At first without knowing the reason behind the change I was shocked at what EA/Maxis did, but upon reading more I believe EA/Maxis may be justified on this one being there were forces outside of thier company that was the driving forces behind the change and sadly some folks may be affected by it. I now see it as an good thing and at the same time I feel for others that may not be able to make the upgrade as fast as others. However the writing was on the wall that 64 bit was becoming more dominant as other companies embraced it. OSes can influence changes sooner or later as seen.