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12 Sims players will compete for $100,000 on a TBS game show
'The Sims Spark'd' will premiere on July 17th.
The best deals we found this week: 'The Sims 4,' Fire TV Sticks and more
Digital deals dominated this week, but there are also numerous deals on gadgets as well. Some of the highlights include an early start to Origins' annual spring sale, which brought steep discounts on The Sims 4 expansion packs and dropping the price of the base game to $5. Square Enix cut the prices of all of its Nintendo Switch games, so now's the time to grab a Final Fantasy title (or three) while they are up to 50 percent off. Amazon Prime members can also snag a Fire TV Stick 4K for only $25. Here are all the deals from this week that you can still get today. The Sims 4 This is a great time to get into The Sims—or to jump back into it—while the base game and most expansion packs are still on sale. The Sims 4 costs $5 right now, and some of the most popular expansion and game packs, including Parenthood, Realm of Magic and Spa Day, are as low as $15. Be careful, though — once you start playing The Sims, it's pretty hard to stop. Buy The Sims 4 on Origin - starting at $5 Buy The Sims 4 on Amazon - starting at $5
'The Sims' Alexa Skill is a game companion for superfans
Electronic Arts and Amazon are doing their version of the old "You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!" and "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!" bit. The companies announced today that a companion skill for dedicated fans of The Sims will be available on Alexa devices. Additionally, an update to The Sims 4 will introduce an in-game Alexa-like voice assistant called Lin-Z.
Side view satellite images turn the Earth into 'Sim City'
Satellite images can still enlighten and delight, but we're so spoiled by constant views from space that it's hard to surprise us. Satellite imaging company Planet has managed to do just that, however, with a collection of new images, including a shot of the man-made Pearl-Qatar island in Doha. Rather than shooting straight down, the satellites captured the images from oblique angles, creating orthographic-type views reminiscent of games like Sim City.
'The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs' promises biggest-ever pets expansion
In the close-to-three years since its release on PC, The Sims 4 has broken down gender barriers, freed itself from the shackles of the suburbs, and even found time to cater to Mac and console gamers. But, there's been something amiss from the lives of the digital denizens -- namely, pets. That's all about to change thanks to EA's latest update. On November 10, The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs expansion will let you add a dose of cuteness to your manufactured utopia.
'The Sims 4' will get weird on consoles November 17th
After an eight year absence, The Sims is coming back to consoles in a very big way. Come November 17th you'll be able to control a virtual society from the couch in The Sims 4 with what sounds the best console installment of the 17 year-old social sandbox series.
'The Sims' find a new home on iOS and Android
It's been 17 years since The Sims was first released on PC but finally (finally) the venerable social simulator is going mobile. EA announced on Wednesday that it is bringing its truest port of the game to date to Android and iOS.
There's a new boss in charge of 'Mass Effect' and 'Dragon Age'
Electronic Arts is changing. Many of the massive publisher-developer's myriad studios will now be assembled under one figurative roof at EA Worldwide Studios. Describing the change, EA CEO and part-time Mirror's Edge villain Andrew Wilson says it "will bring together our top creative talent in all of our great studios to work on EA's powerful brand portfolio and new IP [intellectual property]."
'The Sims 4' heads to the city with its latest expansion
As much as The Sims 4 has done to expand its cultural boundaries over time, it has always been set in the suburbs -- you know, that bastion of conformity and homogeneity. What about the city, where experiences tend to be more diverse? Enter City Living, a new paid add-on for the game that (surprise!) takes place in an urban landscape. You can live in or visit four distinct neighborhoods in San Myshuno, and broaden your horizons by attending street festivals or crooning at the local karaoke bar. At first glance, it's a more varied experience -- both culturally and in terms of gameplay.
Sonic grabs top honors as World Video Game Hall of Fame inductee
After getting snubbed in the inaugural class of World Video Game Hall of Fame inductees, 25-year-old Sonic the Hedgehog is finally getting the recognition it deserves. Along with Grand Theft Auto III, The Legend of Zelda, The Oregon Trail, The Sims, and Space Invaders, Sega's 1991 release is on the list of 2016 hall of famers at the National Museum of Play.
EA shuts down the studio behind 'SimCity'
The studio that created SimCity and The Sims is no more. Today, EA confirmed that it will shut down Maxis Emeryville, displacing the folks primarily responsible for the aforementioned titles. In a statement, EA said that it'll relocate Maxis' development to its other offices in Redwood Shores, California; Salt Lake City; Helsinki; and Melbourne, Australia. The company plans to move forward with projects already in the works, including an expansion pack for The Sims 4 and ongoing support for the existing The Sims and SimCity faithful. Those two are massively popular PC titles, and the latter finally arrived on Mac in 2013 with players everywhere encountering a truckload of launch issues.
'The Sims 4' turns into a pixelated mess if you pirate it
Media piracy likely isn't going away anytime soon, but a few game developers have designed clever ways to deal with it as of late. Take the newly released The Sims 4, for example. In series tradition, just before your virtual people shed their skivvies (for whatever variety of reasons), a pixelated censor cloud appears over his or her nether regions. As Kotaku spotted via Reddit, however, If you happen to illegally download the game, that tiny cloud will obscure more than just your sim's reproductive plumbing: it'll expand to cover everything onscreen. It makes the virtual ant-farm look a lot like Minecraft or Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP, if you ask us. Annoying? Perhaps, but if you're bothered by this maybe you shouldn't be illegally downloading stuff in the first place. [Image credit: nihwtf / Imgur]
Get 'The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection' for free this month
It seems as if this week is a good one to get stuff on the cheap or even for free. First, Marvel announced a promo yesterday which gave access to its Unlimited comics service for 99 cents, and now EA has quietly revealed that it's giving away copies of The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection. You'll need to have Origin, EA's software distribution platform, installed on your machine to take advantage of this deal, but it's as easy as entering a code for old and new users alike. Just don't expect EA to keep supporting the classic game after you install it, since the publisher brought closure to that a few days ago. The Windows download on Origin will be available until July 31st at 1:00AM ET, which means there's plenty of time to let it all sink in and cancel whatever you had planned for the weekend.
'The Sims 4' launches this September on PC
You like playing with people's lives, right? When The Sims 4 hits this fall, you'll be able to take that to an entirely new level. Your virtual people will have "heart," can die of laughter and you can import someone else's custom person (or house, even) directly into your game, pretty simply from the look of it. When and where does it all happen? September 2nd this year, and on PC.
GaymerX panel reflects on LGBTQ themes in video games, overcoming public reaction
As video games continue to search for their voice and place in cultural relevancy, they tackle new subjects and issues facing contemporary society. Ten years ago, the world was an entirely different place, especially in terms of LGBTQ acceptance. Joystiq recently learned that in 2003's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the inclusion of a lesbian character had to be hidden from developer BioWare's other employees, including the marketing team. Why? There was fear surrounding the audience's reaction. "I think for a long time, it was just assumed that nobody would accept it," David Gaider, the lead writer for the Canadian developer's Dragon Age series said, speaking at San Francisco's GaymerX convention. In the decade since KotOR's release, the RPG-house hasn't shied away from such inclusions. In its blockbuster space opera Mass Effect 3, players have the option of pursuing same-sex romances; there are numerous openly gay characters, too. This could have caused some to avoid the multi-million selling series' conclusion, but Gaider said that he thinks there is equal evidence of some people buying the games because of their accepting nature. He posited that as a result, other publishers and developers will likely follow suit because they're "copycats." For the panel's full conversation, read Joystiq's report about the "hump of assumptions" associated with LGBTQ representation in games like The Sims and Jade Empire.
The Sims 4 brings another dose of human experimentation to PC and Mac in 2014
At some point next year, EA will release The Sims 4 on PC and Mac. At least that's what the Madden publisher is saying today alongside news of the game's existence; it's the fourth Sims title handled by the folks at EA Maxis (the same team behind SimCity and Spore, among others). Outside of the game's existence and year-long launch window, EA isn't offering much in the way of details -- we're taking a wild guess that you'll once again be tasked with managing the lives of various sims in their day-to-day affairs. Of course, many folks will indulge their darker side, banishing sims to houses without doors and watching the virtual person's descent into both madness and uncleanliness. Perhaps if their cries for help weren't in simlish, it wouldn't be so adorable (but we doubt it).
NYC Museum of Modern Art opens game collection with 14 classics, exhibiting in March 2013
Given the subject matter, this is usually where the author waxes philosophical about whether -- having been accepted by a major international museum -- games are indeed "art." We're gonna skip that needless exercise today and simply tell you that the New York City Museum of Modern Art is officiating its intake of 14 video game classics as the start of an ongoing gaming collection, set to go on display in March 2013 in the MoMA's Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries -- the same galleries that house an original iPod and more. The games range from Buckner & Garcia inspiration Pac-Man to modern classic Portal, and even includes some lesser known gems (vib-ribbon, anyone?). The MoMA blog calls this initial selection just the "seedbed" for a chunkier collection of around 40 titles, all of which will be part of a "new category of artworks" at the iconic museum. Head below for the full first 14.
Rod Humble promoted to The Sims label lead
When we last spoke to The Sims' studio head, Rod Humble, he was applauding the franchise's retail success. Now the exec has another, albeit more personal reason to celebrate, having climbed up another rung on the corporate ladder, laying claim to the role of The Sims' brand's executive VP. The move follows the recent hiring of Jeff Green, who left the world of game journalism last month to throw his body on the gears of EA's expansion factory as well. Humble replaces former lead, Nancy Smith, who EA notes will handle "special" The Sims-related projects before eventually moving into a new as-yet-undefined role in the months ahead. We offer congratulations, and suggest he celebrate his new position by locking co-workers in the bathroom or pushing them in the corporate pool before deftly removing any means of escape.
EA details MySims Kingdom for Wii, DS
While we'll admit that The Sims was never more than a stone's throw away from being an all-out casual series anyway, EA will continue to dress the franchise in casual attire in MySims Kingdom, the sequel to last year's 3 million unit selling MySims. Shipping this fall worldwide for the Wii and DS, the game was first announced earlier this year as one of a handful of new dumbed down casual-themed takes on The Sims. However, EA today released the first details about the game, calling MySims Kingdom "a story of adventure, discovery and exploration to help King Roland and his subjects revitalize the Kingdom."The gameplay, which once again sounds more than a little like Animal Crossing, will center on exploring and developing a kingdom through The Sims-style customization, with the DS version adding emphasis on mini-games as players try to turn aside a rival evil king. Adds The Sims studio head Rod Humble, MySims Kingdom will include "rewarding quests, building houses, bridges or even making contraptions powered by electricity or water." The game eschews much of the larger franchise's sandbox appeal for backstory, leaving us waiting for until next year's The Sims 3 before we can know the joy of deleting the ladder from the neighborhood pool.
The Sims 3 wants you to go outside (in the game)
We always found The Sims to be sort of depressing. While creating a virtual replica of your life may seem like an amusing activity at first, you -- like us -- may find the distant view through an LCD window to be both startling and uncomfortable. Yes, we can see our house from here. And we can see that it's an empty, meaningless shell bereft of human interaction outside of the occasional pizza delivery boy teleporting into the driveway. Having said that, we're definitely keen to try The Sims 3, as it'll enable us to virtually do something we've never done before. Venture "outside."You could visit different areas in earlier games, but according to 1UP, The Sims 3 will feature a large and seamless neighborhood where a step out of the door is a step into a "much bigger sandbox." The myriad of meters indicating your Sim's moods and motives will also see an overhaul, with players encouraged to be less anal about living and more focused on living it up. You can expect more information to be tucked within the April/May issue of the official Games for Windows Magazine. Don't forget to check back with on March 19th when the official Sims site stops teasing us.[Thanks, TechNick]
