Sims Creator Will Wright Leaves Electronic Arts, Pursues 'Stupid Fun'

Beloved game creator and Maxis co-founder Will Wright (The Sims, SimCity, Spore) today revealed that he is leaving Electronic Arts and Maxis to pursue one of his old side projects.

Dubbed Stupid Fun Club, the company is described as "an entertainment think tank developing new Intellectual Properties to be deployed across multiple fronts including video games, movies, television, the internet, and toys."

Stupid Fun Club was initally formed around 2001, to explore Wright's love of robots.

Though Wright is for all intents and purposes leaving Electronic Arts, he will continue to work with the publisher, as Wright and EA now own equal percentages of Stupid Fun Club. Maxis VP Lucy Bradshaw will keep running Maxis, bought by EA in 1997.

In addition, Electronic Arts holds the right to develop any game concepts that emerge from Stupid Fun Club. EA and Wright are Stupid Fun's principal shareholders.

"The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change," said Wright. "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."

"In my twelve years at EA, I've had the pleasure to work alongside some of the brightest and most talented game developers in the industry and I look forward to working with them again in the near future," Wright continued.

As for Electronic Arts, CEO John Riccitiello noted that "Will is a great designer and he's been part of a great legacy of globally recognized game franchises...the teams that have been leading those franchises in recent years have a lot of exciting content coming."

"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," added Riccitiello.