Tag Archives: the sims

The Sims celebrates is tenth birthday today, having sold more then 125 million games.

More »

EA has confirmed that it has laid-off staff members at Sims and Spore developer EA Maxis.

“Often in the video game industry, the size of a studio fluctuates in response to business conditions,” read an official statement. “In this case, EA has taken action to reduce the workforce at Maxis as we focus the business and focus Maxis.”

No word on the number of people affected.

Thanks, Shack.

EA’s confirmed that it’s sold over 100 million Sims games worldwide.

This is coming from their GamesCom press conference, which is ongoing right now.

A Sims 3 video called Living the Life is posted for you after the break.

Shows families, picnics, videogames, butterflies, kissing, dancing, fishing, happy people – the usual stuff you’d see in a Norman Rockwell painting, along with exercise and walking around in your underwear.

Play UK has the game listed for a June 5 release in Europe, while the US gets it on June 2.

More »

Blizzard leads the US PC charts this week, which makes a nice change. Steam and Direct2Drive results are included this time, in case you’re interested.

NPD Sales Charts February 1-7

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. Spore
4. World Of Warcraft Battle Chest
5. Fallout 3
6. World Of Warcraft
7. Left 4 Dead
8. Call Of Duty: World At War
9. The Sims 2 Apartment Life
10. The Sims 2 Deluxe

Steam charts as of February 17

1. Left 4 Dead
2. FEAR 2
3. Dawn Of War II
4. Counter-Strike Source
5. The Orange Box
6. Fallout 3
7. Call of Duty: World At War
8. Team Fortress 2
9. Counter-Strike
10. Grand Theft Auto IV

Direct2Drive chart as of February 17

1. Dawn of War II
2. FEAR 2
3. Rome: Total War
4. Dawn Of War I+II Special Edition
5. Sims 2 Double Deluxe
6. Fallout 3
7. Call of Duty: World At War
8. Defense Grid
9. Mass Effect
10. Civilization IV

Thanks, Kotaku

Rod Humble’s been promoted. The Sims boss now really is the Sims boss, sporting a new job title of “Executive Vice President and Head of The Sims Label of EA”. Try saying that after a sherry.

The exec’s role means he’s “responsible for The Sims Label, which develops and markets life-simulation games and online communities with an emphasis on creativity, community and humor.”

He’s pleased, obviously.

“The Sims Label creates original entertainment experiences which are unique in the way they bring culture, interactivity and creativity together,” said Rod.

“It is a privilege to lead The Sims Label team as we look forward to new ways of surprising and delighting customers in this rapid growth time for interactive entertainment of all kinds.”

Press release after the break.

More »

Talking to GameInformer, Will Wright said that Spore won’t expand in the same way the Sims did, with endless content packs. It’s all about going sideways with the soon-to-be-released alien sim.

“I think it will be similar in extent but hopefully not the same strategy we took with The Sims,” he said.

“With The Sims, we were basically selling expansion packs to the same customers over and over. I think Spore lends itself more to horizontal expansion, where we take components of the game like levels or editors into totally different formats and hit people that maybe never even played the hardcore PC game, but would enjoy a lighter experience using one of the editors. Or, using the content in new ways outside of Spore the game.”

More through the link. Thanks GoNintendo.

EA has announced its Games Convention line-up revealing that Harmonix’s Rock Band 2 will be shown for the first time.

EA reckons it’s “best ever product line up for European consumers this holiday and in 2009″ and as we’ll be able to confirm that for you when our full coverage gets under way tomorrow.

From the release:

On show in Leipzig are Europe’s best selling franchises and consumer favorites like FIFA, Need For Speed, The Sims and Harry Potter, a wide range of casual and family titles for Nintendo platforms including LITTLEST PET SHOP, Boogie SuperStar, Zubo and MONOPOLY, brand new IP like SimAnimals, Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space, Dragon Age: Origins, Battleforge, Spore, the new MMORPG Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning, and EA partner titles Left 4 Dead from Valve, Rock Band and Rock Band 2 from MTV Games/Harmonix and Crysis Warhead® from Crytek.

Never before has EA had such a diverse and powerful slate of offerings, and it’s been great to see consumer and critical response to our games,” said Jens Uwe Intat, senior EA VP.

“As more and more people come into interactive entertainment, we are ready with the best games in sports, action, casual, horror, simulation, and online. We’ll be bringing more new games to market this year than in our history, and Leipzig is a great European window to showcase those offerings for the broad range of people that love to play them.”

Full thing after the jump.

By Mike Bowden

More »

In an interview Reuters in Singapore today, Spore creator Will Wright said that EA is looking at taking the title “outside the game space,” and that TV shows and movies are being considered.

“With Spore, we’re looking way outside the game space, such as TV, movies, etc.,” he said.

“We’re basically planting the seeds to spread Spore out to a much wider group of people than would ever play a computer game.”

He added: “We’re going to be much more intelligent about harvesting other market opportunities for Spore than we were with The Sims, which as big as it was in the game space, pretty much remains in the game space.”

Read more about Spore and space on The Guardian.

By Mike Bowden

In an article on The Times Online, Nancy Smith, the EA exec in charge of The Sims said that “the Sims may soon become a multiplayer game.”

There’s not much more detail in the article aside from the fact that MMOs such as WoW and Second Life make up a large pie that EA wants a slice of by providing “more and more robust community features.”

Read the whole thing through the link.

By Mike Bowden

EA announced overnight the The Sims has now sold more than 100 million units worldwide.

“At this milestone, we want to thank players of The Sims everywhere for making The Sims such a worldwide phenomenon,” said Rod Humble, head of studio for The Sims Label. “The Sims has been an interactive experience for people around the globe to explore their passion for creativity and we’re thrilled to be a part of that. From building houses and relationships, from the first kiss to a toddler’s first step, from kitchen fires – and even visits from ghosts, players have told more than 100 million unique and fun stories!”

The Sims first launched in 2000. Since then, it has been translated into 22 languages and released in 60 countries. Bet you never saw this coming, Will.

This is well worth a look. It’s a write-up of a session by EA’s Rod Humble at GDC on The Sims Carnival, the user-game-creation tool announced just before the show. It’s all about one-click game development, apparently. Sounds good to us.

Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has expressed dismay over the state of PC gaming, saying that any initial innovation in casual gaming has dried up and that monster franchises like The Sims and World of Warcraft have sucker-punched the industry in general.

“There’s an enormous amount of gaming happening with PopCap, Big Fish and Reflective,” he said. “The fascinating thing is when they first started, all these games came out like Peggle and Mystery Files and Alice Greensleeves and Diner Dash, and it felt quite exciting. There was a lot of innovation going on. OK, there weren’t great graphics, but there was innovation.

“In my view, that has completely stopped. They’re doing the same game over and over again with a different wrapper. It’s like a mini-universe in itself which is emulating what’s happening in our industry. The second thing is, you’ve got The Sims and World of Warcraft sucking all the air out of the PC market. It’s just incredible.”

Spekaing in an interview to be aired in its entirety on Eurogamer later this week, Molyneux went further, saying that Blizzard and EA’s unending quest for franchise sales is a “tragedy”.

“I think it’s a huge tragedy,” he said. “I mean, you might as well say PC gaming is World of Warcraft and The Sims… The weird thing is everyone’s got a PC, they’re just not buying software for it.”

Expect to hear plenty more from Peter this week: he’s demoing Fable 2 at GDC on Friday in a conference titled, “Fable 2 –The Big Three Features Revealed”.

According to this, EA has confirmed at GDC that The Sims is about to hit the 100 million sales milestone.

“The Sims is a highly successful entertainment brand,” said EA’s vice president for global brand development of The Sims label Steve Seabolt. “In fact, we’re coming up next month on selling our 100 millionth unit of The Sims, so it’s mega, mega… We make so much money from The Sims – it is so profitable – that unlike other businesses, we don’t have to sell it out with advertising and sponsorship and flog the user with advertising to make money.”

We’re not 100 percent certain, but we’re pretty sure that makes The Sims far and away the most popular videogame of all time, on any platform and on any genre. We can’t for the life of us think of anything else that comes remotely close. Go Will. Bet you can’t do it again with Spore.

EA just sent word that a closed beta for TheSimsCarnival.com is now open, allowing those selected to be involved to create and share games in a custom-built community.

The initiative has been launched on the back of confirmation that Rod Humble, head of The Sims Studio, will speak at GDC later this week, on Thursday from 12pm-1pm PST in the Moscone Center’s South Hall Esplanade Ballroom.

“In his session titled ‘The Emergent Gamer,’ Mr Humble will discuss the rise of a new kind of game creator, and what this trend means to games as an art form,” EA said this morning. “For the first time, he will share details on a new gaming experience from The Sims Label that makes game creation and sharing more accessible and fun than ever before. The introduction of this new creative endeavor from The Sims is designed to convert players into game designers.”

Sign up for the closed beta, if you’re feeling creative.

Uh oh. Just proving that even people that count for a living aren’t infallible, NPD has admitted it made a mistake in its recent list of 2007′s PC game sales in the US and has released an amended version. Deluxe and Gold versions had been left on the original list, the biggest winner in the revised version being The Sims 2, moving from sevent to third. Here’s the new top 10, courtesy of Gamasutra.

1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade – (Vivendi) – 2.25 million
2. World of Warcraft– (Vivendi) – 914K
3. The Sims 2 – (Electronic Arts) – 534K
4. The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack – (Electronic Arts) – 433K
5. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – (Activision) – 383K
6. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars – (Electronic Arts) – 350K
7. MS Age of Empires III – (Microsoft) – 313K
8. Sim City 4 – (Electronic Arts) – 294K
9. MS Flight Simulator X – (Microsoft) – 280K
10.The Sims 2: Bon Voyage Expansion Pack – (Electronic Arts) – 272K