Sims Online closing after more than five years

In February, EA's six-year-old Sims Online MMO underwent a serious format change and re-branding, becoming a free-to-play world called EA-Land. Already, the team responsible for EA-Land has announced its termination on August 1.

Yesterday, in the official EA-Land blog, it was announced that the "lifetime of the game has drawn to an end, and now we will be focusing on new ideas and other innovative concepts in the games arena." Resources consumed by EA-Land/The Sims Online will be focused on "future games."

EA's reasons for changing the game's name and promptly killing it are currently unclear. Sims Online developer Luc Barthelet said in his own blog announcement, "Decisions such as these are never easy and the rationale for closing EA-Land is particularly complex."

Development of the improved Sims Online began in 2007, re-engineering the game's architecture to DirectX 9, and opening the ability for user-customized content -- a feature which the game originally lacked, that some felt negatively impacted its success.

Paying subscribers with accounts dating up to April 29, 2008 will receive one of two compensatory gifts from EA: $15 off any game at The EA Store or three months of Club Pogo subscription time.