14 DAY TRIAL // The Sims franchise is ten years old now. The first The Sims title arrived on February 4 in 2000, and it took Electronic Arts four years to deliver The Sims 2 in September 2004. That game received a wide variety of add-ons and expansions, which generated a lot of money for Electronic Arts.
In June 2009, The Sims 3 was released, selling 1.3 million copies in just its first week on sales and reaching a global total of 4.5 million units sold until now, with EA calling it the best selling PC game of last year. Overall, the franchise has generated revenue of more than 2.5 billion dollars and is available for sale in 60 countries and in 22 languages.
Electronic Arts is also saying that The Sims 3 is capitalizing on the newly found power of digitally distributed content, with 110 million downloads registered from the online store that offers more details for a fulfilling Sims experience. Apparently, 20 movies and 1.8 million pieces of content are uploaded every hour.
Rod Humble, who is the head of the EA Play division, stated on the occasion of the anniversary that “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.”
Recently, Electronic Arts signaled a willingness to move towards the development of more social gaming projects and The Sims is a franchise uniquely suited for something like this.
The publisher picked up social gaming company Playfish for 300 million dollars and the new division has recently revealed that it is working with one of the biggest EA properties on a new project soon to be unveiled. It might just be a new Sims experience, which will be delivered via social communities like Facebook.