The Sims 3

The Sims 3 gets firm release date and Collector's Edition

Posted Aug 20th 2008 9:30AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Simulation, Screenshots, The Sims 3

Get ready for the first in a long, long line of Sims 3 games from Electronic Arts. The publisher just announced that you can expect the next generation of people sim game to ship to stores on February 20, 2009. The new game will allow the Sims to explore their surrounding neighborhood instead of being stuck inside their home as well as lots of customization features for each Sims.

Along with a release date, EA just announced a Collector's Edition of the game which will include "additional collectible The Sims merchandise and a bonus in-game Italian-Style Sports Car unavailable elsewhere." People who pre-order the Collector's Edition will get access to yet another in-game vintage car and a poster that showed off the Sims 3 neighborhood.

Gallery: The Sims 3

E3 08: EA debuts first trailer for The Sims 3

Posted Jul 16th 2008 8:00AM by Samuel Axon
Filed under: Sandbox, Simulation, Trailers, Video, The Sims 3

To this day, The Sims franchise continues to dominate PC gaming sales charts. But EA can only release so many expansion packs before the money flow starts to dwindle just a little bit, right? Enter The Sims 3, which premiered at E3 this year. Of course, we already knew it was coming, but what we have for you here today is the first trailer!

It looks like it's all done in-game. You'll recognize the art style from previous iterations of the series, but the graphical quality is quite a bit better -- so much so that we worry about it running on low end systems, as is necessary for a game that aims for mainstream gamers. Still, it looks cool, and it seems to imply that your sims will be able to roam freely and seamlessly around town. That's been a long time coming!

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The Sims surpasses 100 million units sold

Posted Apr 16th 2008 8:50AM by Xav de Matos
Filed under: Biz, Simulation, The Sims 3

The top-selling video game franchise of all time has reached another milestone as Electronic Arts announced today The Sims series has surpassed 100 million units sold worldwide since its debut in 2000. What began as a social experiment on the PC, as gamers were tasked with maintaining the lifestyle of dependent avatars, exploded as a pop culture phenomenon that has been translated into 20 different languages and spawned countless expansion packs, a hit 2004 sequel (The Sims 2), mediocre console iterations and unfortunate marketing tie-ins.

Originally the brainchild of Spore lead designer Will Wright, The Sims shows no signs of slowing down as a new title in the franchise, The Sims 3, was recently announced. For the first time in franchise history, gamers will be able to venture their Sims beyond their front doors and into the neighborhood when the title releases sometime in 2009.

[via Joystiq]