EA Reveals ‘The Sims 4’ is Due Out in 2014

By: Jeffrey Grubb VentureBeat Quit your job, hire a babysitter, and sign up for food delivery subscriptions from Amazon, because publisher Electronic Arts is working on a new iteration of its life-simulation franchise. EA revealed that it will unleash The Sims 4 for PC and Mac in 2014, according to the publisher’s blog. “The Sims franchise is fueled by the passion and creativity of its millions of fans around the world,” reads the blog post from EA. “Their continued devotion to the franchise ignites the fire of creativity of the team at The Sims Studio, driving them to continually improve and innovate on one of the world’s most successful simulation game that has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.” EA plans to reveal more information about the sequel later today, but we already know that it will work offline. “I can confirm that The Sims 4 is a single-player offline experience,” Maxis spokesperson Charlie Sinhaseni told GamesBeat. We will update this post with the new details that are due out later today. In 2009, developer Maxis (which houses The Sims Studio) released the third game in the franchise to a warm reception from critics. Since release, the developer added tons of content through nearly a dozen expansions. The Sims franchise is famous for its dedicated fans who gobble up that extra content. The Sims games are a cartoon simulation of real life. Players create avatars that have needs and desires, and gamers must work to meet those needs. Maxis and EA are both still reeling from the disastrous launch of SimCity, the 2013 update to the popular city-management series. The developer implemented an always-online requirement that prevents players from accessing the game when not connected to the Internet. In the early weeks following its March release, many players could not access SimCity because the game’s servers were overloaded with users. Most of SimCity’s issues are now in the past, but fans of The Sims are likely worrying that EA may implement a similar requirement in The Sims 4 — so the statement from Maxis’s spokesperson may help put those concerns to rest.