Electronic Arts announces The Sims 4, will release in 2014

Electronic Arts has officially announced that the latest game in its people-simulation franchise is under development. Titled The Sims 4, the game is being developed by series veteran Maxis and will be seeing a release in 2014. Unlike the recent SimCity, The Sims 4 is set to be a completely offline single player game.

The new game will be expanding on the personalisation options that have been offered in previous games of the series, and is said to have new and intuitive tools to do so. Players will also have the ability to share whatever they create with their friends.

The Sims 4 will be out in 2014

The franchise is the brainchild of Will Wright and made its debut during the turn of the millennium in 2000. It revolves around the player making a Sim or a family of Sims and then controlling everything they do in their lives, ranging from their eating habits to personal hygiene to love lives.

More from News Analysis

The first game was 2-dimensional and stuck to an isometric perspective. It had seven expansion packs that added new objects and gameplay mechanics.

The sequel, The Sims 2, pushed the franchise into full 3D, letting you pick whatever camera angle you liked. The major new gameplay mechanic in the sequel was the aspiration system, where each Sim exhibited wants and fears according to their aspirations and personalities. The Sims 2 got eight full-fledged expansion packs.

The latest game in the series so far, The Sims 3, was released in 2009 and brought in a radical change to the core gameplay. Instead of having just a house, Sims could roam freely in their neighbourhood. The game also completely overhauled the personality system. It got nine expansion packs.