Electronic Arts has announced that EA-Land, its virtual world, is to be closed down.

Formerly known as The Sims Online, EA-Land will close in August. An EA blog post sited the need to "focus resources on future games" as the reason for the close.

Subscription billing ends immediately, which means the game will be free for its final 60 days.

Subscribers as of 29 April have been offered $15 (about £7.50) off any game at the EA Store or 3 months of Club Pogo subscription time as compensation.

"It is with mixed emotions that today we are announcing the EA-Land experiment will soon draw to a close", read the EA post.

"Since 2002, EA-Land / TSO has attracted a very special group of players and we certainly appreciate your participation in the EA-Land community. 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."

Over 30,000 pieces of custom content have been uploaded to EA-Land by users. And from the comments on the blog post, they're none too pleased with the news.