Polygon has posted an article which reports on the reasons why Ocean Quigley quit EA to create an indie studio, called Jellygrade, focusing on simulation games.
Talking about why he quit EA, former SimCity creative director Ocean Quigley told Polygon he had been “dismayed” at the botched launch ofSimCity, in which EA insisted gamers play always-online, while failing to provide enough server capacity.
The botched launch closed many players out of the game and led to severe criticism of EA’s processes. But Quigley added that he has been thinking of setting up a new project for some time anyway.
“I was dismayed at the blundered launch of something that I had poured so much love and attention into, which made the leaving easier but it would have probably happened anyway,” he said.
“Honestly I think I would have left regardless of whether EA’s launch ofSimCity was smooth or rough. It was basically my third SimCity. I didSimCity 3000 and SimCity 4 and this new SimCity.”
Even if the SimCity launch had been smooth, it looks like he still had plans to leave as reported in this article and due to the fact that the Jellygrade Twitter has a tweet from January.
I don’t like this article at all… while hope Quigley does well in his new company, the way the article is phrased makes it seem liked Ocean said ‘ea insisted gamers play always-online’ which has not been proven to be true… whereas what Ocean said was that he was dismayed at the launch.