The Sims came out 20 years ago this year

This year marks the 20th anniversary of PC players’ first introduction to the world of The Sims. What followed was an immensely popular multiplatform series filled with life, Grim Reaper and tons of expansion packs. EA is now working behind the scenes on the fifth part.

Basically, The Sims from twenty years ago is not much different from the latest game. You create one (or more) Sims, choose a house to live in and get a bag full of Simoleons to live on. And after that you are free to do whatever you want. A criminal Sim married to a police officer? check. A Sim sitting at home alone and painting all day long? That is also possible. A mini copy of your home and your family? Everyone has done that at least once, right?

Finally, after its release on February 4, 2000, The Sims received multiple expansion packs, adding new objects, clothing, and careers. Some packs were a bit more extensive, such as Unleashed which added animals to the game. However, all those packs came to an end in 2004 when the Sims 2 came out. However, the problem with such a new installment is that it is always difficult to play. Of course, there are several (graphical) improvements, but only months or even years later things are added that the previous edition already had. Packs like Seasons, Animals, and University always come back to The Sims, but are never in the base game.

Speaking of The Sims 2, the most drastic change was the ability to age. In the original Sims, the characters never got older, with the exception of the growth from baby to child. In The Sims 2, however, that was possible. So you could let a baby grow all the way to a senior, who could also die of old age. The full 3d graphics were also a welcome addition.

The Sims 3 followed in 2009. The biggest addition here was a world around the Sim. In previous releases, the game only loaded the lot you played on, the rest of the world was only accessible with a loading screen. In The Sims 3, however, you could go from your home, through the library, to the gym, without encountering a loading screen. A Sim’s career was also made more interactive in the base game, as players could specify how Sims should work. Whether they had to work hard or just take it easy. Looking for new friends and improving the relationship with your friends or your boss was also possible during working hours.

The latest The Sims was released in 2014. In The Sims 4, the Create A Sim mode has been expanded, allowing players to create characters. While Sims in earlier versions were adjusted using scroll bars, the physical attributes of the Sims in the fourth part can be manipulated directly with the mouse. After fourteen years, the Sims are also much better at multitasking. For example, like in the real world, Sims can read a magazine while sitting on the toilet. This part did have a striking change compared to The Sims 3: the loading screens between lots were back.

After six years, The Sims is ready for a new installment in the series. Not that the fourth part is going bad: according to the latest quarterly figures, the game has 20 million unique players. But since standstill is decline, EA has been working on a new part since September 2018, according to PCGamer. This game could be completely different from previous editions, because in a conference call EA CEO Andrew Wilson strongly hints at a multiplayer game…