EA is calling The Sims 5 by the code name of Project Rene. The game is far from being released. Sims 4 Horse Ranch is the upcoming release. But the spotlight has suddenly shifted toward Sims 5 owing to a job listing. EA posted a job opening after its Behind the Sims Showcase. The listing is for a Head of Marketplace and Monetization role on Project Rene.
In the job description, the game has been referred to as ‘free-to-enter’. This triggers the speculation about the nature of the game. The base game of Sims 4 has been free to play for a year now with certain in-game purchases that unlock additional content. Is The Sims 5 going to have a similar format? Well, it looks like that.
The job description posted by EA reads,
Own Project Rene’s in-game marketplace of content and UGC (free and paid), and manage a data-informed player-centric player purchase journey – maximizing value to players, optimizing player spend patterns, and minimizing player churn.
There are references to player purchase journey, and player spend patterns, that means the game will have areas where you can pay to play. So, the game is paid and free. That means while you’ll be able to play for free, certain additional pieces of content will require money.
For those who are uninitiated, The Sims is a life simulation video game series that was first released in the year 2000. Since then the franchise has sold more than 200 million copies of the game to become one of the largest video game franchises ever. The latest release of the series was The Sims 4: Growing Together. It was released on March 16, 2023. The next game in line is The Sims 4: Horse Ranch. The Sims 5 is still quite far away.
