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The Sims 5 still feels very much like a pipedream. The speed and regularity with which new expansions, Game and Stuff Packs, and Kits are arriving for The Sims 4, it would seem bizarre for EA and Maxis to announce The Sims 5 at this stage.
However, that doesn’t rule it out entirely. EA once said it wouldn’t make a sequel unless it achieved great success with the current title. And, safe to say, The Sims 4 has been immensely popular, with EA reportedly (opens in new tab) earning $462 million in annual revenue for The Sims 4 last financial year. We’ve also had a tonne of new content for The Sims 4 in recent months, ranging from expansion packs like The Sims 4 Cottage Living and the free Sims 4 update that added over 1,000 new item variations.
In terms of what The Sims 5 could look like, back in January 2020, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said that the future of The Sims will focus on “social interaction and competition” (opens in new tab).
Hankering for The Sims 5
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“As Maxis continues to think about The Sims for a new generation – across platforms in a cloud-enabled world – you should imagine that, while we will always stay true to our inspiration, escape, creation, and self-improvement motivations, that this notion of social interactions and competition – like the kind of things that were actually present in The Sims Online many, many years ago – that they will start to become part of the ongoing Sims experience in the years to come.”
“We are very excited. This is a game that really doesn’t have any competition in its category for delivering and fulfilling these motivations for players and we think is a tremendous growth opportunity for us for many, many years to come.”
Interestingly, Maxis has started dabbling with some kind of timed Sims experiences in The Sims 4, with events like The Sims Sessions, which was a bit of a strange music festival that lacked the spectacle of other in-game events.
It’s also worth mentioning that back in January 2020, Maxis went on a huge hiring spree. First spotted by a user on Reddit, a number of EA Maxis vacancies revealed the studio was ramping up a “new, unannounced title”, which it referred to as its “next big production”, asking for people specifically experienced in creating “excellent user experiences for new IP”. It might not mean anything for The Sims 5, but it is certainly interesting.
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What we want to see in The Sims 5
However, in lieu of anything Sims 5-related actually happening though, we’re here to pull together the biggest requests from the community for The Sims 5 gameplay features.
1. Bring back open-world exploration
One of the best things about The Sims 3 is that it feels like your household is part of a bigger neighbourhood, and one that you can freely explore without seeing a loading screen. You can nip over to your neighbours’ homes, rummage through their bins, borrow a cup of sugar or just say hello just by walking there. Or you can head for the shops, discover strange plants in the suburbs or just catch up with a buddy en route as Sims walk the streets and can always been seen going about their everyday lives. Everything flows together and feels like a real town.
For some reason, The Sims 4 ditches all of that. Instead of being able to freely wander your Sims neighbourhood, you have to click on a menu to travel to a different location, watching a loading screen for any quick jaunt. Heck to even leave your lot, you’ve got to watch a loading screen. Yes you can warp between different neighbourhoods, but it still makes the world feel very fragmented – and slow moving. The Sims 5 needs to blend the open-world elements of The Sims 3 with the variety of landscapes of The Sims 4.
2. More transport options
Connected to that longing for an open world is a lust for the vehicles of The Sims 3 too. You don’t just have to stretch your legs to get around town in The Sims 3, you could hop on your bike, jump in the car, driving straight out of your very own garage or just call a cab. Heck, your little ones could ride their bikes to their pals’ houses after school and would have to be back before curfew. The Sims 3 is great for those little touches of real life, after all, what home doesn’t come without a garage and what billionaire pad doesn’t have a collection of supercars – houses in The Sims 4 just don’t feel right without them.
Thankfully, there are ways to get cars back into your game, in the form of the best Sims 4 mods (opens in new tab), but still…
3. Better neighbourhood creation tools
There was a time in early Sims games that you could not only build houses from scratch but the entire plots too. You can pick the terrain style, make it more or less hilly and even add in environmental items like electricity pylons, trees and the like in The Sims 2.
The Sims 4’s neighbours, plot sizes, and worlds are all locked in and pre-set so you’re limited as to the tools you have at your disposal. The same is sort-of-true of The Sims 3, although you can add in custom lot sizes to existing free spaces in neighbourhoods. The Sims 5 needs a little more of the freedom of the earlier games, or at least let us add in custom lot sizes like The Sims 3.
4. Include all the age ranges from the off with Sims 5
The Sims 4 might have toddlers now, but that wasn’t always the case. When it first arrived, toddlers (and pools we might add) weren’t part of the base game. Instead, Maxis added them into the game in January 2017, over two years after the base game launched. Their addition makes The Sims 4 a much more rounded game, but the fact fans waited two years for the little tykes to arrive is a bit of a weird one.
The Sims 2 is the game that first introduced toddlers, and they also featured in The Sims 3, which meant getting rid of the popular age group was a strange move for The Sims 4. Thankfully it got sorted out, but it’s a mistake that caused huge backlash for the game when it first arrived. If EA wants to avoid such a slating next time around, toddlers need to be there from the start in The Sims 5.
5. Improved building options for Sims 5 creations
Having gotten majorly back into Sims building during the 2021 lockdown, it’s clear that there are so many options that could be added into future updates or The Sims 5 to make home building a lot more realistic. We’re talking better roof options – a la The Sims 3 – the option to add windows to a roof, and even paint individual roof panels in different colors and textures. Of course, it’s not just about roofs, but there are always limitations when trying to recreate real-life architecture in-game. Having some enhanced building tools would never go amiss. Functional bunk beds, spiral staircases, ponds, and the Sims 3 color wheel are all top of the list right now.
6. #FreeTheBaby in the Sims 5 – or sooner
There’s a huge movement going on right now to get babies more freedom. While that might sound like some kind of real-life political movement, it’s more about allowing the game to release babies in The Sims 4 from the confines of their cribs. Currently, all you can do is interact with babies from the crib, and moving them anywhere else to nuture them is impossible without practically game-breaking mods.
Fans are asking for babies to have more interactivity, more akin to toddlers and other age ranges, making them feel more a part of the game than a weird holding stage before they turn into cheeky tots. There have been some rumors that it’s in developer at Maxis as it is, including the fact you can now bathe toddlers in the sink, and the above render (complete with free baby) appeared as part of released renders for the Sims Alexa app.
7. Additional NPC types
Remember burgulars? Well, although you can become one via The Sims 4 careers, plenty of fans would love to see additional NPC types return with The Sims 5. It’s something that’s become particularly prevalent in conversations among Sims fans since the return of Bonehilda with the Paranormal pack. From the police, burglars, and taxi drivers to more specific characters like the Social Bunny, Chip the Dancer, Anges Crumplebottom, there are plenty of well-loved Sims characters that have been missing for far too long.
What would you love to see in The Sims 5? Let us know what you think by tapping the ‘see comments’ button below or hitting us up on Twitter @GamesRadar. (opens in new tab)
