Eight years after The Sims 4's release, developer Maxis has announced that a new generation of The Sims (The Sims 5) is on the way. This new project, now called Project Rene, is intended to "reminisce about words like renewal, renaissance and rebirth" and represents the team's "renewed commitment to The Sims' bright future."
Maxis showed fans the first footage of The Sims 18 during Behind The Sims Summit on October 5. During the presentation, the team released a few minutes of gameplay footage of the build mode, focusing on all the features coming into the game's build mode. While the old The Sims games stick to a grid-based design system, the new game seems to be abandoning that system to allow players to place items pretty much wherever they want. Players will also be able to customize items similar to The Sims 3. However, this advanced crafting mode doesn't stop at just changing the colors and patterns of the elements; gamers will even be able to adjust the number of cushions that decorate a seat.
As of now, the studio has not revealed any details about character customization, what The Sims 5 will look like, or its core gameplay. Maxis stated that the game will remain the same as The Sims has always been, but The Sims 5 will improve the way Sims think and act and provide players with "more ways to play, tools and abilities to foster creativity." Additionally, the upcoming game will allow players to play alone or in co-op mode with others, and will feature both crossplay and cross-progression across consoles.
Sims boss Lyndsay Pearson said, “Sims defined life simulation games from the beginning. It has continued to become an incredible platform for creativity and self-expression. Today represents the beginning of our journey for the next few years as we are currently working on this new game and creative platform called Project Rene. We're building on the same foundation that has made The Sims compelling and pushing boundaries to create new experiences for generations of players. We'll have more to share as we continue to progress along the path and development of the game.” said.
Throughout the presentation, Maxis emphasized that Project Rene is still in development. However, the team plans to share updates and work in progress over the next few years and will use player feedback to help improve.
In addition to The Sims 5, Behind The Sims Summit also revealed some other changes coming to The Sims series. This includes a new destination for The Sims 4 players to download mods and user-generated content through collaboration with Overwolf, a mod manager and exploration platform for user-generated content, as well as updates to The Sims Freeplay and The Sims Mobile.
In other The Sims news, The Sims 4 is now available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC (via Steam, Origin and the EA app) can be downloaded for free.
