The fate of The Sims franchise in the last few years has been a little bit messy: EA has been working on what it called Project Rene, which at times sounded like The Sims 5 and at times sounded like something else entirely, with one or both of them being multiplayer but not an MMO and yet still invoking the spirit of The Sims Online.
Well, the situation is getting even messier now, as EA has all but declared that it’s not working on The Sims 5 at all, at least in the sense of its being a Sims 4 replacement as the community has long been assuming. Here’s the official statement, buried in a massive EA blog:
“The Sims will move beyond linear, sequential Sims releases and offer more options for players than ever before. We’re focused on creating a variety of games and experiences that will touch different categories across the simulated life genre including cozy games, social and collaborative based gameplay, mobile narrative games and continued depth, improvements, and modernization of The Sims 4, which will continue to be a foundational Sims experience.”
EA VP/GM Kate Gorman expounded on the strategy in a Variety interview.
“What we’re really working with our community on is this a new era of The Sims. We are not going to be working on replacements of previous projects; we’re only going to be adding to our universe. With that, you’ll see there are more ways to experience The Sims on different platforms, different ways to play, transmedia, and lots of great offerings within this universe. So absolutely, we’re still continuing to support TS4 more than ever. Still continue to deliver expansion packs and updates and fixes. But what this is to say is, the way we’re going to do things going forward is a little different. […] What this means is that we will continue to bring HD simulation experience and what people would want from a ‘5’ — but it doesn’t mean that we’re going to start you over, reset all your progress, and really feel like you’re going to lose all of that amazing play you put into 4. […] [W]e want you to continue all of those families and generations. Those creations are your progress, your attachment. We don’t want to reset your progress. And so it’s not about as much of what the numbers are in the games, but know that the future of the franchise looks more like keeping your progress, keeping things across titles, and really having an ongoing experience, and not a start-and-stop experience between products.”
It’s good news for people who’ve poured vats of money into The Sims 4, anyway. Also, there’s some good news for fans of the multiplayer Project Rene, one of the core reasons we’re covering the franchise here on MOP: EA says it’s running a “small invite-only playtest” for the game this fall with an “early look at a multiplayer experience that explores joining friends and other players at a shared location.”
Frankly, it’s not entirely clear that this wasn’t always EA’s strategy; it’s certainly possible that EA is just realizing it needs to try to manage expectations for what players can expect, given the ongoing confusion. In other words, perhaps it’s just another attempt at getting the world to stop calling Project Rene “TS5.” We’ll see.
