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Electronic Arts Shutting Down 'EA Land' (and 'The Sims Online')

by Tim Stevens on April 30, 2008 at 09:48 AM

EA Shutting Down EA Land (and The Sims Online)'The Sims,' from gaming mega-publisher Electronic Arts is the most popular PC game of all time. Its dozens of successful releases and expansion packs over the years have cemented that position, but one of its iterations, 2002's 'The Sims Online,' never quite caught on. EA kept it running for years, and just last February rolled it into the new 'EA Land' free online game. Now, just a few months after that re-launch, the company is announcing the service is shutting down in August.

'EA Land' was set to expand on the somewhat dire situation of 'The Sims Online,' fixing the main complaint users had: There was no user-created content (a functionality that exists in virtual worlds such as Second Life and games massively-multiplayer online games such as 'World of Warcraft'). The new expansion was set to enable users to make their own furniture and the like.

Unfortunately for fans of 'Sims Online,' that's all been scrapped, as the game is set to limp on for the next three months before going offline. Like fans of Disney's 'Virtual Magic Kingdom,' many 'Sims Online' fans are crying foul, saying EA just went through the trouble of renaming the game to something else before shutting it down so that they could avoid the dishonor of killing a 'Sims' title. That's a bit dubious, but it is awfully odd that the company would kill the service so quickly after its re-launch. [Source: News.com]

Tags: breaking news, BreakingNews, ea land, EaLand, electronic arts, ElectronicArts, the sims, TheSims

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