Joystiq reports that Maxis is facing layoffs, EA confirmed to them in the report.

There’s speculation over the exact reason of the layoffs. While Spore and the third Sims game were million sellers in their own right, much like how Iwata viewed the success of a few potential long-term sellers that ended up floundering (though million sellers as well) because they were intended to be the hits, rather than just hits.

I wrote about this a while back, but now we’re seeing exactly how wide the spectrum of long-term games not performing as well as hoped are factoring into the rest of the industry. All titles, not just the casual titles not just the hardcore titles, are expected to perform to the best of their abilities now. Even though Spore’s inability to set the world on fire hasn’t been confirmed as the main reason for cutbacks at Maxis, has Spore become the hit you and the rest of gamers everywhere thought it would be roughly one year ago from now? – The Ben