In an update published on its official website, the company has revealed that rather than focusing on “linear, sequential Sims releases”, it instead intends to offer players a wide variety of experiences, the centerpiece of which will continue to be The Sims 4. Also included will be Project Rene, previously rumoured to be The Sims 5, but described now by EA as “a story driven mobile test”.

“When we talk about The Sims as an entertainment platform driven by our community, it’s because we see the future of The Sims as more than any one title,” the update reads. “We’re expanding the franchise to better serve the diverse needs of the growing number of Simmers around the world. The Sims will move beyond linear, sequential Sims releases and offer more options for players than ever before. We’re focused on creating a variety of games and experiences that will touch different categories across the simulated life genre including cozy games, social and collaborative based gameplay, mobile narrative games and continued depth, improvements, and modernization of The Sims 4, which will continue to be a foundational Sims experience.

“We’re creating new and innovative experiences that connect with players on their terms, wherever they are and however they choose to play. These explorations are being tested via The Sims Labs including individual features from Project Rene, a story driven mobile test, enhancements to The Sims 4 with discovery and search tools, creator tools, and more.”

Interestingly, franchise boss Kate Gorman has also confirmed in an interview with Variety that there are no plans to make The Sims 5 and use it to replace The Sims 4, with the plan instead being to continue supporting, enhancing, and expanding on The Sims 4.

“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,” she said. “What we’re really working with our community on is this a new era of The Sims. We are not going to be working on replacements of previous projects; we’re only going to be adding to our universe. With that, you’ll see there are more ways to experience The Sims on different platforms, different ways to play, transmedia, and lots of great offerings within this universe. So absolutely, we’re still continuing to support The Sims 4 more than ever. Still continue to deliver expansion packs and updates and fixes. But what this is to say is, the way we’re going to do things going forward is a little different. And it’s really exciting and it’s really the most expansive iteration of The Sims yet.”

“What this means is that we will continue to bring HD simulation experience and what people would want from a [Sims] 5 — but it doesn’t mean that we’re going to start you over, reset all your progress, and really feel like you’re going to lose all of that amazing play you put into 4,” she added. “I think as we think about the future of it, we want you to continue all of those families and generations. Those creations are your progress, your attachment. We don’t want to reset your progress. And so it’s not about as much of what the numbers are in the games, but know that 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.”

PS5 players can play these through backwards compatibility, but in terms of exclusives, there’s Crime Boss: Rockay City and Deceive Inc. Meanwhile, both platforms can play sci-fi survival title Stranded: Alien Dawn. As for Classic games, available exclusively for Premium subscribers, there’s 2Xtreme, G-Police, and Worms Pinball. All three are playable on PS4 and PS5.

It’s also worth noting that Horizon Zero Dawn will be leaving the catalog on May 21st, so play it now while it’s available. Be sure to check out this month’s free PlayStation Plus Essential titles as well, including Destiny 2: Lightfall, Ghostrunner 2, Tunic and EA Sports FC 24. They’re available until June 3rd, though EA Sports FC 24 can be claimed by June 17th.

“We intend for Project Rene to be free to download, and that means that when it’s ready and fully open to our players, you’ll be able to join and play and explore Project Rene without a subscription, without core game purchase or energy mechanics,” said vice president of franchise creative at Maxis Lyndsay Pearson.

“We want it to be easy for you to invite or join with a friend, and that means extending an open invitation for everyone to play.”

Pearson goes on to warn players that, at launch, Project Rene won’t be as feature rich as The Sims 4 eventually became thanks to the release of several updates and expansions since the title’s original release. However, Pearson reaffirms that the game will be worked on, and over time, will also get new content and experiences. Project Rene will also make features that older games in the franchise have featured as expansions as core features of the game.

“Well, beyond regular updates to the core game, we will sell content and packs, but we want to change that mix a little bit,” says Pearson. “So, let me give you a theoretical example. In The Sims 4, the only way to experience any weather was if you purchased seasons. Now, in Project Rene, we might introduce basic weather to the core game for free for everybody. And then a pack for purchase might be focused on winter sports and could include activities like ice dancing or a snowman-building competition.”

Pearson also goes on to reveal that Project Rene and The Sims 4 will exist side by side even once the in-development project is released as The Sims 5.

“Project Rene and The Sims 4 are going to continue to exist side by side,” explains Pearson. “We plan to support both at the same time, and we’re going to continue to bring even more exciting content to The Sims 4 for the foreseeable future.”

The Sims 5 doesn’t yet have a solid release date, but more details for the game are slated to be revealed in 2024. EA and Maxis have also previously stated that they want to release The Sims 5 on as many platforms as possible.

The “expansion” to Electronic Arts’ long-running social simulation title entered the charts in third place. This is despite receiving criticism for its content. Plenty of other titles rose and fell through the charts over the week, like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom dropping to fourth place with sales falling by 233 percent.

Despite sales dropping by 13 percent, Diablo 4 went from 13th to tenth place. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor dropped from eighth to 18th place as sales dropped by 60 percent. Street Fighter 6 reached 14th place thanks to a 65 percent increase in sales. Check out Gfk’s top ten best-selling physical titles in the UK for the week ending July 22nd below.

Surprisingly, the most common cause of death was old age, followed less surprisingly by anger and drowning. Nevertheless, it proved extremely popular, with 1.4 billion hours played in 2022. The Sims 5 is currently in development, though a release date wasn’t announced.

Other notable figures include Apex Legends players sending 1 billion “Thank You’s” in-game. Some 88.4 million Legends died in the Ring and drove five million vehicles off Olympus. They also captured 830.2 million points in the limited-time mode Control and severed 22.7 million Marvin arms. Battlefield 2042 also had interesting numbers, with 117.8 million weekly missions completed and over 803,648 Portal experiences created.

Next year should be interesting with EA’s rumored WRC game, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and the Dead Space remake on the horizon. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

It looks like Project Rene will allow players to not only change the colour and patterns on objects, but also the object’s shape as well. Another feature in the works is the ability for players to be able to customise their Sims’ houses through a different device. The demo shown off had a player place furniture on their smartphone, with the changes appearing live on the PC.

It is worth pointing out that all of the features for Project Rene shown off have been in an incredibly early stage of development, and we could see many changes down the line as development on Project Rene moves forward.

Pearson also stated that more details on Project Rene will be revealed as development moves ahead, and the studio will also start providing access to some of the early software to a small group of players.

Alongside the announcement, the studio has stated that more announcements for The Sims will be made during its Behind The Sims Summit, which scheduled to be livestreamed on October 18.

With the transition of The Sims 4 to a free-to-play model, the developers have said that the team behind the game is dedicated to developing “new and meaningful” experiences for The Sims 4. New packs, kits, and Sims Delivery Express drops will be released for the game into the foreseeable future.

Those who had already purchased The Sims 4 will be getting a free copy of the Desert Luxe Kit, which brings in furniture and decor with a desert theme. The Desert Luxe Kit includes indoor and outdoor furniture made of materials like stone and wood.

All werewolves in the new game pack start with a beast form and a Sim form that are linked, making both forms match up in terms of body shape, facial features, and clothes. The forms can also be unlinked for further customisation.

Werewolves is also bringing with it a new neighbourhood—Moonwood Mill. The new area is home to two wolf packs: the Moonwood Collective, and the Wildfangs.

The Moonwood Collective is a pack of seasoned werewolves who focus on tradition, self-control, and community. The Wildfangs, on the other hand, focus on individuality, self-improvement, and self-acceptance. The Wildfangs are inspired by grunge and punk aesthetics.

Joining either of the packs comes with its own set of responsibilities, obligations, and hierarchy. Players can also try to eventually become the Alpha and represent their chosen pack as its leader.

Becoming a werewolf in The Sims 4 also brings about new gameplay mechanics. The major new mechanic is Fury; using a werewolf’s unique abilities, sparring with other werewolves, staying in beast form, or being under a full moon can bring changes to a Sim’s Fury, changing the Sim’s temperament. Reaching maximum Fury makes transformation imminent.

The Sims 4 – Werewolf Game Pack is set to launch on June 16 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS4, and PS5.

The Sims has always been a big franchise with a dedicated fanbase, but the latest entry in the series, The Sims 4, has taken that to a new level. As of last year, the game had surpassed 30 million players as announced by publisher EA. Because of that the game has continued to get lots of support, including some goofy DLC packs as Sims fans expect. Now it’s time to get spooky.

A new DLC has been revealed called the Paranormal Stuff Pack. Now your Sims can summon ghosts to be their roommates. The pack includes all kinds of ghostly additions such as seances to commune with the dead, a skeleton maid, Paranormal Investigators licenses and the ability to perform cleansing to send your ghostly pals on their way.

The Sims 4 is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The Paranormal Stuff Pack will launch across all platforms on January 26th.

With the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S launching days from now, publishers and developers have been talking about how their current-gen games are going to leverage next-gen hardware. EA recently posted an update to the same effect as well, talking about the enhancements we can expect from several of their titles on the upcoming consoles.

The most notable improvements being made are to Star Wars: Squadrons, which will have performance and visuals priority modes on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Performance mode will entail 1440p/120 FPS gameplay on Xbox Series S and 4K/120 FPS on Xbox Series X. Meanwhile, visuals mode will offer 1440p/60 FPS and 4K/120 FPS gameplay respectively, but the game will also be making use of a new lighting model for improved visual quality. Surprisingly, no such enhancements are going to be featured in the game’s PS5 version, which will be identical to the PS4 Pro version.

Apex Legends, however, will have parity across all three consoles, running at 1440p, though EA says more enhancements will be coming in a dedicated next-gen update next year. Then there’s The Sims 4, which will have smoother frame rates and faster load times across the PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.

Finally, EA also details enhancements for FIFA 21, Madden NFL 21, NHL 21, UFC 4, and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered– in that there aren’t any. All of these will run on the Xbox Series X as if on an Xbox One X, on the Xbox Series S as if on an Xbox One S, and on the PS5 as if on a PS4 Pro.