Celebrate The Sims Sweet Sixteen: Then and Now
2016-02-03
EA Staff
Our Sims players have all been a part of something special.
Ever since the franchise’s first game launched way back in 2000, we’ve been lucky to have so many amazing people enjoy our games.
We sat down with a few people who’ve worked on the franchise for years: Lyndsay Pearson, Senior Producer; Daniel Hiatt, Senior Game Designer; Robi Kauker, Senior Audio Director and John Brown, Senior Animator to learn more about the franchise we all love.
Help us wish The Sims a very sweet sixteen!
Toilet Truth
There have been tons of household objects added to The Sims in franchise history, but the very first was a toilet. Because you absolutely need a toilet.
Stamp of Approval
More than ten years ago, France issued an official postage stamp honoring The Sims.
Mime Crime
In order to ship The Sims in China, the Life of Crime career track was renamed to Life of Mime, and all the content changed to make it mime-themed.
Tiki Tuesday: Part 1
Early in the development of The Sims, the development team moved into an office at Walnut Creek. To get in the spirit while developing House Party, the whole office was decked out as a Tiki bar.
Covered Up
On November 22, 2002, The Sims became the first video game to grace the cover of Newsweek.
Sixpence the Richer
The Sims’ currency is called Simoleons, and that name comes from the word “simons”, a piece of 18th century British slang for sixpence.
Tiki Tuesday: Part II
The piñata lasted for years, through the development of The Sims 3. “They said we’d open it when we shipped TS3,”says Pearson. ”Even after we shipped, the piñata lived on, unharmed, for years. Pretty sure it’s still hidden on the floor somewhere.”
Color Coding
For a time during development of The Sims, bladder failures were…a more realistic color. The development team found it to be too much, and they were changed to a translucent blue.
Cat’s Cradle
If you were playing The Sims Hot Date during a specific two week period while the team fixed bugs before launching The Sims Unleashed, there’s a good chance your Sim’s blind date might have been a cat.
Voice Activated
Producers on The Sims have lent their voices to the game in the past. The wombat in The Sims 2 was voiced by a Create-A-Sim producer, and the living gnome in The Sims as voiced by one of the producers on The Sims 1.
Hair Today, and Tomorrow
Way back in The Sims 2, one of the first hairstyles in game was modelled after our own SimGuruGnome. He still has the same style today!
Servo the Robot Butler
The experimental home robot known as Servo was introduced in The Sims: Livin’ Large and was re-introduced for The Sims 2: Open for Business. Servo is known as the very first NPC ever featured in The Sims.
Get the Look
The UI for The Sims 2 Create-A-Sim was redone and shuffled eight times before the team decided on the look they wanted.
Double Jeopardy
The Sims have appeared as an answer on Jeopardy. Twice!
The Origins of Simlish
The fictional game language of The Sims known as Simlish was inspired by real languages like Ukranian, Tagalog and Navajo, as well as the voice actors themselves struggling to pronounce certain words properly.
Sound Off
In The Sims, there were just under 3,000 sound files in the game. By the time the team finished The Sims 4, there were more than 110,000 sound files.
Love The Sims? Tell us why on Twitter @EA!
Stay in the conversation of all things EA: Read our blog, Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
