It's official, The Sims 4 will be continuing as the primary game instead of moving on to The Sims 5. In most cases, this probably isn't that surprising, especially since it looked like The Sims 4 wouldn't be going anyway anytime soon. While there might be some feelings of disappointment regarding the knowledge that new entries aren't going to follow the sequential pattern of The Sims, it makes sense business-wise for EA to stick with The Sims 4 at this point.
After a decade on the market, The Sims 4 continues to release new content and updates its existing content with patches to fix bugs. This is the longest that any base game for The Sims has been available without a successor coming to replace it. Because of that, the idea of The Sims 5 being revealed seemed far away, and now it's been confirmed that it won't be coming to replace The Sims 4.
Project Rene Is Confirmed Not To Be The Sims 5
Why The Next Sims Game Isn't Sims 5
Project Rene was the project believed to be The Sims 5, but hidden behind a codename. Instead, it's been confirmed that it'll be a spin-off game within the franchise that places more emphasis on multiplayer elements, and The Sims 5 isn't in EA's future plans at the moment. Considering that The Sims 4 seems to be in a good place to continue being the main focus of the series, The Sims 5 may never be developed, and that might be a good thing.
Sticking With The Sims 4 Offers More Spin-off Potential
More Sims 4 Updates Could Be A Good Thing
The Sims isn't new to having spin-offs added to the series, but keeping The Sims 4 alive could give spin-offs more time and attention during development, which could ultimately make them more likely to succeed once they're released. There's also the matter of cost, since The Sims 4 costs over a thousand dollars to purchase all of its currently available content. Because of this high cost, it would likely be difficult to convince players to switch to The Sims 5 if it was ever released, especially since it'd have a fraction of the content as just a base game.
10 Things You Still Didn’t Know You Could Do In The Sims 4
The Sims 4 has had content added to it over the span of a decade, and that’s left plenty of features hidden in the game that players might not find.
The Sims 5 isn't coming, but this is likely the best decision for both EA and players. On the bright side, it looks like spin-offs might get more attention since Project Rene will be a multiplayer addition to the series. This could open up the potential for more spin-offs, or even remakes of older content, such as The Sims Medieval and The Sims 2, so that it's more available for when players feel like taking a break from The Sims 4.
