EA is hinting at original 00s The Sims games making a comeback this week-Michael Beckwith-Entertainment – Metro

How retro (EA)

Next week marks the 25th anniversary of The Sims and EA is rumoured to be celebrating the occasion by bringing back the first two games.

EA really struck gold with The Sims 4. Despite being over a decade old, its continued popularity has ensured there will never be a Sims 5, with the publisher ditching sequels in favour of constant updates.

That’s not to say there won’t be further Sims games. At the moment, The Sims developer Maxis is putting together a more multiplayer-focused spin-off dubbed Project Rene, but that still feels like it’s years away.

What’s not years away, however, is a pair of Sims re-releases, with leaks suggesting that two classic entries will finally be playable again on PC.

Next week marks the 25th anniversary of The Sims franchise, specifically on February 4. So, EA has been drumming up hype for the occasion by teasing something for the original The Sims game and its immediate sequel, The Sims 2.

A short video posted to the official Sims X account depicts the iconic Sims green diamond, with a mouse clicking on a menu prompt that reads ‘time travel’ and causing the diamond to revert to its appearances in the first two games.

In addition, the new header image on the account shows a much older character model standing in front of the prompt wheel seen in The Sims 2.

In case these blatant teasers weren’t enough, a Kotaku report outright says that EA intends on bringing The Sims and The Sims 2 back to PC by the end of the week.

Both games will be available as digital downloads and are expected to come with all their expansion packs as well. There’s no mention, though, if these will be remastered in any way or if the games will come to consoles.

This will be a big deal for diehard Sims fans, since those first two games have been inaccessible for years. The Sims 2 was taken offline over a decade ago and the first game never saw a digital release.

Even if you managed to find a physical copy of the original Sims, you wouldn’t be able to play it on modern PCs without a disc drive and fan-made patches.

It’s difficult to imagine most Sims 4 players dropping the game in favour of older, arguably outdated versions. In fact, according to a Maxis blog post, The Sims 4 will be getting a bunch of free content as part of the anniversary celebrations, including a limited-time event that offers exclusive 00s inspired items.

That said, nostalgic fans will no doubt be thrilled they’ll be able to more easily revisit the older games on current hardware. Especially as the original game is the only entry, other than the defunct The Sims Online, to be directed by series creator Will Wright.

The old games may be coming back, but EA still wants you playing The Sims 4 (EA)

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