9 Amazing Video Game Developers Killed Off By Their Publishers

9. Maxis Emeryville

Founded: 1987

Defunct: 2015

What happened: You remember SimCity, right? Maxis Emeryville's God game simulator was considered to be best-in-class for almost two decades, all the way up to its fourth instalment in 2003. Then, all went dark.

Not until 2013, did Maxis finally let loose a long-awaited sequel, but rather than arrive to rapturous applause, the soft reboot was derided for its smaller scope and the requirement to always be online to enjoy any part of it, including single-player.

As you'd expect, it wasn't long after that EA, dissatisfied, put an end to the offshoot studio, relocating various IPs elsewhere within the company.

On paper, that means EA could, at any point, announce a new SimCity game. Has it? Of course, not, and it probably won't be anytime soon, either. According to a former Maxis employee, the reason why a sequel to SimCity 4 took so long was that the series didn't make as much money as The Sims:

"Money. It all comes down to money."