Behind The Sims: September 12th, 2023

It’s time for another peek behind the curtain of The Sims’ development! We get to hear about what’s coming for The Sims 4, as well as some information about the plans for Project Rene!

If you didn’t see the stream, check it out:

Embrace The Hustle & Bustle

First up, after several years, we see the reintroduction of Stuff Packs! This brings us the Home Chef Hustle Stuff Pack, focused around breathing some new life into the kitchen. Some key call-outs include new objects (such as a dish drain mounted over the sink) as well as new small appliances, new foods and food preparation methods, some CAS content, and even some new ways for sims to make money!

Images shown are WIP and may not represent final content.

Alongside of this stuff pack, the base-game recipe catalog is getting a filtered overhaul. This allows users to filter recipes by things such as Vegetarian, Lactose Free, Meat, Seafood, and Sweets.

Speaking of sweets – cupcakes are now going to unlocked so that they can be baked in a regular oven! The cupcake machine is (thankfully) no longer required – that is, unless you want to use it!

Project Rene

While no new visuals were shown for Project Rene, we were given a quick rundown on how they are envisioning the game being published.

Currently, the core of Project Rene is intended to run alongside of The Sims 4.  It will be a separate title, rather than a replacement. Lindsay Pearson, Vice President of Franchise Creative for The Sims, says that the current intention is to be to have both games coexisting with ongoing development to each. Sims 4 development will continue into the foreseeable future along with Project Rene.

The “base game” for Project Rene is intended to be free-to-play, bringing the game to as many players as possible. (The Sims 4 base game was also made free-to-play last October.) No core game purchased or subscription will be necessary.

Once the core game has been developed, additional content updates will continue in the form of various packs. Packs will have to be purchased, but the content structure of the packs hasn’t been decided yet. (Although we’d expect a similar structure to how packs have been produced for the previous 4 versions of the game.)

As the provided example, the core base game could include basic seasons. A pack can then be created to expand that core functionality into something like, say, a pack for winter sports.

More To Come!

Stay tuned for more to come! This season of The Sims also includes a “neighborly” expansion pack, but there haven’t been details provided yet.

Later this year, The Sims will be getting official merch! Again, no details have been provided yet, but you can sign up to be notified when they release the first merch drop here.