The Daily Populous Thursday July 18th, 2024 evening edition
Authored by readwrite.com and submitted by HockeyMike24

We are never short of rumors flying around on the internet, many are false but the law of averages says that some turn out to be true. There are people out there who follow the games they love to religiously that they do not miss a trick when it comes to any portion of news about it. Of course, that can sometimes lead to misunderstandings. Is this one? We don’t know right now, nobody is confirming anything, but it would appear as though something might be going on.

The Sims 5 – which has been going under the codename of Project Rene is a strange one. Sims 4 is probably one of the most popular franchises of all time and Rene appeared to be riffing off that a little, allowing huge amounts of player customization and even the chance to play on mobile. All this with us not even having a Switch version of Sims 4? Is Project Rene even a true Sims 5 is a question that has been asked countless times.

Well, if the rumors turn out to be true, a more pertinent question would be, does Project Rene even exist anymore or has it been shelved, much like the other recent Sims competitor in waiting, Life by You?

All rumors have a source and this one comes from a dev who had been working on the project listing it as canceled on his bio. Several other devs who had been working on Sims 5/Rene also seem to have been moved across to Sims 4 – a game that looks like it is never going to leave us.

It would be incredible if Sims 5 had been canned in total. If true, this may just be a redirection if Maxis were unhappy with the way it was going. We shouldn’t read anything final into the words of one person on his CV but there is, as ever, no smoke without fire.

The Sims is such a beloved (money-making cash-cow of a) franchise the Sims 5 would be a license to print more money – if they got it right. Having seen other such loved games like Cities Skylines take a massive hit with its sequel, EA and Maxis know they need to get a follow-up to The Sims 4 right. The internet is an unforgiving place these days and recovery from a poor launch, while not impossible is difficult.

All speculation at this stage, we shall, as ever keep our beady eyes peeled.

Enlightened_D on July 18th, 2024 at 14:26 UTC »

There it’s zero chance, Sims makes so much money

Albake21 on July 18th, 2024 at 13:28 UTC »

Nothing in this article proves it's been canceled... the console version could have been shelved. It's also not that uncommon for a game designer to leave in the middle of a project.

FreedomDreamer85 on July 18th, 2024 at 12:24 UTC »

It’s probably for the best