During a Behind The Sims presentation today, The Sims devs have revealed heaps of new information on both The Sims 4 and Project Rene, the codename for the next mainline Sims title.
Sims VP Franchise Creative, Lyndsay Pearson confirmed that Project Rene and The Sims 4 will exist alongside each other once Project Rene officially releases. “We plan to support both at the same time, and we’re gonna continue to bring even more exciting content to The Sims 4 for the foreseeable future.”
Project Rene is also confirmed to be free-to-play, players won’t have to purchase a base game or a subscription service to keep playing. There will however be free iterative updates, as at launch Project Rene is not expected to have features such as seasons or pets currently. There will be paid DLC though it’s unclear what will fall into being paid content, like pets, seasons, or other in-game expansion content that The Sims packs are known for.
The Sims 4 isn’t expected to go anywhere once Project Rene releases, as EA plans to keep the support for the nine year old title going with more packs and updates galore. During the presentation, new packs were teased, along with the return of Stuff Packs. Between September and December, Simmers will get one stuff pack and one “neighborly” expansion pack, along with the usual updates.
The Home Chef Hustle Stuff Pack brings new cooking themed build and CAS objects, such as a waffle maker, and “new ways of cooking.” A trailer revealing more gameplay will premiere Thursday, September 14th.
The Paranormal Stuff Pack was the last Stuff Pack to be introduced back in January 2021. Since then, Kits were replaced with Stuff Packs, as smaller packs typically with a dozen or so new items, with less expansive gameplay content, and a focus on more build and CAS items. Just recently, Poolside Splash and Modern Luxe brought themed specific content for Simmers.