The Sims 5 feels like it’s been on the horizon for ages now but as we head into 2022, we’re no clearer on when it will arrive. The Sims is a franchise that feels like it’s been on the backburner for a while but EA continues to churn out content packs and new expansions. There’s so much content now it’s hard to think about what The Sims 5 is going to build upon and improve – other than the graphics, anyway. Still… We’re certain that they’re exploring the next entry in The Sims franchise and we have the latest on everything we know about The Sims 5 and the future of the franchise below…

UPDATE – Give us the Unpredictable…

When looking at what The Sims 5 could bring to the table in terms of new features, one request has caught our eye. Reddit user u/SportsVoice25 has pointed out that the ongoing gameplay cycle can become predictable and more real-life events could aid this.

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It could be something as simple as an item randomly breaking around your house and having to pay to replace it. Perhaps a random act of kindness – or the opposite – from strangers. These are little nuances that change the way our real-life plays out and it could help The Sims 5 hit that next level feel.

Looking to 2022 for the future of The Sims

The Sims 4’s Community Manager has confirmed that there are no surprises in-store for The Sims 4 players this Christmas, but what about 2022? We could be getting an announcement regarding The Sims 5, but we’re not so sure despite the fact we’re due a new game.

The Sims 3 was released in 2009 – then The Sims 4 was released five years later in 2014. It’s coming up to eight years with this game, so we’re well overdue a new Sims game. However… The Sims 4 just keeps getting new content and if people keep buying it… Is there even any desire from EA to make another game?

The next generation of consoles have been out for a year now, but The Sims has always been a game that’s associated with the PC platform – not consoles. However, the PS5 and Xbox Series X could change things… There’s a lot that can be done with The Sims and The Sims 5 could do it all. In theory, anyway…

Sims 5 Needs to look to the past

We can sometimes get caught up with looking to the future that we forget to acknowledge the past. This is why we think The Sims 5 should look to the past for inspiration when it comes to future content.

Why not explore medieval and ‘ye olde’ settings to spice things up a little?

Will we get an announcement soon?

As we get into the final quarter of 2021, it’s starting to look unlikely that The Sims 5 will be revealed or announced this year. We recently had the announcement of yet another Kit for Sims 4 in the shape of the Fashion Street Kit.

These kinds of content drops are not huge but they certainly show that EA and Maxis still think there is life in the game worth capitalising on.

Sims 5 Careers Should Dream Big

When playing The Sims, not everyone wants to face the realistic aspect of the game when it comes to careers. Maxxis should be looking at bigger, grander, and quite frankly, more ridiculous options for The Sims 5.

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Let us become royalty, world leaders or anything our heart desires. Increasing the options available for our Sims careers could help the game become even more fun and it could be expanded upon through its frequent updates and content additions.

EA/Maxis offering an open forum for fans to give feedback

In a slightly surprising twist, EA and Maxis have announced, at very short notice, an open forum for fan feedback. Taking place on Thursday, 19 August, fans can head to the link in the below tweet to offer feedback and advice for The Sims franchise.

This surely has to be an early step towards figuring out priorities with The Sims 5 as should any major issues or requests be flagged, Maxis can ensure they are taken care of going forward.

Sims 5 No Show at EA Play Live

EA Play Live 2021 has been and gone and the reveal of The Sims 5 didn’t happen, unfortunately.

Yes, the Cottage Living expansion is out for The Sims 4 today, but the reveal of The Sims 5 would have been so much cooler.

We knew Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Star Wars wouldn’t be making an appearance in any way, so the Sims 5 would have been perfect for today’s show.

Last year, EA surprise dropped the announcement that The Sims 4 was coming to Steam, but there was nothing similar this year.

Maybe next yeah, hey…

Fan-Made Sims Concept Shows Game Running In Unreal Engine

Let’s face it, no one plays The Sims for the graphical fidelity. Nor do they wish for the game to become a hyper-realistic attempt at reflecting real life.

However, Priymak Elysium on YouTube got curious and has shown off concepts of what The Sims would look like running in the Unreal Engine. We have to say, now that we’ve seen it, we want to see more!

Sims 5 Multiplayer To Be A Separate Game?

Given the success of the Rockstar method of online play, with Red Dead Redemption and GTA 5 having separate Online experiences available, could The Sims follow suit?

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If The Sims does have a deep and expansive multiplayer mode in mind, it may be best to offer this as a separate experience from the main single-player game.

Could Co-Op Return In The Sims 5 Multiplayer?

Whenever the next instalment of a much-loved franchise is due, we tend to look back with nostalgia at the series and think of what we want from the newest game.

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For us, when we look at the possibility of The Sims 5, there’s one feature that sticks out as a must-have. We would like to see Co-Op brought back into the series. The feature was much loved among the older titles especially for the console versions of the game.

We’re sure The Sims 5 is being worked on at this very moment, and can only hope our wishes come true.

Release Date

Unfortunately, there is no release date as of yet, but we are expecting it to be revealed very soon.

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How much will The Sims 5 cost?

While we are unsure of what the Standard Edition of Sims 5 will cost although, in comparison to Limited Editions of the game, most blockbuster titles that have been released in 2020 and 2021 are listed somewhere around the £50 mark, although the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X versions of the game may cost up to £70.

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The Sims 5 Trailer

As you’d expect, we’re yet to see a trailer for the new game.

However, YouTuber OriginZ has posted an amazing fanmade trailer for The Sims 5 which gives a taste of what to expect:

Improved Graphics and New Features

One aspect that stands out in the fan-made trailers above is the incredible graphics.

This is accurate as we know that The Sims 5 will upgrade significantly on graphics, and add many more customization options to boot.

READ MORE: The Sims 5 is likely to have online multiplayer!

Alongside this will be a bucket load of new features, which has been rumoured to include better vehicles and full neighbourhood customisation.

What Unreal Engine 5 means for The Sims 5

The Unreal Engine 5, Epic Games’ new game engine, was revealed on a live-stream hosted by Youtube account, the game awards.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch the truly stunning video below:

This video shows Unreal Engine 5 running on a PS5 dev kit, with the visuals outputted through an HDMI cable, so this is a truly accurate depiction of what graphics could look like on the PS5 and therefore The Sims 5!

Head here for a deeper dive into the all-new Unreal Engine 5.

How We Want Careers To Work

Some recent expansion packs for The Sims 4 have seen the careers expanded to allow more interactivity with some jobs, such as environmentalist type work, as well as the magic school.

It would be great to see every career be interactive, possibly through performing tasks associated with the job, such as a firefighter putting out fires or a business person making financial decisions for a company.

There could also be mini-games that determine your Sims performance in their job. The possibilities are endless.

With the series being over 20 years old and relying on the same format, now would be a perfect time to shake things up rather than leaving players bored while they wait for their Sims to return from work.

Multiplayer Confirmed By EA

In an interview with VentureBeat, EA’s Chief Studio Officer Laura Miele shared new details about The Sims 5, confirming it is in development and what players can expect from the next entry in the series.

Check out the full transcription below courtesy of Sims Community.

Geoff Keighley: On another note, I talked a little about The Sims – you mentioned that which is totally a great point with Maxis related games SimCity, SimFarm, even The Sims Online. It was 20 years ago, ahead of its time, with letting people build a character, build your environment. The Sims is still a vibrant franchise for EA right now. Is there sort of an opportunity to do more of there? I look at Roblox, Fortnite Creative and things like that. It seems like The Sims out of all your franchises is maybe best equipped to play in this world?

Laura Miele: Yes, a lot of fertile ground for The Sims for sure and the idea that we will build on the tools for people to play with life and the idea for people to be able to play with life together. We had The Sims Online that came out in 2002 which was around 20 years ago. We certainly were ahead of our time.

I think 20 years later we learned a lot about how players interact, what motivates players, how players can come together co-operatively and so as you imagine as we think about the next generation of The Sims it’s SUPER important for us to have the best tools, the most
flexibility and for players to really expand on their creativity, remix items and objects in the world. And then to do that together – I think that’s one of our biggest opportunities with The Sims is the social connection component that we need to bring to this brand and this franchise. The team is hard at work on the next generation of that experience.

Geoff Keighley: I imagine as The Sims becoming more of a platform for creativity – it feels like an opportunity?

Laura Miele: Absolutely. And it’s us being able to create a framework and that players are actually gonna create these experiences and in the end, it’s doing it together, doing it collaboratively. They are sharing, they could create marketplaces.

What we arm them with and the capabilities and frameworks we arm them with and where they take that I think it’s going to be a pretty significant surprise and a pretty exciting time for us as we bring these tools and platforms to market.

How Multiplayer Could Work

It has been confirmed by EA that multiplayer will feature in The Sims 5, but how will it work? Here are some suggestions.

MMO Style Gameplay

Being a game about building your dream home and family, it would make sense to add some MMO elements and have players join a specific server that acts as a city, with hundreds, or even thousands, of homes and families living and interacting together in the same space.

Interacting With Friends

Rather than featuring MMO style gameplay where thousands of Sims all live in one city, the likely way it will be implemented is that players will be able to visit their friend’s house and interact with the families.

A Creator Marketplace

A creator marketplace also seems like something that will come to the game, creating an Etsy style platform for digital designers to create their own items while being able to earn some of the revenue from the sale.

Sims 5 Gameplay

While we don’t have any footage just yet, we do have some insights about what could be coming with The Sims 5 gameplay.

This includes comments from EA CEO Andrew Wilson about integrating Sims Online into the future of the franchise, as well as sentiments about optimizing for next-gen technology.

These point to potential online multiplayer gameplay in The Sims 5, and perhaps a release on next-gen consoles!

Sims 5 on Steam?

Many Sims players have complained over the years due to having to use Origin to play the game. In recent news, however, The Sims 4 has made its way to Steam, which means The Sims 5 could very well follow suit.

READ MORE: The Sims 5 is likely to have online multiplayer!

This would be a huge improvement in the view of many players, and will likely continue to be at the least another option for future releases.

Next-Gen

With the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X now out in the wild, we can expect The Sims 5 to release on that platform and take advantage and everything on offer with the new system, including fast loading and 4K gameplay.

However, EA has mostly stuck to releasing each Sims game as a PC exclusive for the first few years.

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So if we do see The Sims 5 on next-gen consoles, it may take another couple of have years.

READ MORE: The Sims 5 is likely to have online multiplayer!

However, this isn’t definite and with both the PS5 and Xbox 2020 set to break new boundaries in the gaming world, EA may well adopt a different strategy that encompasses the new consoles.

Head here to find out how next-gen consoles might improve The Sims 5.

Wishlist

With such a huge following, players will have some thoughts on what they’d like to see in The Sims 5.

Fewer expansion packs & DLC

There have been several Expansion Pack titles over the years, however, they usually come at a price (literally).

Having features like pets and seasons right from the start could be a welcome change.

Better careers

Some fans claim that they’d like to have a few more business options in the title. The expansion pack ‘The Sims 4: Get to Work’ did provide some, however, being able to run your own business would be a plus.

READ MORE: The Sims 5 wishlist – Everything we’d like to see

Source: https://www.realsport101.com/sims/the-sims-5-release-date-online-multiplayer-new-features-plot-news-rumours-leaks-cheats-official-trailer-ea-game/