The Sims to go online again?

By Oli Welsh Published 5 June, 2008

EA admits multiplayer is an option.

In an interview with the Times Online, Nancy Smith, head of EA's Sims Division, has admitted that the monster PC franchise could become a multiplayer game... again.

Both interviewee and interviewer were careful not to mention that it already had done just that, in The Sims Online, the all-too-ahead-of-its-time virtual world that has been the only conspicuous failure in Sims history.

EA recently shut down The Sims Online for the last time, after an abortive attempt to rebrand it as EA-Land.

It seems that EA is still ready to entertain the idea of The Sims as a connected social game, but Smith only cautiously dipped her toe in these waters.

She told the Times Online that EA "would continue to invest in more and more robust community features" for the Sims. She said that an online element to The Sims "could be of interest", EA "would definitely think about it", and "we're constantly exploring new kinds of content and experiences".

Smith maintained that The Sims would continue to be sold traditionally, as a boxed game, although EA would explore micropayments as a new revenue stream. Apparently, you will soon be able to buy Ikea furniture and H&M clothing for your virtual pet people.

So, inconclusive. But The Sims, being a community-focused game, has always made sense as an online title, and with original creator Will Wright exploring the "massively single-player" idea with his new title Spore, it's not surprising that EA is considering a second bite of that cherry.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (7) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Fusey #1 4 years ago

    EA-Land was the worst title for anything in the history of gaming.

  • DFawkes #2 4 years ago

    Agreed, but if they make it an option of Sim 3 and not a stand alone game I suppose it could work.

  • Bumhug360 #3 4 years ago

    Sims
    Online
    ????
    Profit

    Once they sort out that third part they are laughin

  • TheWretched #4 4 years ago

    The Problem with EA-Land (or TSO) was, that everything was realtime... and SLOWWWW realtime... It took you ages to do stuff, which only took seconds in the normal Sims games.

    Although, I am not part of "the" The Sims demographics, I'd look into a good only part of Sims 3... I liked the first one, even if it was really shallow without any expansions.

  • L42yB #5 4 years ago

    Yeh, since sims is in real time it kinda screws up the potential for decent online play. Playing sims is painful enough (for me) but having to play the whole game at a constant slow speed... no way is that gonna sell.

    Don't see how you could actually make the sims a "multiplayer" game. Leaderboards, shared community content, all of that can work - but multiplayer? I don't see it working

  • Milbe #6 4 years ago

    they will reinvent second life.

  • Krun #7 4 years ago

    the only way i could any kind of "multi player" working is if your sims sort of "visited" other peoples worlds in an animal crossing sort of way.