The Sims 5 is dead, but we're getting the next best thing

The Sims has been one of the most popular games of all time ever since it made its debut on the PC in 2000 and it’s gone on to be the benchmark of the social simulator genre.

In October 2022, The Sims 5 was announced or at least we thought it had. Codenamed Project Rene, this apparent Sims game sparked huge excitement amongst its community even though not much was known about the title.

Check out The Sims 4 trailer below!

Labelled as “the next generation of The Sims” this will not be the traditional game in the series. Project Rene will be a free-to-play multiplayer game and will exist alongside The Sims 4, and going forward, the fourth numbered entry will be the foundation of the traditional series.

Project Rene has been going through a closed multiplayer beta and recently, gameplay was making the social media rounds and it might be time to say goodbye to our social lives. A recent rumour also claimed that The Sims 5 has been cancelled and if true, it looks like Project Rene has taken its place but now it seems like it was always intended to be that way.

In an interview by Polygon with the general manager at developer Maxis, Kate Gorman Revelli said: “We want to continue to extend, so if you want to play that kind of multiplayer experience, that’ll be what you look for in the things we’ve talked about Project Rene.”

So in a nutshell, The Sims 4 will continue to exist, and evolve with content updates while Project Rene will be its own thing alongside the traditional game. However, it’s safe to assume that when Project Rene has finished its testing and is ready for release, it will change its name.

At the time of writing, there is no confirmed release date for Project Rene. We’ll of course update you once that information drops.