Why The Sims Franchise Is Dead

Being able to enter a new reality for a while is a big part of why simulation games garner such a massive fan base. We can create entire cities to our liking, run a hospital or fly planes without a license, and forget about busy city life by living on a quaint island where the CRA isn’t on our tails. And we can do things by the book or choose to create chaos—the choice is ours.

The escapism aspect and playing God without the consequences are both part of the appeal of The Sims—a franchise that first came about at the turn of the millennium. As we began to live digital lives in a new online world, it only seemed fitting that we would have the opportunity to mimic life in a digital environment. In The Sims, players can create characters from scratch, choose what career path to follow, decide whether to flirt with or insult someone, and even cause them to die in bizarre ways. Yet, there’s also a building aspect to the game where you can essentially act as an architect and interior designer.

After over two decades of the franchise’s development, we’ve seen four main installments of the game, with plenty of DLC to complement each. But with the last installment coming out a decade ago in 2014, does this mean that the franchise is officially dead?

The Early Successes of The Sims

When The Sims first came out in 2000, it exuded much of the appeal of looking for the best slot website today. In fact, it was so popular that it became the best-selling PC game in history. Will Wright, the game’s original designer, used his experience rebuilding his life after the Oakland firestorm as his inspiration. Due to the limited advancements in technology at the time, The Sims truly demonstrated the ability of game developers to push past those boundaries. The game didn’t have an inherent goal or outcome—anyone could play it as they wanted and craft their own experience.

Four years later, The Sims 2 was released, which presented a huge step up from its predecessor. The game used a complete 3D graphics engine, introduced genetics, new social interactions, and neighborhood exploration, and upgraded the Create-a-Sim feature. EA managed to publish an even more realistic life simulation game than the first, one that became critically acclaimed and was available on a variety of consoles.

The Sims 3 brought players an even more advanced gameplay experience. There was even more customization and a brand-new traits and lifetime wishes system gave each Sim even more individuality.

Finally, we got The Sims 4, the final installment in the series. It took the original Sims gameplay to the extreme, with a collection of worlds, gameplay features, and custom content created by dedicated players available to download. However, with most features locked behind DLC and ongoing backlash from its once-dedicated player base, should we officially set up a gravestone for The Sims?

Introduction of Expansion Packs and DLC

A main part of the franchise’s longevity is the number of creative expansion packs that have complemented each installment of The Sims since. While not required to play the base games, they were exciting and gave fans access to new furniture, build items, clothing, and other features that would effectively open up the game even further. Despite them costing a little extra, fans were drawn to those opportunities, and EA profited from this.

While The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3 came with a few expansion pack options, The Sims 4 has a whopping 70 DLC. EA decided to make the base game very bare bones and free to play, enticing players to download the DLCs to upgrade their experience. Because the Sims 4 is so limited in scope, players are, dare we say, coerced to continue downloading this extra content. EA has hammered countless packs in the past few years, but the problem is that this makes the company seem like nothing but a money shill.

EAs Growing Rift with Fans

When The Sims 4 was released in 2014, developer Maxis instantly found itself in hot water for using development time constraints as an excuse. Long-time players complained about a lack of content and an abundance of technical issues. The developers excluded many gameplay features fans historically loved, and those fans didn’t understand the justification. But we can’t ignore that over 85 million players have played The Sims 4 and that the game generated over 1 billion USD within its first five years.

But when EA officially crushed fans’ anticipation of The Sims 5 with an official statement that said it would no longer be developing it, they were left to question what was happening behind the scenes. Its sights are set on continuing to develop DLC for The Sims 4, which could mean two different things: either the company is dedicated to further expanding a game that fans have shown love for, or The Sims 4 is too profitable to give up on and EA is simply prioritizing making profits over its fans’ desires.

With streamers and YouTubers keeping The Sims alive with their content, it’s unlikely that the franchise will go completely under. What’s odd is that EA and Maxis have also announced that they’re developing a game called Project Rene under The Sims franchise. In other words, The Sims 5 is still coming out, but it’s being rebranded. Especially with a Sims movie officially in the works, we could be looking at some crazy revival, much like the Barbie phenomenon. Whether this will come true or not, we’ll have to wait and see.