EA has stressed to its community that “the values of The Sims are unchanged” as we head into 2026.
At the end of last year, EA shareholders approved the proposed $55bn acquisition of the video game giant by Saudi Arabia and private equity firms, leaving only the US government in the way of what would be the largest corporate buyout in history. The acquisition, first announced back in September, would leave EA 93.4 percent owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, a government wealth fund used to build infrastructure, attract businesses to Saudi Arabia, and more.
As news about the acquisition spread, a number of prolific The Sims content creators “removed themselves” from the EA Creator Network, claiming the game’s inclusive community is at odds with the well-documented conservative and anti-LGBTQIA+ values of EA’s buyers, which include the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The Sims team, however, wrote on its blog yesterday (9th January) that the values that have always shaped The Sims “are unchanged”, adding: “The Sims has always been more than a game. It’s a canvas for life in all its unpredictable forms…the chaotic moments, the tiny joys, the big dreams, every identity, every version of you. And, thanks to you, The Sims has grown into something bigger than we ever imagined: a living world bursting with creativity, expression, humour, chaos, and heart.
“Our Sims team’s creative control, guided by our values of inclusivity, choice, creativity, community, and play, has not changed. These values inspire the decisions we make each and every day as we plan for today, tomorrow, and the future.”
Following this pledge, the team opened up on the future of the franchise, saying it’s “building a family of new Sims experiences across PC, console, and mobile”, and will put “single-player life simulation experiences” at the heart of its work, confirming singleplayer games will “always be a part” of the games’ future.
As for “Project Rene?” Thanks to your feedback, that has evolved into a “social, collaborative, mobile-first life-sim game”, but is “not the successor to The Sims 4 and is a separate experience from any future deep, single player life simulation experience”. Playtesting for The Sims Lab continues, with the team assuring players that “these tests are works in progress with experimental game features, concept imagery, naming conventions (The Sims Labs: Life Together, The Sims Labs: Town Stories) and ideas in motion. Some concepts evolve and sometimes an experiment won’t move forward at all”.
ICYMI, EA is shutting down The Sims Mobile after seven years, with servers going offline – and all content becoming unplayable – on 20th January. The Sims Mobile launched for iOS and Android in 2017, delivering a free-to-play Sims-style experience broadly similar to that of the main series.
From this month, however, EA announced there would be no further content updates or events for The Sims Mobile, and the publisher has now confirmed the game’s imminent closure, sharing a detailed timeline for its shutdown. While EA hasn’t given a reason for The Sims Mobile’s shutdown, it’s likely in order to clear the way for its new mobile game, currently being referred to as The Sims Labs: Town Stories.