In their (slightly belated) new years message to players, the developer of EA’s The Sims series of games has lightly addressed concerns about its future within the publisher in a wide-ranging letter to the community.
The letter also serves as something of a light plan for what players can expect soon, and in the future, alongside what the various teams are currently working on.
The developer starts off the yearly check-in with a statement that attempts to address concerns about the future of The Sims, historically one of EA’s most inclusive and culturally diverse franchises.
This, of course, comes in the wake of last year’s bombshell that EA is being taken private by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), alongside investment firms Silver Lake Capital and Affinity Partners. The $55 billion acquisition was approved by EA’s shareholders in December, and is set to close by the end of June.
Understandably, many raised concerns about what EA’s new ownership would mean for its people, and portfolio of games. The news is concerning for The Sims in particular, a series that’s long embraced diversity and inclusivity, and has historically been popular among women, people of colour, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“Our Sims team’s creative control, guided by our values of inclusivity, choice, creativity, community, and play, has not changed,” the post reads, though without referring to the buyout directly at any point.
“These values inspire the decisions we make each and every day as we plan for today, tomorrow, and the future.”
As for what’s to come in 2026 and beyond, it sounds like The Sims team has multiple irons in the fire. The developer is working on “a family of new Sims experiences” that will find homes on PC, console, and mobile. Crucially, the post says that not every experience will be on every platform, in order for each to focus on delivering something different and interesting.
Future releases, of course, include new The Sims 4 content that focuses on the single-player experience. The social and more multiplayer-driven experiences, however, will instead be found in Project Rene, the mobile-first life-sim currently in development. (Despite early confidence that it was a working title for The Sims 5, it’s now confirmed that Project Rene won’t, in fact, be a direct successor to The Sims 4.)
Some of these projects will see more playtesting throughout 2026, so you should probably sign up for The Sims Labs if you want to hear about when/how you can get involved.
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