InfiniteSims put together a great list of what happened in 2008 in terms of Maxis news and games.  Made me wish I would of thought of this idea – it’s brilliant!  😀  Here’s a few high points from the list:

  • After a number of years in development, Maxis finally announced the release date of Spore – it was to be released on 12 September 2008!
  • We also saw the release of 2 new expansions for The Sims 2 with FreeTime and Apartment Life – finally closing off with The Sims 2 with Mansion and Garden Stuff Pack.
  • EA then made a big announced that The Sims Franchise had reached 100 Million Copies Sold, making it the most sold game in History and 2008. This in turn brought quite a large amount of press coverage filled with interviews, videos and much more!!!
  • On the 30th of April, EA announced that they would be closing the doors to The Sims Online, an online venture of The Sims which was later renamed to EA Land. The project did not last long, and was quietly closed down on August 1, 2008.
  • The Official box art managed to leak out of The Sims 3 studios, this lead to a flood of opinions and eventually the box art being recalled from The Sims 3 website. No news has since been released about this

After reading the whole list, I can’t believe how much has happened with the company!  Of course, there is more missing (SecuROM debates, lawsuits, etc) but the list highlights most of the postive things that happened.

What do you think 2009 will bring?  We already know that SimAnimals, The Sims 3, Spore:  Galactic Space Adventures, MySims Party and MySims Racing will make an appearance.  As for predictions, I believe we will also see an expansion to The Sims 3, 2 Stuff Packs for TS3, 2 Parts Packs and another Expansion for Spore (providing the Spore Galactic Space Adventures does well), SimAnimals and MySims Kingdom for PC (this is a prediction – don’t believe this to be true!)

Read the full list over at InfiniteSims