EA has announced that it will be shutting down technical support for The Sims 2 next week. This means there will be no new updates or support for this version and certainly no new content. Fortunately, EA has revealed that users who possess a digital version of the game on Origin can upgrade to the Ultimate Collection of The Sims 2 for free.

There’s a FAQ concerning the announcement after EA originally sent out emails to players about the same. If you upgrade to the Ultimate Collection, you’ll gain more content in the process and technical support on top of that. So if you’ve been curious about all the expansion packs that’ve released since, oh, 2004 then this is your ticket.

Currently, Maxis and The Sims Studio are getting ready to introduce The Sims 4 this September which will introduce new story-telling tools along great ways to kill your Sims. It will be out on PC and Mac on September 2nd in North America and September 4th in Europe.