Breaking Insider News: The Sims Project X Has A Deadline For September 1st, 2027

Sims insider: Only updates I have are this, sorry I haven't got around to sharing, I often just have convos with my friend at Maxis and forget they've told me information;

• Project X is has been given a deadline of Sep 1st, 2027 to go Gold. Maxis believes that it can make this deadline.
• The game is going to have a big focus on support for portable devices such as the Steam Deck and Rog Ally.
• The games DLC will be sold exclusively through a Marketplace, with various encryptions and measures to make piracy near impossible.
• Speaking of, The Sims 4 has seen a noticeable boost of new and returning players that is believed to be due to the release Paralives starting in early June. EA saw a smaller but similar boost following InZoi's release and see these competitors as a net positive for their revenue and overall success and reach for The Sims 4.
• There's no official classification for Project X, however internally the project has been referred to as TS42 as a bit of a cheeky nod to many feeling this game is a sequel of The Sims 4 itself, rather than a sequel in the franchise.
• Project Rene is ready to go but has been put on hold, EA aren't sure if the game leans enough into the Sims 4's brand to make sense enough to put out, but can give the greenlight whenever. Last name I heard was "The Sims Together" or some variation of.
• Freeplay's GamePass has worked well and there may be options to incorporate this into X.
• They're experimenting with AI beyond development, where the game may be able to intelligently identify a mod conflict or issue, but also potentially block a mod that could cause an issue or cause the mod to break, and alert the user which mod is broken and ask them if they wish to delete. This may be able to extend to being able to determine if certain files the game pulls are incorrect or modified that cause additional issues. They're really wanting to minimise the amount of reports that are caused by outdated or broken/conflicting mods as over 50% of all major crash or broken Simulation reports are caused by mods, broken CC or external modifications. Users on PlayStation and Xbox only contribute 11% of all bug reports (not performance related), but less than 1% of all bug reports are console specific. These figures do not scale with player numbers as over 40% of players are now on console, which indicates there are additional issues on PC and Mac that go outside of the developers control. Third party tools like Reshade, custom Configuration files, hacks to run pirated versions of software that can risk crucial files not being updated because the files for DLC are externally downloaded etc. all play a role and it becomes increasingly difficult for Maxis to accurately reproduce issues, which is where Maxis have changed their approach to prioritise bugs that can also be reproduced on console as a starting point

Question: Whoa, so basically they'll only get the game into a more or less playable state about a year from now, and that still doesn't necessarily mean they'll release it then. So there'll probably still be some additional gap between that point and the actual launch.

But then what are they planning to do with The Sims 4 in the meantime? Are they still planning to keep releasing collabs and kits and use the Marketplace to keep people interested in the game?

Sims insider: It may come earlier, but most studios will take all the time they can get.

More quality of life updates and likely kits/collaborations. Not sure about Events.

Question: Any info if the plan on releasing World Packs is still going forward for current Sims 4?

Also what about gameplay maker packs? Recently they did survey on those topics to expand beyond just cosmetic maker packs

Sims insider: They didn't know anything more about that outside what they told me last time. They were brainstorming ideas and I'm not sure if any were chosen.