Don’t panic. Or don’t get too excited, relying in your opinions on the long-dead The Sims Online from 2002. During a latest earnings name, EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson alludes to experimenting with social and aggressive components in a future Sims game however the phrase “MMO” was positively not talked about. Instead he says that “this notion of social interactions and competition […] will start to become a part of The Sims experience in the years to come.”
As reported by Sims Community, a caller asks Wilson for his ideas on “relaunching an online version of the franchise given its large popularity,” referencing EA’s financial results revealed yesterday stating that The Sims 4 had handed 20 million distinctive gamers worldwide.
Wilson positively doesn’t point out any plans for a fully-online Sims game like The Sims Online, so we are able to put a pin in that for now. However, he presents some hints as to what sort of on-line tie-ins The Sims would possibly attempt sooner or later.
Wilson factors out that as The Sims fan neighborhood has grown, gamers have change into extra prone to share what they create by means of a wide range of social platforms. He additionally notes that there’s a aggressive edge to The Sims, although not the best way you’d usually consider esports. Rather, “how they create and what they create and how they use their imaginations and what they’re able to build inside of these Sims universes.”
Despite what you consider EA’s push to get their studios growing round being on-line (sorry, Anthem) Wilson is correct concerning the social nature of sharing and competing in The Sims. I’ve been getting again into constructing myself for the reason that Tiny Living Stuff Pack and have rapidly discovered myself sucked into biweekly construct competitions on Reddit. RPS’ personal Graham and Alice B are planning a tiny living build competition. There’s one thing undeniably engrossing about each sharing and evaluating what you’ve created in The Sims—whether or not it’s a trendy split-level kitchen or a celeb lookalike Sim.
As for what this truly means for the way forward for The Sims, Wilson says:
“As Maxis continues to consider The Sims for a brand new technology throughout platforms and a cloud-enabled world, you need to think about that whereas we’ll all the time keep true to our ‘inspiration ,’ ‘escape,’ ‘creation,’ and ‘self-improvement’ motivations [for playing games], that this notion of social interactions and competitors—just like the type of issues that have been truly current in The Sims Online many, a few years in the past—that they’ll begin to change into part of the continued Sims expertise within the years to come back.
It doesn’t sound like EA are planning a full-blown Sims MMO. Rather, they appear involved in bringing the sharing and competing that Sims followers already do into the game itself or tying these behaviours nearer to EA’s personal platforms like The Sims 4 Gallery. He does reference “social interactions” as one thing that was current in The Sims Online, so maybe there’s a case to be made for on-line shared areas in the way forward for The Sims.
Sims Community have additionally posted the audio from Wilson’s reply in case you care to listen to it.
