Omnihanded Entertainmet News | ‘The Sims’ is getting a multiplayer spin-off, no plans for ‘Sims 5’

The Sims bosses have revealed more about the future of the franchise, with a multiplayer spin-off in the works.

The Sims 4 was released in 2014 and has been regularly updated by developers over the last 11 years. In 2021, EA announced they were working on the next generation of The Sims franchise and the following year, they confirmed Project Rene was a “couple of years” away from release.

Many fans assumed Project Rene would be a direct sequel to The Sims 4 but last year, EA said it would be moving ”beyond linear, sequential Sims releases”. In a new interview with Variety, EA Entertainment president Laura Miele confirmed that there are still no plans for The Sims 5.

“What I wouldn’t want to have happen is you to have to start from day zero and start from scratch and give up all of the things that you have created, give up all of the content that you’ve purchased over the years,” Miele explained. “We put out over 85 content packs over the last 10 years on The Sims 4 and so resetting that is not player friendly and not a good idea for our community.” She went on to confirm EA will keep “creating and updating the base technology and the base user experience on the core game.”

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However work on the multiplayer spin-off Project Rene is still happening. The game is described as a way for “friends to meet, connect and share while playing together in an all-new world.” According to Miele, Project Rene “represents one of the biggest growth opportunities for Electronic Arts” and the team is currently “hard at work and feverishly developing what this [multiplayer] platform is going to be.” It comes after rumours the project had been scrapped started circulating online earlier this year.

“I see The Sims as a significant ecosystem and a universe of multiple experiences that we have to build on,” she added before confirming a movie adaptation of The Sims was still in development. The project is being created by Amazon MGM Studios and Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap after “years and years and years” of conversations about it. However no further details have been shared.