Well it was a fun 12 years, but it's time to turn off the lights and put the key under the door. #RIPMaxisEmeryville

— Guillaume Pierre (@MaxisGuillaume) March 4, 2015

With those 117 characters, SimCity lead gameplay scripter and designer Guillaume Pierre revealed the sad news that Electronic Arts has closed down SimCity studio Maxis Emeryville. After 12 long years, the company have apparently decided to close the studio in order to consolidate Maxis IPs into existing Maxis studios.

EA confirmed the closure and intentions with the following statement:

Today we are consolidating Maxis IP development to our studios in Redwood Shores, Salt Lake City, Helsinki and Melbourne locations as we close our Emeryville location. Maxis continues to support and develop new experiences for current Sims and SimCity players, while expanding our franchises to new platforms and developing new cross-platform IP.

 

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.

Although Pierre had additionally tweeted “everyone’s out of a job” in reference to the studio’s employees, EA included a further paragraph in their statement in regards to the affected employees:

All employees impacted by the changes today will be given opportunities to explore other positions within the Maxis studios and throughout EA. For those that are leaving the company, we are working to ensure the best possible transition with separation packages and career assistance.

At this time, it’s unknown how many employees will be affected by the closure.

Maxis was founded by Will Wright and Jeff Braun in 1987, and was acquired by EA in 1997. The studios are well-known for their town-building and life-sim franchises, SimCity and The Sims respectively; but following the adoption of a new engine in their latest title, Sims 4, causing a large loss of content from that found in previous games; and a disastrous attempt to revive the SimCity franchise in 2013 as an online game which was plagued by numerous technical and design flaws as well as server instabilities, Maxis’ future under EA has found itself on an unfortunate downward spiral.

This is the Third (and final) installment of the Five Nights at Freddys trilogy. This game is set 30 years after the first game. The Freddy Fazbear Pizza incidents are a distant yet horrifying memory. A man decides to make a horror house themed around the dead pizza place. They try to find authentic Freddy Fazbear pizza items. They found a few masks here, a few pictures there, some voice recordings. Until they suddenly found one -An animatronic that looks like a golden Bonnie. Thats where things start going down hill. It’s not even turned on and yet it’s… moving… and there are other things bumping around and the systems are all going screwy.

The gameplay is vastly different from the other two games while also keeping some things. Scott Cawthon listens to all of our complaints on how we can’t pay attention of the cameras so he makes the game fully about the camera system while also adding a few other things. You have to pay attention to 3 different systems Video (which is the one thing he keeps throughout the games), Audio which is the only thing to protect you from the animatronic (it distracts him), and Ventilation, if the Ventilation goes down you start to black out and hallucinate. This game only has one Animatronic but it’s not the only thing you need to worry about. Other animatronics which are now hallucinations are back (Foxy, Chica, Freddy, and Ballon Boy (there are more but you go have fun finding them). The only way to avoid them is to ignore them which means switching cameras fast. This makes the game quite stressful because if you stare at them for to long then you get attacked forcing some of your 3 systems to go down. But if you ignore them then you might miss seeing where our Bunny Friend (named Spring Trap) is and that’s not quite a good thing. This does make the game more suspensful because if any of those things go down it takes time for you to reboot them back up and with multiple systems being down it takes all the more time being away from the camera. But if you go back to the camera you might get attacked by an halusination and if that happens more systems go down which takes longer to defend yourself and if… well I think I made my point. Theres not much to the story sadly, though it does give you some closure explaining to you on what happened to the animatronics and what happened to the murderer. I won’t say anymore then that.  If I had to give this game a score out of 10 it would be a 6.5/10. The gameplay has vastly been improved and it’s quite scary and suspensful. Sadly since I’m a story whore this lost alot of points for me. Anyway this is Nekokitwolf sayyyyinggggggggggggggggg caio.

Now that smartphone makers are finally starting to adopt wireless charging more often into their newer models, companies are beginning to make it easier to use the technology by offering wireless charging pads in their products and services – for example Starbucks are trialling wireless charging coasters on some UK stores. Now the world’s largest furniture retailer, IKEA, is all geared up to give the technology a major boost by announcing a range of lamps and other furniture which will have wireless charging built-in to them.

As part of its commitment to making homes smarter, IKEA will soon launch a range of desk, table and floor lamp with wireless charging pads included in the base or a platform higher up. The technology being built-in to the lamps is based on the more common “Qi” standard – the market leader in wireless charging technology – so most smartphones with wireless-charging capability will charge as soon as you leave them on the lamp. However, should you happen to have an iPhone or a flagship Samsung phone – which both utilise a rival technology – IKEA will also sell you a number of wireless charging covers that will let you take advantage of your new power-giving furniture as well.

Besides the lamps, IKEA will also offer two wireless charging bedside tables; as well as charging pads to add the technology to your existing furniture. The wireless charging lamps and bedside tables will be available to buy in all UK IKEA stores from mid-April, starting at £30. The company has also confirmed that its new range will debut in US stores at the same time, but pricing will be announced in the near future.

We are now within a week of Nintendo launching not only the next entry in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, Tipping Stars, on the Nintendo eShop; but with it, the first ever cross-buy promotion – with Nintendo offering to give free download codes for the Wii U version of the game to anyone who downloads the 3DS version – and vice versa! However, if you live in a territory served by the American version of Nintendo’s eStore and can’t wait to get your next fix of Donkey Kong action – and you’re one of the handful of people who DIDN’T already get Donkey Kong Country Returns or its sequel when they first released on Wii and Wii U respectively – Nintendo have you covered.

In a deal that so far seems restricted exclusively for American eShop Users – i.e. Nintendo gamers using Nintendo 3DS or Wii U consoles registered as being in America, Mexico or Canada – starting today and lasting until 8:59am Pacific Time on March 3rd, Nintendo are offering 30% off Nintendo eShop purchases of either Donkey Kong Country™: Tropical Freeze (Wii U) or Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (Nintendo 3DS), when you purchase one or more of six qualifying Donkey Kong Virtual Console titles. These are any of the three Donkey Kong Land titles from the 3DS Virtual Console (priced at $3.99 each at time of writing); or any of the original three Donkey Kong Country titles from the Wii U Virtual Console ($7.99 each at time of writing).

The usual catches apply, of course: The same Nintendo Network ID must be linked to your Wii U and Nintendo 3DS systems as well as your eShop account prior to purchase in order to be eligible for discount; and all of the games must be purchased before offer’s closing. For those of you serviced by the Nintendo eShop in other regions – sorry to disappoint. But if a similar offer comes your way, we’ll be sure to update this as soon as we hear it!

Leonard Nimoy, the actor best known for playing Mr. Spock in the ubiquitous Star Trek series, passed away today at the age of 83.

The New York Times has a full obituary for Nimoy, who was taken to the hospital earlier this week after suffering chest pains