Over the past year or so, Maxis has slowly revealed more details on The Sims 5, which is currently called Project Rene. One of these details has been that it'll have multiplayer, although the team hasn't quite hinted at what this might look like until recently.
Yesterday, in an interview on Radio Times' One More Life podcast, Vice President of Franchise Creative Lyndsay Pearson discussed the inspirations behind Project Rene's in-progress multiplayer feature, citing two (very different) games in particular.
Pearson mentioned that The Sims developers "talk about Animal Crossing all the time, because it is such a good example of my little space, my little island, but I can invite you over."
"And we've seen throughout the last few years of Animal Crossing, people inventing ways to play together that the game doesn't specifically support, but they've made up scavenger hunts or whatever, which is amazing. Or people who hosted talk shows on Animal Crossing, I think, is incredible, right?"
Briefly shown off during the Behind the Sims livestream in October 2022, players will be able to decorate spaces collaboratively and then share them online. It's still unclear if players will be able to place their Sims in someone else's build like in Animal Crossing.
While Animal Crossing: New Horizons might seem like an obvious inspiration choice, Pearson also cited Among Us as another one of the games they're looking at, pointing toward its collaborative mystery-solving as a "clever" way to incorporate multiplayer.
Pearson noted that the studio is still exploring different options and figuring out exactly how multiplayer will work, although she reaffirmed the studio's previous announcement that Project Rene will not be an MMO.
"We definitely want to introduce multiplayer," Pearson said. "And not multiplayer in the big, scary 'jump in a world full of strangers' kind of way. But literally, how do you and your friends want to do some play together?"
Maxis has largely kept the game under wraps since its announcement last October, although we did get a look at its detailed furniture customization and its cross-platform play during a short teaser. After some speculation, EA also confirmed that the game will be free to download and won't replace The Sims 4.
Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they've contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.
