Eletronic Arts Inc. (EA) has closed Maxis Emeryville, the studio behind games including The Sims and Simcity.

The news first came via Twitter when game designer Guillaume Pierre tweeted “Well it was a fun 12 years, but it’s time to turn off the lights and put the key under the door. #RIPMaxisEmeryville.”

EA later confirmed the news, saying in a statement that they were consolidating Maxis IP development to their studios in Redwood Shores, Salt Lake City, Helsinki and Melbourne.

The company noted that it will continue to support and develop new experiences for current Sims and SimCity players.

“These changes do not impact our plans for The Sims. Players will continue to see rich new experiences in The Sims 4, with our first expansion pack coming soon along with a full slate of additional updates and content in the pipeline” the statement said.

It’s the end of an era in gaming that literally changed the shape of the industry.

Maxis was founded as a games studio in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun to deliver SimCity to PCs as at the time existing games studio’s weren’t interested in it as it didn’t offer the traditional win/ lose conditions of a typical game of the time.

As history shows us SimCity, and its various sequels went on to become one of the biggest selling games franchises of all time.

The company experimented with various Sim-like spinoffs, ranging from SimAnt, SimFarm, SimEarth, SimLife, SimTower, SimIsle and SimHealth, although none were to ever reach the heights of Simcity.

Maxis though took a lateral leap of faith and instead of trying to replicate Simcity it instead looked inside the game, and what the people in Simcity were doing, inspiring it to develop its second mega-franchise, The Sims in 2000 and its subsequent sequels.

It’s only other hit was Will Wright’s Spore, a title that sold over one million copies in its first week and went on to be one of the biggest selling games of 2008.

Acquired by EA in 1997, Maxis remained until its closure an independent studio within EA, although EA’s influence over the company saw darker days towards its final years, particularly with the disastrous launch of a Simcity reboot in 2013. Although eventually fixing its server woes, the game itself stripped out many of the much-loved parts from the earlier versions, and wasn’t nearly as successful in the marketplace.

EA said staff impacted by the changes will be given opportunities to explore other positions within the Maxis studios (which will now operate out of EA’s offices) and throughout EA.