It's been about a year since we've heard anything about the development of The Sims 5, and while there still isn't any real news about it, there's news that news is coming soon…ish.
In a new blog post today, Maxis talked about a lot of preparations happening for the 25th anniversary of the series coming in February. It confirmed that there's definitely a Sims movie in the works, talked about plans to start co-developing small DLC kits with modders, and gave a small mention to invite-only tests for the next Sims game, codenamed Project Rene, happening this season.
"Continuing its development alongside other exciting new projects within The Sims franchise, Project Rene is focused on building ways for friends to meet, connect, and share while playing together in an all-new world," Maxis says. "There will be a small invite-only playtest for Rene this Fall 2024, giving an early look at a multiplayer experience that explores joining friends and other players at a shared location." You can sign up for The Sims Labs program to be considered for those playtests.
Maxis will also be hosting another of its Behind The Sims presentations in January next year as part of the celebration for the 25th anniversary. Although it doesn't explicitly say that it will talk about Project Rene during that presentation, it's safe to assume that the next major Sims game will be talked about.
"We’ll continue to share more information on the game’s development and milestones along the way," it also says.
We only know a little bit about the next Sims game so far, like how it's bringing back the Create-A-Style tool from The Sims 3 and that it will be free to play. We also found out today during an EA investors presentation that Project Rene isn't The Sims 5 at all because it and The Sims 4 will live together in a "massive Sims platform" of content for the future. Likely we'll hear more about that vision in January as well.
