Maxis had a really cool integration ecosystem for a period. I remember flying my sim copter in my sim city. Driving cars around Streets of Sim City - in my ci

Maxis had a really cool integration ecosystem for a period. I remember flying my sim copter in my sim city. Driving cars around Streets of Sim City - in my city. SimCity was the worldbuilder and they let you play in that world in a variety of ways. I must have spent hundreds of hours playing these as a child: these were basically my Minecraft. What happened to their vision? Was the EA acquisition the beginning of the end, or did the magic start disappearing earlier?