Electronic Arts Forecloses on EA Land

By Joe Haygood | April 29, 2008

In 2002, EA was ruling the PC gaming landscape with their new cash cow franchise, The Sims. Flush with cash and new ways to exploit expand the franchise, EA decided to turn to the MMO market, by bringing The Sims Online to the market. The idea sounded good, since it seemed the only thing that was missing from the single player game was the ability to mix things up with another human player.

The Sims Online launched, with lots of fanfare and a huge media campaign, but shortly after, it turned into a ghost town that was supported mostly by the seedier side of the net. This was a problem as it was not the market that EA was shooting for when they put this thing together.

For years, the franchise has putted along with little subscriber growth, and a fair amount of money lost, but EA would never cancel a title that was a stalworth in their stable of titles. So it continued sputtering along until recently, it underwent a rebranding of sorts. EA decided to change the focus to free play and renamed the service EA Land. User made content would also be allowed, one of the sore spots that came out of The Sims Online launch.

Well, today, mere weeks after the relaunch, EA has quietly decided to close up shop and end the EA Land experiment. Why go through the trouble to rebrand a service like The Sims Online, only to close it after all the fanfare and press. Well, if rumors are to believed, it was probably EA not wanting to have a Sims title fail. With the rebranding, they are cancelling EA Land, not The Sims Online. Pretty sneaky thing to do, but it works for them, because they get to close a losing albatross, and keep the good name of The Sims in order.

I would say farewell, but in all honesty, will it even be missed? Most likely not, but the franchise deserved so much better from EA in the long run.