep inside. That said, he had all the time in the world to make spore, and it was a well-made, but shallow game. Frankly, I didn't even find it to be STUPID fun. Of course, if Mr Versipellis is right, and this means a next gen sim city, I'm in 100%. That said... leaving a huge company like EA in the middle of an economic downturn? That takes guts.
Never saw that coming. On the one hand I'll miss his games, on the other I'm glad to see him free from EA to do as wishes. If only he was still with Maxis as an independent company... hey made some epic games... Sim City 4, anyone?
go will go
what a bum
Damn
Will Right was better without them! MAXIS were truly the company for these games anyway
EA under Riccitello has changed a lot. Yes, they still milk the sports franchises, but they've done a lot right, including taking risks on games like Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, Boom Blox, Zubo, and letting Wright work on Spore for YEARS until *he* decided it was done. They've cut crappy games they used to put out just to recoup some costs. They tried something innovative with Godfather 2 (even though reviews suggest they came up short). And EA Partners has made believers of former enemies. It's easy to be cynical and bag on them (I think many on here just do it to feel accepted and cool - some people on here are just following a script), but they're just not that bad.
jay is dumb
Only one good thing has come out of EA this gen... Dead Space.
I was wondering when this was going to happen. EA's just a big mess now, everything's abut MONEY MONEY MONEY. I mean, three installs for Spore?
Is this the start of the gaming Illuminati or something?
He reminds me of Dustin Hoffman...
Imagine if this company was acquired by EA too
bout time... Maxis was starting to go downhill quite rapidly too...
He should have got out of that company years ago there games are getting worse because of there greed.
Nice, Good luck to Will Wright. He is truly a gem of this industry.
crazy
That's great, and a good choice by Will Wright. EA has published some great games, but milks most of them for money. And they're lazing when it comes to developing game engines. I just hate that they're still using the same engine in today's RTS games as they did a couple of years back. I'm talking about the engine used in C&C: Generals, The Battle for Middle-Earth 1 & 2, C&C3: Tiberium Wars and C&C: Red Alert 3. And by the way, EA destroyed Westwood (the guys who made the first and best Red Alert) and made Red Alert they're own lousy way. But now, let's get some great games from Will Wright without EA interfering.
Ok now Sit down and make sim city 5 thanx
Good job for leaving EA, Will! :) Bad job for partnering up with them. :(
Should be called stupid fail club...
How in the gods names are they going to turn Spore into a film? Especially, as people have already said, the itself is only interesting for about five minutes.
honestly any one who agrees with rickster 34 is an honest moron as ea are any thing but good there servers are crap & most gameplay is terrible seriosly EA are not cool in any way sure they make games so what anyone can make a game
Now remake spore please.
Doesn't anyone think that this sounds a bit silly? '' "The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change," Wright said in a statement. "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." "We believe in Will's vision for Stupid Fun Club, and we're looking forward to partnering with Will and his team long into the future," EA CEO John Riccitiello said in a statement. Riccitiello added that the EA series most often associated with Wright--The Sims, Sim City, and Spore--will continue to be worked on in the future. '' Reminds me of that one James Bond movie in which this evil villian sees himself as a new Ceasar, using the entertainment industry instead of legions. Or of that friend of mine at my school who makes all kind of odd movies to post on Youtube hoping to become the new ''Star Wars kid''..
EA is cool
EA owns half of this new company. How comes they wont a word to say?
well what i mean by my comment is EA cannot pursued him to keep content out of the final game so then can put a price tag on afterwards
Finally we will soon see his games that EA won't have a say in and his game that aren't made just for money *cough* SIMS *cough*. and imagine what spore could of been
I already belong to a club which is something like the name of this developer; the Nintendo fan club.
What a talented man, I hope this doesn't hurt EA. And yes I realize completely that it wasn't just one man it was entire team effort to make those successful titles.
Please tell me that Will is still going to have a big influence on future sims titles. If it's only in the hands of EA, my hopes are shattered.
stupid fun is better then no fun
Why doesn't he focus on making Spore actually fun beyond 5 minutes, before trying to put it on TV and other sources?
I wonder how long before EA just buys him again...
Haha The Sims. What a game. Basically all i do is make a guy, get married, make his wife into a secret lesbian then turn of the PC hehe.
Hope we see a real and true Simcity 5!!!! I've been a fan of Will Wright since Simcity 2000 on the PC. Hail Will. Hope EA doesn't intrude much on his games, plans and ideas. I'm sick of putting up with their nonsense since the destruction of Westwood.
Make good games, and while you're at it, take some of EA's marketshare. They need the humility to get back to some decent games.
Good luck and God bless you and your team with success and faith.
Good for you Will! Hope it turns out to be what you want it to be and not what Ea says it should be!
Stupid Fun Club has existed for a while now actually. Will Wright is now just part of it.
this has the best name ever!!!!!! lol
Whatever floats your boat Will. Good luck.
Wait what? Stupid Fun Club? Whatever, as long as he doesn't stop making games he can join whatever ridiculous sounding club he wants to.
I love Will Wright, and since his last venture (Maxis) was so successful, I can't imagine Stupid Fun Club failing.
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- ESRB: T






