It's the end of an era for publisher Electronic Arts and game designer Will Wright. After forming Maxis in 1989 (bought by EA in 1997) and helping to develop titles like Sim City, The Sims and most recently Spore, Wright is leaving the publisher to work full time at Stupid Fun Club, a company which is described as an "entertainment think tank" that will create new entertainment properties for a number of different formats.

Wright and EA aren't completely separating. Today's press release announces that EA owns the same number of shares in Stupid Fun Club that Wright does and that EA will have the rights to create any games that come out of Stupid Fun Club's ideas. In the meantime the Spore team at EA's Maxis outfit will be run by Lucy Bradshaw. Rod Humble is in charge of EA's Play unit which includes The Sims.

Update: Our sister site Game Daily has posted up a chat with Maxis head Lucy Bradshaw where she talks about Wright's new move over to Stupid Fun Club and how it will affect the Spore franchise moving forward.