Although The Sims 4 continues to be supported more than a decade later, Electronic Arts has already approached the game with multiple expansions & add-on over the years. Even before live-service was a completely embraced model like it is today, The Sims was the catalyst. But, it still came as a surprise that the latest entry would be free-to-play as of October 2022.
But, that is not all that developer Maxis has to share. At the same time, it was confirmed that The Sims is already stirring the pot for its next game, dubbed ‘Project Rene’. Although it is still premature to press what is furthered in the new experience, information did surface elsewhere. In one job listing, it is suggested that the new title will effectively embrace the live-service model at release.
Howbeit, that is not all on the table for The Sims for Project Rene. In that, Maxis addresses in an interview with RadioTimes that the new game is being considered to integrate multiplayer for the first time.
We definitely want to introduce multiplayer. And not multiplayer in the big, scary “jump in a world full of strangers” kind of way. But literally, how do you and your friends want to do some play together? And there’s a lot of different flavours that could take, so we’re exploring a lot of different spaces there.
Because playing together can look like so many different things, right? Even our chat now, we’ve talked about, like, trivia games to fighting games to racing games, playing together and social can mean so many things. And so we’re having a lot of fun exploring all those different opportunities, particularly within the context of The Sims, because it is still about these little characters, their little lives, and you helping guide them.
Lyndsay Pearson, Vice President of Franchise Creative
“So, what does that mean if you and I do that together? And how do we figure out how to make a little bit of that chaos, a little bit of that fun and a little bit of that positivity all come together in a way that feels Sims-y?” Pearson also sheds the team does reference “talk about Animal Crossing all the time, because it is such a good example of my little space, my little island, but I can invite you over.
“And we’ve seen throughout the last few years of Animal Crossing, people inventing ways to play together that the game doesn’t specifically support, but they’ve made up scavenger hunts or whatever, which is amazing. […] We actually look at a lot of games that are doing multiplayer in clever ways, like Among Us even, which is this sort of mystery thing, but you have to talk about it and solve it.”
What is your thoughts on The Sims to feature some form of multiplayer?
Source: RadioTimes
