The Sims 5 to be multiplayer EA confirms

For many months fans have speculated as to whether The Sims 5 was in development.

A recent leak suggests it could be revealed at E3 2021.

But now, EA themselves have shared some interesting details regarding the next entry in the long-running franchise.

The Sims 5 Will Be Multiplayer

In an interview with VentureBeat, EA’s Chief Studio Officer Laura Miele shared new details about The Sims 5, confirming it is in development and what players can expect from the next entry in the series.

EA has confirmed that The Sims 5 will have a multiplayer aspect to the game.

Check out the full transcription below courtesy of Sims Community.

Geoff Keighley: On another note, I talked a little about The Sims – you mentioned that which is totally a great point with Maxis related games SimCity, SimFarm, even The Sims Online. It was 20 years ago, ahead of its time, with letting people build a character, build your environment. The Sims is still a vibrant franchise for EA right now. Is there sort of an opportunity to do more of there? I look at Roblox, Fortnite Creative and things like that. It seems like The Sims out of all your franchises is maybe best equipped to play in this world?

Laura Miele: Yes, a lot of fertile ground for The Sims for sure and the idea that we will build on the tools for people to play with life and the idea for people to be able to play with life together. We had The Sims Online that came out in 2002 which was around 20 years ago. We certainly were ahead of our time.

I think 20 years later we learned a lot about how players interact, what motivates players, how players can come together co-operatively and so as you imagine as we think about the next generation of The Sims it’s SUPER important for us to have the best tools, the most flexibility and for players to really expand on their creativity, remix items and objects in the world. And then to do that together – I think that’s one of our biggest opportunities with The Sims is the social connection component that we need to bring to this brand and this franchise. The team is hard at work on the next generation of that experience.

Geoff Keighley: I imagine as The Sims becoming more of a platform for creativity – it feels like an opportunity?

Laura Miele: Absolutely. And it’s us being able to create a framework and that players are actually gonna create these experiences and in the end, it's doing it together, doing it collaboratively. They are sharing, they could create marketplaces.

What we arm them with and the capabilities and frameworks we arm them with and where they take that I think it’s going to be a pretty significant surprise and a pretty exciting time for us as we bring these tools and platforms to market.

Laura also hints at something that many Sims fans want to see in the next game, a creator marketplace.

This would allow creators and designers to create their own cosmetic items for The Sims 5 and then sell them and earn revenue, likely with the revenue being split between the creator and EA.

The current rumoured release date for The Sims 5 is Spring 2022, but with the game not even officially announced yet, we will have to wait and see if it is revealed at E3 2021.