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EA to Shutter ‘SimCity Social,’ ‘The Sims Social,’ ‘Pet Society’

April 15, 2013 by Chelsea Stark Leave a Comment

EA is shuttering three of its Facebook games on June 14: Sim City Social, The Sims Social and Pet Society.

Those games' players are being notified by the Playfish forums and the Facebook fan pages. Players are encouraged to spend all their in-game currency before June 14.

Sim City Social was announced last year and released on June 25, meaning it will have survived for only a year. The game was developed by Playfish and Maxis, and allowed players to collaborate on cities.

The Sims Social was the Facebook spinoff of EA's dominant simulation game. It was released in 2011 and rose to the top of Facebook's app charts, becoming second only to Farmville in popularity. In the past six months, however, it had seen a decline in users. Read more...

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“The Sims Social” Producers Show Off Upcoming Facebook Game [VIDEO]

August 3, 2011 by Charlie White Leave a Comment

The Sims Social is on its way to Facebook, and here are the developers and producers who created the game talking about how it works.

An interesting aspect of this Facebook version of the venerable god-game franchise is the fact that it never sleeps, and while you’re away, your friends might be playing the game, resulting in surprises when you return.

The Sims Social developer, EA, is not talking yet about exactly when we might see this life simulator game on Facebook, but at first it was rumored to go live on June 23, according to SimsSocial. That date missed, SimsSocial wrote in a forum that we can expect to see The Sims Social go live on Facebook by the end of August.

Until then, The Sims Social fans will have to settle with the producer interview video seen above, which was released today. If you haven’t seen the official trailer that was rolled out when the game was first announced at E3 in June, here it is:

More About: EA, facebook, Facebook gaming, gaming, new video, Producers video, release date, the Sims social, trailer, video games

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, EA, Facebook, Facebook gaming, Games, gaming, new video, Producers video, release date, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, the Sims social, trailer, video, video games, YouTube

Social Games Winning, 3D Games Failing, says EA

July 29, 2011 by Charlie White Leave a Comment

One of the world’s largest games companies says 3D games are not catching on, and that it is focusing on social gaming for big profits.

In a shareholder meeting, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello expressed his disappointment in 3D gaming sales. “Frankly, we have not seen a big uptake for 3D gaming. We haven’t seen a big uptake for 3D televisions in the home, at least not yet. And we’re not here trying to drive the market, we’re here to react to what customers are looking for.”

Instead, Riccitiello is getting the biggest bang for his buck by directing his developers to create 3D games on a 2D display, which he says “provide the greatest entertainment experience.” Beyond that, he said he’s “seen really high returns” with online and social games, with more on the way, such as The Sims Social on Facebook.

“Right now we’re seeing better growth focusing on a different technology innovation — online and social,” Riccitiello said. “So our allocation of resources have been toward the new innovations that are growing more rapidly.”

This is not good news for the 3D gaming world, which is reeling from poor sales of the Nintendo 3DS, a glasses-free 3D handheld gaming device on which the industry pinned high hopes. In fact, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announced he’s cutting his paycheck in half, taking responsibility for slow sales of the 3DS that resulted in Nintendo’s first-ever quarterly loss. At the same time, Nintendo slashed the price of the 3DS, from $249 to $169.

The picture isn’t much better for 3D in the movie world. As a large number of theaters have upgraded to digital projectors capable of displaying 3D movies, audiences don’t seem as interested in paying more for 3D, according to analyst Richard Greenfield of Wall Street’s BTIG. There are complaints of dim screens displaying both 3D and 2D movies. And on the home front, we just reviewed a Sony 3D HDTV. Notwithstanding the paucity of 3D content available, it gave us headaches and seemed a lame gimmick.

It’s starting to look like the entire 3D craze was designed to benefit those who sell electronics and movie tickets a lot more than those who would view movies and play games using the technology.

Is 3D doomed? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

[Via Gamasutra and DVICE]

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: 3D, Blogging, EA, electronic arts, Facebook, Games, gaming, Nintendo, search engine optimization, SEO, social media, Social Networking, the Sims social

The Sims Are Coming to Facebook

June 7, 2011 by Todd Wasserman Leave a Comment

Look out, FarmVille, The Sims are about to get social on Facebook.

EA will launch an extension, called The Sims Social, to the popular online game. The company made the announcement at E3 on Monday, but didn’t offer a launch date. A Facebook Page for the game says merely that The Sims Social is “coming soon.” EA is also planning to release a mobile companion app to the game.

The Sims, which lets users create avatars called Sims for themselves and others, has sold more than 140 million units worldwide since it was introduced in 2000. Considering that install base, Sims could offer competition to some Zynga social games like FarmVille, CityVille and Mafia Wars, which have attracted a total of 250 million monthly active users.

The release comes after EA purchased Playfish for $400 million in 2009. The move was intended to adapt more EA games to social media environments.

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