‘The Sims 5’ isn’t happening
“We are not going to be working on replacements of previous projects”
by Ali Shutler · NMEEA has confirmed that it is not working on a direct sequel to The Sims 4.
Back in 2021, EA announced it was working on the next generation of The Sims franchise and the following year, confirmed The Sims 5 AKA Project Rene was a “couple of years” away from release.
However, the studio has now confirmed it is moving ”beyond linear, sequential Sims releases”, meaning The Sims 5 isn’t happening.
“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,” Sims general manager Kate Gorman said in an interview with Variety. “We are not going to be working on replacements of previous projects [any more]; we’re only going to be adding to our universe.”
She went on to say that the studio is working on “what people would want from a 5” but in a way that means players won’t ever have to start over. “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,” explained Gorman, with The Sims 4 set to continue being “a foundational Sims experience” with a number of updates, expansions and fixes in the works.
However Project Rene is still in development. “Project Rene is focused on building ways for friends to meet, connect, and share while playing together in an all-new world,” reads a new blog post. A small play-test is set to take place this autumn, with fans able to register their interest here.
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Speaking about the multiplayer aspect of Project Rene, Gorman said: “We know that there is an opportunity to play in a very social, real time, multiplayer environment within our gamespace/ We haven’t delivered that experience with The Sims 4 or any of our other titles yet so we’re looking at what that means and could look like.”
Earlier this year, Sims rival Life By You was cancelled shortly after being “delayed indefinitely”.
In other news, EA has also confirmed that Respawn Entertainment are “working hard” on the third and final Star Wars Jedi game.