Will Wright Leaves Maxis

In a rather perplexing piece of news EA today announced that Will Wright has left the studio he founded with Jeff Braun back in 1989. Will Wright has had an internal group in Maxis known as the Stupid Fun Club, which will now become a studio for creating games, movies, TV Shows, and Toys according to the press release. Maxis will continue on the Spore franchise along with any new IPs, while the Sims Division will continue the Sims Franchise. EA will publish all of The Stupid Fun Club's games, just as if he still was at maxis. You can check out the official site here

There are a few articles which i will point you to, first is just an article from kotaku, the 2nd is an interview with IGN's Steve Butts.

Kotaku - Will Wright Leaves EA, Does Something Stupid [Kotaku]
IGN: Will Wright Leaving Maxis [IGN.com]

Will Wright Ranked Third Top Developer Of All Time

IGN has been doing a top 100 countdown of the best game designers of All time, and today they have released 10-1 of the list. Will Wright managed to snag the #3 spot, behind the greats of Sid Meier, who led the civilization series to stardom, and Shigeru Miyamoto the legend behind practically anything nintendo. IGN had this to say about Will Wright

Will Wright is one of the true pillars of modern game design. His work on SimCity, The Sims, and the recently-released Spore has rightfully earned him a spot among the most celebrated designers working in the games industry today. Wright is well known for his far-reaching and eccentric analysis of the videogame industry as well as his fixation with popular culture. He is one of the few people in the business that can mesmerize a room with his observations on just about any subject you can imagine.

He's the creator of a string of wildly successful games dating all the way back to Raid on Bungling Bay in 1984, the aforementioned SimCity series in the late '80s and early '90s -- which defined the modern simulation in just about every way -- and of course, the enormously popular life imitator, The Sims. Wright has been intrinsically linked with all Maxis properties (a company he helped start) for years. The success of his wildly ambitious and approachable games has allowed him the freedom to continue creating titles that were sandbox experiences more than linear experiences.

Wright has continued to develop "Sim" games, which are among the most successful and widely-played gaming titles of all time. The Sims' popularity inspired Wright to create the even more ambitious Spore -- a procedurally-generated simulation that tracks development from single-celled organisms into an entire galaxy. It The concept sounded impossible before it became a reality in 2008, enjoying commercial success and critical praise.

"When you give someone a toy of a system," Wright told Apple.com last year, "it gives them a new perspective on it. They see that system as a dynamic, organic thing. Living in it in the real world, they don't notice day-to-day changes in it, but when that system is sped up over 50 years or more, they see the changes clearly. And they gain a new perspective on it."

Indeed, it's a new perspective that Wright provides the entire industry with every new idea he brings to the table.

You can view the full list here [IGN.com]