UPDATE: 2024/09/17 22:11 EST BY LARA JACKSON
Article Clarification
A PR representative for The Sims 4 has reached out to Screen Rant to clarify the following: "While there is no game currently in development titled ‘The Sims 5', Project Rene is continuing its development alongside other exciting new projects within The Sims franchise. Project Rene is a standalone experience focused on building ways for friends to meet, connect, and share while playing together in an all-new world." Original story as follows.
Electronic Arts has officially confirmed that it has no plans for The Sims 5. Instead, the company will be focused entirely on adding updates and expansions to the current game, The Sims 4. The company has scrapped the idea of creating a new Sims game instead of focusing on the game's current iteration for the foreseeable future.
EA vice president Kate Gorman told Variety that the decision was made with fans in mind. Sims 4 has been running for over 10 years, and creating a new installment in the franchise would mean its dedicated fans would have to start over from scratch. To prevent this, the company will focus all its current and future efforts on expanding The Sims 4: "We are not going to be working on replacements of previous projects," says Gorman. "We’re only going to be adding to our universe."
The Sims 5 Cancelation Reshapes The Future Of The Sims Franchise
New Sims Titles May Still Be Planned
Gorman makes a nod to the history of the Sims games. According to her, previous numbered editions of the games have been focused on replacing their predecessors. But the new Sims 4 strategy changes this, shifting the focus to expanding instead of replacing.
Sims 4 went free-to-play in October 2022. This change to its monetization format enabled it to focus on creating expansions and building a community. It also introduced many new players to the franchise, by removing the entry fee entirely. The results speak for themselves: according to Statista, as of March 2024, there were more than 85 million Sims 4 players worldwide, compared to 20 million in 2020.
Sims 4's Roap May Be Teasing A Game-Changing New Feature
Sims 4's newest roap was just released, and with it comes lots of speculation for features being teased to release further down the line.
Choosing not to work on The Sims 5, which was known to be selling practically the same game as a full-price new title every year.
The ultimate goal, according to Gorman, is to let players continue working on the creations and generations that they've put many years into. "Those creations are your progress, your attachment. We don’t want to reset your progress," says Gorman. From her choice of words, though, it sounds like additional Sims titles aren't out of the question, but they won't be completely blank slates. Instead, "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.”
Gorman says that the future will look a little different from how the game has done things in the past, though she didn't elaborate on what this means. The Sims 4 fans can expect to continue playing their beloved game, with plenty of expansions and new content in the game's future.
The Sims 4
- Released
- September 2, 2014
