At long last, EA has finally revealed a teaser for the future of The Sims series, dubbed ‘Project Rene’ rather than The Sims 5; that said, this is likely what will become the fifth mainline Sims instalment, but there’s no telling if that’s actually the case just yet. By the looks of things, Project Rene still has a long while to go before it’s finally available to launch. Developer, Maxis, shared its plans during the Behind the Sims Summit, which detailed what’s next for the series and how the developer plans to find new ways for players to both experiment and express themselves. First things first, the working title ‘Project Rene’ was specifically chosen for this project, with a press release stating that it was chosen “to be reminiscent of words like renewal, renaissance, and rebirth to represent the developer’s renewed commitment to The Sims’ bright future.” A new title will, “reimagine The Sims with even more ways to play, tools to encourage creativity, and the ability to tell meaningful stories.” In fact, perhaps the biggest reveal of all was the fact that this upcoming The Sims title will support multiplayer; “players will have the choice to play solo or collaborate with others and will have the ability to play their game across supported devices.” This is only something I’ve wanted to do on The Sims since the dawn of time. The rest of the summit primarily focused on building and customisation, showing off just how detailed players can make their builds if they so wish. There’s a great level of detail present now that we certainly weren’t accustomed to in The Sims 3 and The Sims 4. For example, you have control over how blankets and cushions rest on furniture, you can take apart your furniture to edit or reposition it and can change the colour and shapes of various items involved. As well as evolved building and multiplayer, it appears that Project Rene is going to be available on multiple devices with cross-saving, too. During the Summit, Maxis showed off Project Rene on both a PC and a mobile device, meaning mobile gamers are finally - hopefully - going to have a Sims game that doesn’t require the mobile grind that The Sims FreePlay offers. That said, to celebrate, there are various rewards across The Sims 4, The Sims Mobile, and The Sims FreePlay right now. Additionally, The Sims 4 has now also gone free to play! Vice president of franchise creative for The Sims, Lyndsay Pearson, says, “Today marks the start of our journey over the next few years as we work on this next game and creative platform, currently titled Project Rene. We are building on the same foundation that has made The Sims compelling for generations of players and pushing the boundaries to create new experiences. We’ll have much more to share as we continue to progress on the game’s development and milestones along the way.”
