You're Getting Old: The Sims Turn 10
Where were you ten years ago?
Like a proud daddy, EA announced Thursday that its lovechild with developer Maxis has finally turned a big ten-years-old. EA's original The Sims PC game hit the streets on February 4, 2000, and became an unstoppable beast for the next decade. Now in its third installment, the entire franchise has sold has sold more than 125 million units worldwide, racking in more than $2.4 billion in revenue.
"The success of The Sims is something gamers and the gaming business as a whole can be proud of," said Rod Humble, Head of the EA Play label. "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. 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."
The original Sims PC game is available in 60 countries and 22 languages. By March 22, 2002, the game had sold more than 6.3 million copies, making it the best-selling PC game of all time. On February 7, 2005, more than 16 million copies of The Sims had shipped worldwide. EA and Maxis also churned out seven expansion packs including Livin' Large, Vacation, and Superstar.
The Sims 3, released in June 2009, has sold more than 4.5 million units worldwide to date, and currently holds the #1 spot as the best-selling PC game in 2009 for North America and Europe. The iPhone and iPod Touch version has also become one of the top-selling games on the App Store in 2009, and has even reached the #1 paid Apps spot in nearly 40 countries.
Currently there's no indication that The Sims mammoth will ever stop. We're not too sure how to say "happy birthday" in Simlish, however here's a bit of Klingon: qoSlIj DatIvjaj
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I need a nude patch for real life.
It was an alright game, but as you progressed it seemed to be very redundant (feed, sleep,make friends). I probably wouldn't get it again until they have a major graphics update.
Sad this great franchise never got ported to any social networking site where it would have been a great hit.
Yo/Farmville anyone?
Sad this great franchise never got ported to any social networking site where it would have been a great hit. Yo/Farmville anyone?
The Sims Online
Oh crap don't remind me
This is why we haven't had a good SimCity game for 7 years.
I mourn.
The Sims is why we haven't had a good SimCity game in 7 years.
I mourn. SimCity 4 was excellent - Societies was a bad joke, and CitiesXL (From a completely different studio, attempting to take up the SimCity crown) was disappointing and difficult to use.
Bring me a City Builder that rocks like SC3K/U and SC4, but works properly on modern computers, and I will bring you a lot of gratitude. And $50.
The Sims was the only game I could get my wife to play, besides Super Mario Bros.
GEE! That's a lot of money for one game.
Never played The Sim more than 5 minutes.
I did enjoy Maxis' other games such as sim city, sim ants, sim tower...
wow, 10 years, still remember playing Sims for the first time...
I miss those Bullfrog sim games, like Theme Park, and Hospital!
The friends requirement in the later expensions kills the game. The original was fun as hell.
I never got into the sims much either. Despite my best efforts the game days alway pretty much went the same way.
Wake up -> eat breakfast ... which takes 5 game hours of eating to get full -> miss work because of breakfast -> take shower ... which takes 6 game hours to get clean -> oh it time to go to bed already??? =/
i still remember installing The Sims on my Windows 98 machine when it came out. My computer crashed and I was a kid so I was afraid i ruined my first computer. Haha.
"The success of The Sims is something gamers and the gaming business as a whole can be proud of"
I've heard EA say some misguided things before, but this one made me LOL
Shit game
The ONLY good thing in it is when you get the neighbour to do a bit a lesbian action
I too found the sims actual gameplay a bit boring. Sims Makin' Magic was okay simply because I would spend the whole day dueling.
The only part that I found entertaining is getting $50,000,000 and building the coolest designed house I could.
I loved The Sims and The Sims 2. Bought all the expansions and most of the stuff packs. Got my family hooked on both! I've not yet picked up Sims 3 but my sister seems to enjoy it well enough when not playing WoW, NWN2, or Dragon Age.
There's a lot more to it than making them eat, clean, bathe, and use the restroom. It's the unexpected interactions, humorous situations, and the custom content that's truly appealing. It's fun to play god!
10 years....gve me a break...he z nt old enough 2 raise a toast fr his fame