The Future Of The Sims Could Come From The Past
Here's what we know about The Sims 5: it's happening. As the franchise nears its 20 year anniversary, the head honchos at EA have more or less officially confirmed that devs are brainstorming about what will follow The Sims 4, hinting that The Sims 5 is likely in a conceptual, pre-production stage. This news comes from a conference call between investors and EA CEO Andrew Wilson.
Wilson promised that, "As Maxis continues to think about The Sims for a new generation across platforms and a cloud-enabled world," the studio would "stay true to [its] inspiration, escape, creation [...]" Wilson also made mention of the "notion of social interaction and competition," and referenced The Sims Online as a sterling example of those concepts in action.
It's good news to hear that EA and Maxis are hard at work imagining what the future of The Sims might look like. But what's with that mention of The Sims Online? Could we possibly see that title make a comeback?
The return of The Sims Online?
Okay, let's break that down. As we noted, Wilson made a callback to The Sims Online, an online version of the game that ran from 2002 to 2008. Maybe the world wasn't ready for it then, but players are certainly ready for online multiplayer capabilities today.
"This notion of social interaction and competition" as Wilson puts it, would require online features. Perhaps in The Sims 5, players will be able to challenge their friends to... family building competitions? Who can raise the most successful Sim? The possibilities are kind of endless. The Sims is a series that celebrates stretching your creative muscles, after all.
Right now, our creative theories as to what's next for The Sims are just that — theories. The Sims 4 is doing well, enjoying an influx of attention thanks to the very millennial Tiny Living update. Oh, and did we mention that you can build a shrine to Baby Yoda, sans mods? Because that's also a thing the devs deigned to add to the game.
Attention is still focused on the now, The Sims 4, but clearly there is some work going on at Maxis that's focused on the future: a Sims title with the addition of the online features modern gamers expect in games these days.