The Sims is a series of life simulation video games developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts.

The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and is one of the best-selling video game series of all time.

The player creates virtual people called "Sims", places them in houses, and helps direct their moods and satisfy their desires.

Game designer Will Wright was inspired to create a "virtual doll house" after losing his home during the Oakland firestorm of 1991 and subsequently rebuilding his life.

When Wright initially took his ideas to the Maxis board of directors, they were skeptical and gave little support or financing for the game.

The directors at Electronic Arts, which bought Maxis in 1997, were more receptive—SimCity had been a great success for them, and they foresaw the possibility of building a strong Sim franchise.

[3] Wright took ideas from the 1977 architecture and urban design book A Pattern Language, American psychologist Abraham Maslow's 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation and his hierarchy of needs, and Charles Hampden-Turner's Maps of the Mind to develop a model for the game's artificial intelligence.

[4] The game used dimetric projection and featured open-ended simulation of the daily activities of one or more virtual people ("Sims") in a suburban area near SimCity.

By March 22, 2002, The Sims had sold more than 6.3 million copies worldwide, surpassing Myst[5] as the best-selling PC game in history at the time.

The sequel, developed by Maxis, takes place in a full 3D environment as opposed to the dimetric projection of the original game.

The game introduced a new form of directed gameplay through small, step-wise goals presented as opportunities for the player to pursue or refuse.

The Sims 3 sold 1.4 million copies in the first week, making it the largest release in PC gaming history at the time.

As of July 2024, Project Rene is continuing development, with potential plans for "closed invites to small public playtests or early access options" for interested players.

[12] That same year, Maxis stated that Project Rene would co-exist alongside The Sims 4, with both continuing development in the future.

In addition, it was stated that Project Rene will be free-to-play and not require "a subscription, core game purchase or energy mechanics".

Continuing its deviance from past installments in The Sims, Project Rene will have additional in-game purchases.

It's important that with 'Project Rene' we lower barriers to play and give all players the broadest shared systems because that feels like the strongest foundation for us to grow from."

EA announced the game was upgraded from Beta to Live status in a press release issued on August 23, 2011.

The gameplay is similar to the PC version but follows a mission-based storyline in addition to the sandbox mode found in the original game.

Separate handheld versions were developed for the Game Boy Advance and N-Gage, which allow the player to directly control the Sim character for the first time.

Like The Sims Bustin' Out, separate handheld versions were developed for the Nintendo DS and the Game Boy Advance, which serve as a sequel to their predecessors.

[22] MySims is a series of console games created by EA for the Wii and Nintendo DS (with SkyHeroes being the exception).

The game made it to Kindle Fire in October 2012, to BlackBerry 10 on July 31, 2013, and Windows Phone 8 in September 2013.

It features multiplayer and story-mode elements in an attempt to offer a playing experience akin to the main Sims installments.

[27] It was to be written by Brian Lynch and produced by John Davis,[28][29] and the film remained in development hell for a number of years.

[32][33] EA, in partnership with Turner Sports and BuzzFeed, created The Sims Spark'd, a four-episode reality competition television show that premiered on the TBS network on July 17, 2020.

Each competitors creation is judged by a panel consisting of YouTube personality Kelsey Impicciche, singer and songwriter Tayla Parx, and EA Maxis developer Dave Miotke, with the finalist winning a US$100,000 prize.