EA has announced that it will be closing its virtual world EA-Land down. Formerly known as The Sims Online, EA-Land was opened in 2002 but re-named and re-branded in February this year.

In a post on EA-Land’s official blog, EA commented “The lifetime of the game has drawn to an end, and now we will be focusing on new ideas and other innovative concepts in the games arena. We’d like to thank everyone who has taken part in this online community as a unique experience in the virtual world.”

According to EA it will focus these resources on future games once the EA-Land service closes on the 1st of August. EA will end members’ subscription billing now so at least 60 days will be for free but members can cancel their account or subscription at any time. EA also pointed out that starting immediately PayPal cash-in will not be available.

EA is offering one of two gifts as a token of their appreciation if you are a paying subscriber as of the 29th of April. You can either cash in a $15 discount off any game at the EA Store or get three months of Club POGO subscription time.

EA senior vice president Luc Barthelet had this to say “We share the sadness of the entire community in writing this blog to announce that the EA-Land experiment is being brought to an end. Decisions such as these are never easy and the rationale for closing EA-Land is particularly complex. Regardless, it is hard to see the end of the collective investment of emotion, time and friendship.”