A Short History of Sims collabs part 2: The Sims 2 (2004)

In this series, we’re exploring the history of collaborations in The Sims franchise. Last time we looked at the original Sims and the appearance of many iconic celebrities, both authorised and otherwise. And with it being such a highly-anticipated sequel it’s no surprise The Sims 2 has an equal number of top crossovers. In A Short History of Sims collabs part 2 we’re going to dig into how the sequel delivered on real-world inclusions!

Celebrity appearances

As with The Sims, there were plenty of familiar faces from across the world who made an appearance in The Sims 2. Hilary Duff, for example, was joined by those more well-known to European players such as German celebrity Jeanette Biederman and Belgian television host Julie Taton was followed by Kürt Rogiers. The Sims 2 was also getting a big push in advertising, including in unusual places such as now-defunct fashion magazine Jane which showed EA’s push to make The Sims the ‘it’ game.

Stuffed to the brim

What’s more interesting, however, is the sudden appearance of branded content for cosmetics and furniture. The Sims was, by now, recognised as the premier sandbox life sim, and the potential to promote products through it seemed an obvious next step. Especially since, unlike say slapping a Pepsi vending machine in the middle of Raccoon City, they could be relatively unobtrusive and fit the world of The Sims quite well.

Ikea was, naturally, the first to get in on this with the Ikea Home Stuff pack released in 2008. Meanwhile, fashion designer H&M had already thrown their hat in with the H&M Fashion Stuff Pack. Doubtless however the increased focus on player-made content provided quite a lot of competition in this area, and renewing the rights didn’t seem on the cards for The Sims 2 Legacy Collection which didn’t feature the Ikea pack.

Musically inclined

There were a few other high-profile collaborations featuring celebrities, such as Lily Allen producing a Simlish version of her song ‘Smile’ to promote the release of the Seasons expansion. As did Natasha Bedingfield with a Simlish version of her song ‘A Pocket Full of Sunshine’ for the FreeTime expansion pack.

However, perhaps the most prominent celebrity collaboration came from musician Katy Perry (who, believe me, will be very important in relation to The Sims 3). She would have two Simlish versions of her songs ‘Hot ‘n Cold’ and ‘Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)’ to promote the Apartment Life expansion.

While all of these are interesting, The Sims 2 would probably be the most diverse in terms of collaborations and celebrity appearances until The Sims 4. At the same time it’s also clear from the limited number of these that The Sims franchise was still finding its footing, and many others were grappling with how exactly to promote their properties via this new medium.

At the same time, Maxis’ decision to enlist musical artists to promote Simlish versions of hit songs was a genius idea, and one which obviously took inspiration from The Urbz a few years prior. The pseudo-global appeal of the Simlish language was no doubt made more authentic by having these kind of pop-tier production tracks included.

Not already clued in to the history of The Sims collaborations thus far? Well, be sure to check out our preceding entries covering The Sims 1 and The Urbz!