The Sims 5 isn’t happening anytime soon as strangely nice EA admits making players “give up all that content” isn’t “player-friendly” 

What the hell is going on with EA recently? After pushing back against $80 releases and turning down egregious skins in Battlefield 6, EA is now turning away a potential release of The Sims 5 to be more “player-friendly”. 

While there is a new multiplayer spin-off in the works for The Sims series, EA president Laura Miele has shut down any idea of a The Sims 5 release anytime soon as players have purchased too much content to simply abandon and start over again. What? This is EA we’re talking about. 

The Sims 5 isn’t “player-friendly” right now

Speaking to Variety, Miele explained that EA doesn’t want players 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.”

While EA has done that numerous times in the past, Miele explained that the sheer amount of content created over the last decade is significantly more to give up than prior games with the last expansion (which accidentally made everyone pregnant) launching very recently. 

“We put out over 85 content packs over the last 10 years on The Sims 4,,” they explained. “And so resetting that is not player-friendly and not a good idea for our community.”

Additionally, Miele explained that The Sims 4 is in a better place “technologically” and doesn’t need to be abandoned for a newer engine. It helps that EA’s life simulation doesn’t really have a true competitor, especially as Krafton’s InZoi hasn’t done as well as many had hoped. 

The Sims’ multiplayer spin-off 

While The Sims 5 plans are non-existent, Miele did touch on the upcoming free-to-play multiplayer spin-off that’s currently in development. The EA president claimed the upcoming game “represents one of the biggest growth opportunities for EA” with the upcoming “platform” currently undergoing feverish development. 

“What we’re doing is upgrading and refreshing all this technology, and we’ll be adding modes of play — but we also are going to be creating and updating the base technology and the base user experience on the core game,” they said. 

Similar to the upcoming Skate game, the next Sims title will be free-to-play and multiplatform, allowing players to jump in anywhere and have fun with their friends. Really, it’s the next step for The Sims, all while The Sims 4’s single-player suite receives even more support. (After all, it does make a lot of money.)

“You’re going to have this life simulation, you’re going to have multiplayer capabilities, we are going to have mobile expressions of this,” Miele said. “We’re doing cozy games as well and more to come on that. We did a release with Nintendo on cozy games in Asia for The Sims. I see The Sims as a significant ecosystem, and a universe of multiple Sims experiences that we have to build on.”