Will Wright Leaves EA, Does Something Stupid

The designer behind The Sims and Spore has left Electronic Arts, the publisher announced today, starting a new “think tank” known as Stupid Fun Club, a venture that has EA’s backing.

“The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change,” said Will Wright. “Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms. In my twelve years at EA, I’ve had the pleasure to work alongside some of the brightest and most talented game developers in the industry and I look forward to working with them again in the near future.”

Stupid Fun Club will be “an entertainment think tank developing new Intellectual Properties to be deployed across multiple fronts including video games, movies, television, the internet, and toys,” according to the official press release on the matter. It will allow Wright to “explore new projects” and EA retains the right to develop games based on Stupid Fun Club projects.

“We believe in Will’s vision for Stupid Fun Club and we’re looking forward to partnering with Will and his team long into the future,” said John Riccitiello, EA’s Chief Executive Officer.

Lucy Bradshaw, vice president and General Manager at Maxis, the studio Wright created with Jeff Braun in1989, will continue to run Maxis and the Spore franchise.

The site for Stupid Fun Club features an image of a ball broken down into rectangles. Some of the rectangles link to information on the site, previous Wright press coverage and an about statement that reads, in part: “the ideas here can be manifested in video games, online environments, storytelling media and fine home care products”

There are also three links hidden on the front page which lead to strange interactive toys of sorts. Two feature five floating images of Earth as seen from space and a selection of multi-hued tubes or rectangles.

The third allows you to select from a number of images to move fill up a blank page. A small yellow creature in the bottom right corner of the screen occasionally comments in a speech bubble filled with what appears to be nonsense characters.

Knowing Wright, I can’t help but think that there’s at least some new information hidden on the page.

Stupid Fun Club