The Sims Online
Posted by Marcel Klum on 07 December 2001 - 15:23 · 1 comment & 61 views
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Full name: Marcel Klum
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Full name: Marcel Klum
Forum name: Redmak
Contact: via forum PM
Submissions: Normal · Headline
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The Sims Online, Electronic Arts' multiplayer virtual-life game being developed at Maxis, is on track for release in the second half of 2002, according to Maxis company spokesperson. The game is an online version of Electronic Arts' popular virtual-life game, The Sims, which has remained among the best-selling PC games since its release in early 2000. Unlike the original single-player game, The Sims Online will let players' virtual people interact with one another over the Internet. The game will also feature a variety of new social interactions and other features.
Sun has completed about 75 percent of the layoffs it announced in early October and plans to have about 40,000 employees by the end of the quarter, down from 43,000. As a result of the job cuts and facility reductions, Sun expects to take a $500 million charge, Lehman said.
To help spur sales, Sun has been working to push its 900MHz UltraSparc III processors across its entire hardware line and announced that the Sun Fire 280R entry-level server will now have the speedier chips. Sun's newest high-end and midrange servers already have the 900MHz chips.
The Sun Fire 280R is shipping immediately with two 900MHz chips, at a starting price of $22,995 with 2GB of memory and two 36GB internal disks. A similar product with 750MHz UltraSparc IIIs starts at $17,995, according to information on Sun's Web site.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sun also said it plans to introduce some new storage technology in January that will come out of tools it acquired through its purchase of HighGround Systems.in April. Sun has previously said the new offerings would involve virtual storage management and next-generation file system technology.