To our great shock and sadness, Grant Rodiek has decided to leave Maxis and EA. This news comes from Grant’s LinkedIn profile and explains the reasoning behind this decision. While we wish Grant all the best in his future endeavours and thank him for his work on our favourite game since 2005, we can’t help but feel sad about his departure.

After almost 20 years, Grant Rodiek Leaves EA

Grant has worked on The Sims franchise since 2005 and his influence can be seen in The Sims 3, The Sims 4, and Project Rene (colloquially known as The Sims 5). It’s hard to imagine where The Sims would be today without his creative influence.

Who Is Grant Rodiek?

Grant, formerly a Senior Producer on The Sims 4, has a very long and colourful history with The Sims franchise. He has worked on The Sims 3, The Sims 4, and Project Rene/The Sims 5. Many of The Sims 4’s current features are directly thanks to Grant’s influence on the game. For example, he was the driving force behind changing some of the insensitive terminology in the game, such as rewording the Insane trait to Erratic.

His influence can be seen in The Sims 3 as well, even to this day. There are two books named after him; Point Farmer: the Story of Grant Rodiek, and the sequel, Point Farmer No More: The Downfall of Grant Rodiek. He also has an asteroid in the game named after him, the Unusual Rodiekceous.

During his time at EA, Grant’s been known to speak his mind and not shy away from confrontation, especially during The Sims 4’s more rocky periods over its 8 year lifespan. While some didn’t care for his bluntness, others appreciated his direct, no-nonsense attitude and saw it as breath of fresh air amidst uncomfortable silence and empty platitudes from the rest of The Sims Team at the time.

One thing is for certain; The Sims will be forever changed by his absence.

Grant’s Role on Project Rene

In January of 2023, Grant was introduced as a Game Director on Project Rene during a Behind The Sims episode. He was interviewed by Mersea about the state of Project Rene, where Grant talked extensively about his experiences with early playtests and developing the next generation Sims game hand-in-hand with players.

More specifically, he discussed a recent playtest where they had a small group of players explore what he called “apartment customisation,” otherwise known as Build/Buy to current Sims 4 players. He talked about Create-A-Style tools returning from The Sims 3. For those unfamiliar with The Sims 3, this essentially means being able to customise the colours and patterns of individual objects via a colour wheel and extensive pattern swatches rather than just a set number of standard colours like The Sims 4 has now.

He also talked about being able to do this in multiplayer with friends, upload the creations, and being able to switch between playing on PC and playing on your mobile phone.

SimGuru No More: The Downfall of Grant Rodiek?

Just last night, Grant made a post on his LinkedIn account, announcing his departure from Maxis and Electronic Arts. His reasons seem to be motivated by wanting a bigger challenge in the gaming world and wanting to better support his family.

Here is Grant’s full LinkedIn statement:

I’ve decided to leave Maxis and EA.

There is always another milestone to hit. A feature you want to deliver to players. Co-workers you can’t imagine not working with. A recession. My kids who need to eat.

I realized there was never going to be a perfect moment to part, but I knew it was time to change, so I’m taking the jump.

There are so many cool things happening in games right now: AI, new social experiences, UGC, amazing narrative, and frankly I think there is so much we can still do with simulation.

My hope is to find a new place that challenges me, allows me to dabble in some of these exciting areas, and continue to delight in making games. After all, I still really, really, really love games.

The job search is on. If you know a team that needs a producer/game director type product nerd, I’d love to hear from you. It’s a tough market and we can all use the help.

Thank you to Maxis for the career, letting me do so many different things, promoting me into incredible leadership roles, and for letting me work with so many people I’ll miss terribly.

Grant Rodiek, LinkedIn

We hope that, unlike the book named after him in The Sims 3, this is not the downfall of Grant Rodiek, but a new and exciting beginning for him in the world of simulation games. We wish him all the best in his job search and can’t wait to see what new and exciting projects he’ll be a part of in the future!

Dag-dag, Grant! The Sims fandom won’t ever forget you.

Curious about Project Rene? We have all the latest Sims 5 news for you right here on our website!