4 Feb, 2010
It’s hard to believe – particularly if, like me, you recall playing the debut release – but today EA’s The Sims franchise hits the big one-oh.
Who’d have thought that when the original game debuted on 4 February 2000 the franchise would go on to infiltrate a generation of gamers and sell over 125 million copies? Not only that, but with revenues in excess of $2.5 billion – YES BILLION – it ranks amongst some of the highest earning cinematic blockbusters of all time, including Titanic, Avatar and the Matrix Trilogies. Not bad for a bunch of pixels.
“The success of The Sims is something gamers and the gaming business as a whole can be proud of. With its charming and quirky style, lovely emergent game mechanics and user created creativity that delights every day, The Sims is a game that can be enjoyed by everybody and reflects what you put into it,” explained Rod Humble, Head of the EA Play label. “The future of The Sims is going to be a lot of fun; it is rare for an entertainment franchise to be gaining momentum a decade after release, so this is a particularly pleasant moment for everyone who has worked on the games.”
“No other game in the history of electronic entertainment has ever had the broad, nearly universal appeal of The Sims franchise,” says Logan Decker, Editor-in-Chief of PC Gamer magazine. “Everybody plays it: hardcore gamers, young women, celebrities, conservatives, professors, soldiers, grandmothers, even people who say they don’t like computer games. And the game—or, rather, the experience—has thrived throughout 10 years of sequels and countless expansion packs because EA has kept the environment fresh and infinitely customizable while never getting in the way of the game’s primary focus—the player’s imagination, and the natural inclination of all human beings to create meaningful stories.”
Happy Birthday, The Sims! Do you have any comments on why the franchise is so popular?
Wow, I can remember when you had to hug ten billion times to get a baby in the Sims…..now there is WAY more to it. Great game series, and I can’t wait until I find a computer good enough to play Sims 3 that doesn’t cost a fortune!