EA posted a blog post with updates about the future of The Sims franchise. It came with a slew of surprising information, including an update about Project Rene. News on Project Rene has been so scarce that some had suspected it had been canceled. Rather than cancelation, development for Project Rene appears to be in full swing, and EA’s blog post announced it’s launching a playtest this fall. A playtest is great news for those who have been eagerly awaiting news about the mysterious new game in The Sims franchise.
News for Project Rene is even more in demand now that EA has confirmed that there are no plans for The Sims 5, which means that Project Rene is filling a different role. However, the news of a playtest this fall is a positive sign that more news will be on the way soon, as it means that Project Rene is in a somewhat playable state.
Project Rene is Far From Canceled
Project Rene‘s play test will likely be hosted through The Sim Labs, an initiative launched by EA to test its new products in The Sims franchise. Players can sign up to The Sims Labs through its blog post The Future is Plumbob Green, where they can possibly be selected to participate in future play tests for new experiments in The Sims. The play test for Project Rene will focus on its multiplayer mechanics, and will take place at a shared location on an unspecified date.
Players who get to participate in the playtest will likely be under NDA and not be able to share their experiences of Project Rene. However, that a play test is happening at all is a positive sign for Project Rene‘s development, and is an indicator that more news is likely to come in Fall 2024. More news about Project Rene will probably come straight from EA, and will hopefully be a big reveal of the game, either with a teaser trailer, screenshots, and an overview of the features that Project Rene will debut.
What Simmers Can Expect From Project Rene
Now that EA has officially announced that The Sims 5 is not in development, the role and what to expect from Project Rene has been put into question. EA’s blog post describes The Sims 4 as a foundational Sims experience, while other games in the franchise will be released alongside it, rather than to replace it in a series, as with previous entries. Based on this, Project Rene will likely be a very different experience from The Sims 4 so that the two games do not compete with each other.
As The Sims has never had a live service or multiplayer component like the one described by EA, where groups of friends contribute to a single build in real-time, EA will have to showcase these mechanics to players in a full reveal of Project Rene to players. With The Sims Lab officially up and running and gathering users for Project Rene‘s play test as early as the next few weeks, Simmers may be lucky enough to get a major news drop about Project Rene before the holiday season. And, despite some drawbacks that The Sims 5 isn’t Project Rene, Simmers now don’t have to look for signs that The Sims 4 is wrapping up before getting more news on it, as that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.