Well, after more than half-a-decade of service, it seems that The Sims Mobile has finally seen the trademark EA axe. With the mobile spinoff already delisted from app stores and set to cease service in January, we’ve already begun our post-mortems.
But as usual, I’m going to be a bit contrarian and ask whether The Sims Mobile shutdown is more or less complex than it looks.
Make room for Rene
Now I’ll assume you’ve already read Toni’s piece which gives a bit more background so I’ll skip the preamble. But as you probably already know, Project Rene is shaping up to be the next big mobile release for The Sims franchise. While it’s been in soft launch multiple times, things are still rather hush-hush on when a proper release is coming.
Project Rene is a bigger, bolder and newer take on The Sims for mobile. Letting fans experience a smaller scale, but more dense cityscape where the focus is on social interaction. There’s less of a ‘life sim’ angle, but a promise of more vibrant and interesting activities.
Obviously the simple conclusion is that EA doesn’t want any competition from an older title, and is willing to shutter it to make room for something new. I think that’s part of it, but I think there’s more to it than that as well. Specifically, I think the writing has been on the wall for The Sims Mobile for a while.
Made redundant
Seven years down the line, the world of mobile is very different to where it was in 2018. Nowadays, you can play PC and console-quality games quite easily on your phone. Even something like The Sims, with all its performance issues, could quite easily fit onto an iPhone.
Comparatively speaking, The Sims Mobile was always made to be a technically undemanding release. That means flatter characters and less vibrant graphics. Short of a full revamp, The Sims Mobile was showing its age and doesn’t seem to gel with how EA wants to keep the series evergreen.
Not only that but again, it’s a spinoff. That means by its very nature it can feel like it has many of the mechanics we know and love stripped out due to technical necessity. Whereas nowadays you could very easily fit something at least as complex as The Sims 1 even onto lower-end devices.
Fun for all the family
Similarly, the audiences and tastes have changed, too. Back in 2018, it seemed reasonable to assume there would be a significant portion of older players who might not own a PC anymore, but would still enjoy a Sims spinoff. Or even those unable or unwilling to use a platform other than their phone.
But now, more than a decade since launch, The Sims 4 is still going strong. And more people than ever are flocking to PC, even in the face of console sagging a bit in popularity. So the very niche audience for The Sims Mobile has likely been drying up in the face of that.
The competition of the century
Most importantly, The Sims Mobile faces very stiff competition. Haegin’s Play Together and other ‘social networking’ games like it deftly capture a younger audience. And many older players are likely already caught up in the match-three loop.
Wherever you turn there’s options for life sims on mobile, now more than ever. Be that indie hits like Stardew Valley or the myriad of experiences in Roblox that allow you to step into the shoes of your character. While I can’t think of anything that is an exact one-to-one of The Sims on mobile, there’s plenty of options for games very similar to it.
And indeed, as Project Rene demonstrates breaking from the life sim format is something EA clearly isn’t against.
I think it’s also fair to say that the issues The Sims has had with micro-content and DLC are tenfold in The Sims Mobile, simply by the nature of the platform. Which again, is a shame because a true-blue adaptation of The Sims for mobile would be evergreen even today in my opinion.
The bottom line
Ultimately, I’ll reiterate that I think that The Sims Mobile has been on borrowed time for a while now. More than likely the reason EA has kept it going for as long as it has is purely because of the name recognition. I don’t think that Project Rene is coming in for an imminent release, but I do think its existence pushed them to finally pull the plug on The Sims Mobile.
I definitely agree with Toni’s assertion that this is still bad for game preservation. But I think that point is more apt for the broader mobile landscape. For The Sims franchise itself, the loss of The Sims Mobile I think many of us were prepared for.
Is that cold comfort for those of you whose first contact with The Sims was on mobile? Of course. But it doesn’t make it any less accurate in my opinion.
