EA has shut down the offices responsible for making one of computing’s most prolific and beloved game franchises.

Sad news in the game world today: EA has announced the closure of Maxis’ Emeryville offices, the home of the legendary city building game SimCity, according to Kotaku.

EA says development on Sims and SimCity franchises continues, just without the efforts of the folks in Emeryville.

These changes do not impact our plans for The Sims. Players will continue to see rich new experiences in The Sims 4, with our first expansion pack coming soon along with a full slate of additional updates and content in the pipeline.

EA says employees affected by the Emeryville closure are being given “opportunities to explore other positions within the Maxis studios and throughout EA.”

Originally developed by Will Wright, SimCity was initially released for the Mac and Commodore Amiga back in 1989. It quickly became a phenomenon, spawning ports to other platforms, sequels and other related titles. The Sims followed in 2000, spawning another hugely successful franchise.

The timing is peculiar: The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is happening in SF this week.

During its GDC event today, Microsoft announced that it has partnered with game studio Motiga to bring Gigantic, a new take on the MOBA genre, to Xbox One and Windows 10 later this year as a launch title for the OS.

Microsoft announced that the new version of Unreal Tournament, the multiplayer first person shooter from Epic Games, will use DirectX 12, the next version of Microsoft’s graphics API. DirectX 12 will be supported by Windows 10 and will officially launch alongside the OS.

At GDC 2015, we had a chance to check out the recently-announced Knights of Pen and Paper 2. Though it’s being worked on by a new developer, they’ve managed to maintain the self-referential tongue-in-cheek humor that made the original such a roaring success (at least among diehard Dungeons & Dragons nerds like me).

The publishers were a little shy about letting us shoot video this early on in development, even though the glitchiness of the current build was minimal. What we can tell you is that the graphics have taken the massive leap from 8-bit to 16-bit, summoning all the nostalgia that Super Nintendo-era games have to offer. Check out this batch of screenshots for an idea of what to expect.

As for gameplay, a lot of the same turn-based combat remains, with a few refinements. You still pick the type of human player your characters are, but they revolve more around high school stereotypes than anything. Sorry, no pizza delivery guy or grandma (yet). On the upside, you can now pick races in addition to player and classes. Abilities and equipment have some added depth, namely in terms of selection and elemental attributes. There’s a new crafting system too, though we didn’t get a chance to check it out.

Of course there are new quests, new enemies, and new classes to try out, but the core of a streamlined RPG with simple stat system remains intact. Fantasy gaming fans will definitely be interested in this one when it comes out on May 4.

Windows Central streams a wide variety of Xbox One games every Wednesday and Saturday on Twitch. Watching us play a game on Twitch lets you see a lot more you could from a trailer or video review. You can even enjoy some highly entertaining narration while chatting with your fellow readers. It’s like a live interactive podcast centered around videogames!

Tonight we’ll be streaming Dragon Ball Xenoverse from Namco Bandai. Just released last week, Xenoverse is the first Dragon Ball console game to let players create their own unique character. With expansive story and mission modes, plus three-player online co-op and competitive battles, this is one game DragonBall fans won’t want to miss!

Update: The stream has ended. Continue reading for quick impressions and the full replay!

As announced less than an hour ago, Crossy Road is on a device here on the floor at GDC and we’ve finally got our hands on it. If you aren’t familiar with it, Crossy Road is one of the top games on Android and iOS at the moment.

Earlier today, we reported that Xbox Music for Windows 8.1 had picked up a bug-fixing updated. The same can now be said for the Windows Phone version, although this one has a slightly more detailed changelog.