Tag Archives: the sims 3

Having confirmed that The Sims 3 will have no online protection yesterday, the company’s now said the policy will only extend to that single game for now.

“We are just looking at this solution for The Sims 3 at the moment,” a rep told Eurogamer.

Maxis boss Rod Humble said on his blog this week that online DRM would skip Sims 3.

Sims 3 won’t have any online DRM protection at all.

From Rod Humble’s blog:

“The game will have disc-based copy protection – there is a Serial Code just like The Sims 2. To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed,” he said.

“We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future.”

It’s out in June.

EA’s just predicted that a slew of sequels will form the bulk of the company’s revenue for fiscal 2010.

Madden, Need for Speed SHIFT, Bad Company 2, the next Harry Potter game and The Sims 3 were named as the those likely to be the biggest games for the firm in the next financial year by CEO John Riccitiello.

BioWare’s Dragon Age was the only original IP named in the list.

EA announced a loss of $641 million for the quarter ending December 31 today, and the loss of 1,100 jobs.

EA’s just confirmed that The Sims 3 has slipped from its planned February 20 release to June 2.

“The June launch combined with the break-through game the team is building gives us the perfect runway to create awareness for The Sims 3,” said EA marketing boss Russell Arons.

The news arrived today as EA announced both a slip for the PC version of BioWare’s Dragon Age and a nose-bleed Q3 loss of $641 million. Staff cuts are to total 1,100 as a result.

EA has admitted that it is “evaluating the launch window” for The Sims 3 after Euro retailers were last week that the game would be delayed, writes EG.

“We are evaluating the launch window. The game looks great and in the near future we’ll have more information,” the company said today.

The Sims 3 was originally slated for a release on February 20 but now has a tentative “first half of 2009″ slapped on it.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

EA’s put out the minimum specs for Sims 3 for XP and Vista, desktop and laptop. Nothing like thoroughness.

Looks as though it’s not going to bother you, to be honest. If it does, you might want to think about upgrading.

Get them from Gaming Today.

EA’s announced that The Sims 3 is available for pre-order now.

In it, you get:

• The game for PC
• The Sims Plumbob 2Gb USB drive “with matching Green Carabiner”
• “Exclusive in-game European-styled sports car” – this tipped it for us
• Tips and hints guide
• The Sims 3 Plumbob stickers

Press release after the link.

More »

After the break. There’s a lot on information in there about the thinking behind the game, new features, animation process, and so on.

It’s out on February 20. Thanks, RPS.

More »

EA’s put out the first in-game footage of the Sims 3, as part of its E3 press conference last night. It’s on Shacknews. No other Sims 3 info doing the rounds this morning from what we can see, so this will have to do for now.

Speaking here, Sims Studio creative director Rod Humble reckons there’ll be enough in the Sims 3 to keep the “gamer” crowd happy.

“I think there is a lot more ‘gamer-ness’ in The Sims 3,” he said. “The team has added a lot more challenge and depth for gamers.

“I have become obsessed with book collecting with my sims, and you can do things like fishing and gardening: there’s a lot more of that goal-orientated gameplay. I also think that the flexibility of the new Sims character system is a massive deal.”

The game’s shipping next year. More through the link.

Here. It’s the lifting of the global embargo on Sims 3 information today, so expect to see plenty more on the game later.

Update: There’s more here.

Update two: Press release after the link. Eurogamer’s published a giant preview here.

More »

PC Gamer has published new details on the next in EA’s slightly popular Sims series, such as more natural skin, better animations, and “Buff” and inventory systems.

Buff is a mood enhancer that gives your Sim positive or negative attributes depending on the situation they find themselves in. For example if a Sim marries a beautiful bride, then he’ll feel great, have more “Buff” and more people will like him.

The inventory system lets you store items in order to carry out specific tasks. Think flour and eggs for baking a cake.

No multiplayer ‘at present’ but you can upload your Sims to EA’s site and other people can download them for much hilarity.

The world will be less structured this time round. “The Sims 3 could expand into an entire seamless world,” producer Rod Humble said. “You can imagine a Sims country which you could just live your life in.”

Just imagine.

By Mike Bowden

Here. The info’s taken from the US Games for Windows magazine, subs issues of which hit today. For ease:

The biggest change to The Sims 3 is that it takes place in a wide-open, constantly changing neighborhood — a much bigger sandbox, if you will, and a much more complex simulation. The town and park you see on the cover image to the right (click to enlarge) exist in the same seamless space as your Sims’ household, and what you do outside your home now matters as much as what you do within. (Yes, previous expansion packs added out-and-about activities, but they were always separate sub-games. Here, everything’s completely integrated.) The game also sees a major shift in how Sims’ motives are handled: Individual meters indicating bladder and sleep-deprivation levels are replaced by a new system of discrete moods, the aim being to get players off the treadmill of fulfilling primal eat-sleep-pee-repeat requirements so they can focus more on, well, going out on the brand new town.

Hit the link for more. The general embargo for Sims 3 previews comes off on March 19, as we reported this morning.

The Sims 3 has already been shown to press at an NDA’d event in the US, we’re reliably informed, with all preview content going live on March 19. Apparently you can expect to hear a great deal on the game based on what was shown at the EA showcase, which focused on differences between the new outing and The Sims 2, as you’d expect.

A teaser site was put up for the title last night, including the March 19 date. Surfer Girl’s just posted that PC and Mac versions will ship simultaneously, and pointed at this blog post based on a Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference talk where EA’s Richard Evans outlined how Sims are being made “more individual and more social at the same time.”

Here’s the space. Watch it.

The official site for The Sims 3 is now online, and promises that a solid update on the game will be released on March 19. And that’s it. No one knows what’s going to be shown, but the site features the famed “lozenge”, so a dramatic departure is unlikely. Rather obviously.