The Sims 5: everything we know so far

After over a decade of support and expansions with The Sims 4, we were all ready for the next entry in this hit life-simulator series. Rumors of a Project Rene were our first signs that EA was working on some sort of follow-up, which many assumed was The Sims 5. There was even a preview video detailing a few of the new features this next step in the Sims franchise would take. However, late in 2024 EA detailed the future plans for the series and, sadly, The Sims 5 is not a part of it. If you’re a bit lost on whether The Sims 5 is canceled, what’s going on with Project Rene, and what will happen with The Sims 4, we’ll explain the entire story.

Is The Sims 5 canceled?

Technically The Sims 5 was never officially confirmed to be in development so it isn’t clear whether it was canceled, but we do know that EA and Maxis are not currently working on a new installment in the franchise. EA’s statement on the matter reads: “We’re focused on creating a variety of games and experiences that will touch different categories across the simulated life genre including cozy games, social and collaborative based gameplay, mobile narrative games and continued depth, improvements and modernization of The Sims 4, which will continue to be a foundational Sims experience.”

Speaking to Variety, EA’s vice president and general manager of The Sims Kate Gorman said the primary reason for not producing a completely new entry in the series was that they didn’t want to force their entire fanbase to start from scratch after having invested up to 10 years into The Sims 4 at this point. With over 80 million players and dozens of DLCs released, many players have invested a lot of time and money into The Sims 4.

What is Project Rene?

So, if Project Rene wasn’t actually The Sims 5, then what was it?

From what has been explained, this will be some sort of new multiplayer title within The Sims universe. From the description, it sounds like a persistent online hub of sorts for connecting and meeting with friends, but it is still quite vague as of now. This will be EA’s second attempt at incorporating multiplayer into the franchise after The Sims Online, which Gorman touched upon. “We have a lot of learnings from ‘The Sims Online.’ We know that there is an opportunity to play in a very social, real time, multiplayer environment within our gamespace,” Gorman said. “We haven’t delivered that experience with ‘The Sims 4’ or any of our other titles yet so we’re looking at what that means and could look like. We know simulation is at the core of everything we do and we want to make sure our players still have that experience they want, but in a world with real players and NPCs. We’re still gathering learnings and working on it but stay tuned.”

The Sims 4 isn’t going anywhere

To cushion the blow of losing The Sims 5, EA has doubled down on support for The Sims 4. As Gorman said, “We are not going to be working on replacements of previous projects; we’re only going to be adding to our universe. With that, you’ll see there are more ways to experience ‘The Sims’ on different platforms, different ways to play, transmedia, and lots of great offerings within this universe. So absolutely, we’re still continuing to support ‘TS4’ more than ever. Still continue to deliver expansion packs and updates and fixes. But what this is to say is, the way we’re going to do things going forward is a little different. And it’s really exciting and it’s really the most expansive iteration of ‘The Sims’ yet.””

What this all sounds like is that The Sims 4 will be the main platform and continue to get more support, while Project Rene and a new feature film will flesh out the experience.