EA To Close Down Maxis South

Just one day after Electronic Arts dotted the i's and crossed the t's on its acquisition of SimCity developer Maxis, the 26-member staff of Maxis South, located in Austin, Texas, was told that EA had decided to shutter the division.

On Monday, the Austin staffers were told by Maxis South vice president Kevin Gliner that those employees in management positions could possibly be transferred to either Origin (also in Austin) or EA's Walnut Creek, Calif., location. All other employees were laid off.

According to a Maxis staffer contacted Tuesday, the three titles currently in development by Maxis South are now on indefinite hold. Those titles are Crucible, Remnants, and Nightfall. All three titles were within a month of going alpha.

Neither EA nor Gliner had returned calls to confirm the closing of Maxis South, but it was clear after conversations with a number of Maxis South employees that no further game development was taking place and that the Austin offices could be vacated as early as the end of this week.

Those same employees indicated a severance package was still in the process of being finalized.