Can anyone believe it’s been almost an entire decade since The Sims 4 was first released? No matter how much I think about that, it just doesn’t become any more believable – someone stop fast-forwarding through time, please! But back to the news. Almost a decade after The Sims 4, EA confirmed during their Behind The Sims Summit that the next entry into the super-successful franchise is officially in the works.
Dubbed Project Rene, EA describes it as “the next generation The Sims game and creative platform”, and from what they showed during the event, the game is still very early in its development stages. From what we learned during the event, the game will stay true to its roots while also pushing to change and evolve the way Sims think and behave.
Project Rene will allow players to play alone; the only way we’ve been able to experience the franchise up until now or co-operatively with others. The game will also boast full cross-platform support. As of now, EA has made it clear that they plan to constantly release information about the game leading up to its eventual launch, with the vice president of the franchise saying that this is “the start of our journey over the next few years.”
While we didn’t see any of the actual Sims themselves, we did get a preview of a few planned systems, like the building and customisation options. The biggest takeaway was how customisable these features will become, with one section of the stream showing the player taking a bed apart so that they could manually change the headboard’s shape and adjust the bedding’s texture.
But Project Rene isn’t the only big Sims news from the summit. The company also announced that from last night, the base game for The Sims 4 is now completely free. This move allows those who maybe have always wanted to try the game but were unwilling to make the financial commitment a way to do so.
Fans of the game also needn’t worry that the move to “free-to-play” means abandonment; instead, Maxis will continue to support the game with expansions and updates going forward. There are already two expansions planned for 2023 and a massive update that will add infants to the game, expanding the baby’s stage of life.