opinion: The Sims 5 announcement was different than I expected. But what”s behind “Project Rene” and the distinct change in direction actually makes a lot of sense.
I”ve been waiting for this day for eight years – but now that it”s here, I”m kind of caught off guard. The cow plant is finally out of the bag: The Sims is going into the next round.
Actually, since the release of The Sims 4, I”ve been preparing for the day when The Sims 5 is officially announced and I can finally write about it (well … after my first and second time). But the announcement went somehow different than expected. It starts with the fact that The Sims 5 is not yet officially called The Sims 5, but currently still has the working title Project Rene. Rene like “Renaissance” or “Renewal”.
So The Sims 5 is supposed to usher in a new era for life simulation. Cool, but what does that mean? Why was the announcement so cryptic, why did it only consist of a short clip of the new building mode, and why was there still no sign of actual Sims? I mean, look for yourself:
What should the gameplay, multiplayer and especially the new addon policy be like? And what role does The Sims 4 play in this plan? Yes, good questions! I”m very glad you guys are asking them. Because the answers to them might look different than we expect them to. And they”ll have to be.
The Bigfoot in the room: the new multiplayer mode
For the fact that the announcement of this stream beforehand raked in quite a bit of dough on the hypetrain, the developers then really took their time on the big night. First there was plenty of news about The Sims Mobile (and the audience loved it, you can imagine), an appearance by TikTok dancers (and the audience loved it, you can imagine), and the announcement for two more addons for The Sims 4.
It wasn”t until the very end that Project Rene came around the corner, “one last thing” style, and I had to watch the segment twice to even realise that this was really The Sims 5 being announced. At first glance there was almost no info or final images of the new game, but at second glance the announcement gave quite a bit away.
- The Sims 5 will get a more extensive building mode with modular furniture and free choice of colours and patterns.
- The Sims 5 will be playable on PC, consoles and even smartphones in some form.
- The Sims 5 release is still several years away.
- There will be multiplayer.
And there we are with one of the most exciting answers – which raises more questions. The stream said:
We want to make it easier to collaborate and share. You can choose to play and build alone or with your close friends – it”s your choice.
Wait a minute, “close friends”? What does that mean? I”m allowed to decide for myself if I want to play with my worst enemies and kick over their bins! Joking aside, this strange wording actually already reveals something important about The Sims 5: There”s no big MMO experience à la Sims Online in here. This is about the option to experience certain aspects of the game with selected friends (or enemies). By the way, one of your biggest wishes for The Sims 5.
In the best case scenario, I imagine it to be like in Stardew Valley, which with its optional co-op servers has been showing for years how multiplayer in life sims really works. There we play alone and yet together. We can keep to ourselves or work on projects together. Compete for the heart of a bachelor or simply marry each other.
And this co-op experience is exactly what The Sims 5 needs. To lure over the loyal Sims 4 community that has already invested a lot of money and thousands of game hours. To also get people out from behind the (in classic Sims fashion burning) stove who currently have no interest in Sims at all. But that”s not all by a long shot.
Yikes, a second Bigfoot in the room: the add-on policy
This brings us directly to the second big change that is probably in store for Sims: The Addon Policy. The classic Sims model has worked four times so far. A fifth time, however, no one will be willing to wait years for essential features for a life simulation, start from scratch again and spend money for the same functions yet another time.
We had to wait a whopping three years for pets in The Sims 4 and another year for seasons. By the time we were finally able to send our Sims off to college five years after release, they were long past retirement age and feasting on their “Romantic Garden Accessories”. Of course, it takes a while to develop such features – but we can”t be made to pay for every single one of them another time when they already exist in Sims 1-4.
The Free2Play conversion of The Sims 4 is very likely the first step in a new direction for Project Rene. As much as I get uncomfortable goosebumps at the word “subscription model”, I think it”s the only sensible option for the future. And that doesn”t have to mean anything bad. Paradox is already living it with its strategy game subscriptions for the DLCs of Europa Universalis 4 and Hearts of Iron 4. After all, numerous DLCs are completely normal in the simulation genre. It”s just a matter of finding a fair solution for everyone.
The graphics problem
Why does it need these changes so badly? Well, because The Sims 5 probably won”t score with a stunning graphics leap. Don”t get me wrong, what we saw in the stream is by no means final. It doesn”t even have to have been developed in the final engine. The first prototypes for The Sims 4, for example, were made in the Unity engine at the time. But The Sims hasn”t really been known for big jumps in graphics since Part 3, and there”s a simple reason for that.
The Sims never had the claim to be “realistic”. It even needs a certain amount of cartoony looks, nonsense and comedy to make sense of its world. When I imagine performing the “talk about cheese” action three times with a photo-realistically rendered Sim, then stealing the ladder from his pool and leaving him to die while the Grim Reaper briefly admires the barbecue in the garden – it sends a cold shiver down my spine. The cartoon look of The Sims has always given the life simulation the necessary distance to avoid falling into complete tonal dissonance.
I”m not saying The Sims 5 can”t and shouldn”t get fancier character models and pretty lighting – but graphics alone certainly won”t be a selling point for a new instalment.
There can”t be a Sims 5
The Sims 5 is likely to be different in many ways than many expected. It won”t just be “a remake of The Sims 3 with a stable open world”. It won”t be The Sims Online either. And with its multiplatform focus, it is also moving further away from the PC tradition of the first part. It has to reinvent the life simulation after 22 years.
I myself am also afraid of a Free2Play microtransaction hell with Metaverse leanings. But it may well be that this fear is completely unfounded and instead I”ll get exactly the co-op sim experience with interchangeable bedposts that I”ve always dreamed of.
And as much as I”d secretly just like to see a fancier remake of Sims 1, 2 or 3 – I know EA can”t go on like this forever. If Sims 5 doesn”t position itself clearly, sooner or later players will return to Sims 2, 3 and 4 – because at least there are already pets there.
As strange as the announcement seemed at first, the name “Project Rene” makes sense. There can no longer be a classic Sims 5. And EA deliberately didn”t want to stir up such expectations with its announcement. The announcement focused on the changes of the future for good reasons – and not what will stay the same. Even though I still hope that we will get the horror clown from part 1 back.
