Electronic Arts will not release The Sims 5: the company is focusing on developing major multiplayer DLC for The Sims 4

Electronic Arts has shared important news about the popular game franchise The Sims.

Here's What We Know

In autumn 2022 EA announced Project Rene and many media interpreted it as a confirmation of The Sims 5 development, but it turned out that the company has other plans.

In an interview with Variety, EA Vice President Kate Gorman revealed that the company has no plans to develop The Sims 5 at this time and will instead focus on continuing its extensive support for The Sims 4.

Historically, the series began with The Sims 1, continued in the form of The Sims 2, 3, and 4. And each instalment was considered a replacement for the previous one. And now we are busy creating a new era of The Sims together with the community. We won't be releasing replacements for our previous games; instead, we'll be fleshing them out. [...] So yes, we're still going to support The Sims 4, we're still going to continue to release expansions, updates, and edits.

Kate Gorman also mentioned that the decision not to release The Sims 5 was dictated, among other things, by the company's unwillingness to make irrelevant the content purchased by gamers for the fourth part of the series.

We will continue to give people the experience of simulation, and exactly what they want from the game with the number 5. But that doesn't mean we're going to force users to start over, roll back progress, and take away a lot of the time they've invested in The Sims 4.

As for Project Rene, it will be a major multiplayer add-on for The Sims 4 that will not be a standalone game.

Project Rene, which is still in development along with other exciting new projects in The Sims franchise, focuses on creating opportunities for friends to meet, socialise and share experiences while playing together in a whole new world.

EA is inviting gamers to test Project Rene as early as autumn, you can already apply on the Electronic Arts Playtesting website.

The company also announced The Sims Labs programme, which will allow gamers to experiment with gameplay and come up with new mechanics for The Sims. For now, access to this lab will be given to EA Playtesting members.

And one more important news for The Sims fans: Amazon MGM Studios has started production of a film based on the famous game. The script will be written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman.

Source: Variety