Back in September of last year, EA officially announced that they were working on a game known as ‘Project Rene’ – aka Sims 5. Since then however, it seems the publisher has pivoted its priorities, now announcing that Sims 4 will continue to live on with new multiplayer expansions and more.
As reported by Variety, EA has confirmed that despite being a decade old at this point, there are no plans for a 5th Sims game, with the publisher instead focusing on bringing more content to Sims 4 via Creator Kits.
Explaining why they have decided not to go ahead with The Sims 5, Kate Gorman – EA's vice president and general manager of the Sims – stated:
“The way to think about it is, historically, ‘The Sims’ franchise started with ‘Sims 1’ and then ‘Sims 2,’ ‘3’ and ‘4.’ And they were seen as replacements for the previous products.”
Gorman continued, “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.”
Further explaining exactly what this means, they added, “So absolutely, we’re still continuing to support [The Sims 4] 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. And it’s really exciting and it’s really the most expansive iteration of ‘The Sims’ yet.”
The full interview can be found HERE, but in essence it seems as though the switch to a free-to-play model for the Sims 4 has extended its lifecycle by quite some time – for better or for worse.
KitGuru says: What do you think of this decision? Were you looking forward to a Sims 5? What features would you like to see added to the current game? Let us know down below.