In early 2021, Laura Miele, the Chief Studio Officer at EA, officially announced the development of Sims 5. More than a year later, the game’s developer, Maxis, first gave fans a look at The Sims 5 during the Behind The Sims Summit. During this presentation, the developer revealed a few minutes of gameplay, focusing on showing off all the features coming to the game’s build mode. Maxis also revealed that though the project is in its infancy, it would provide early access to the software to small groups over time.
Today, a since-deleted account posted 11 photos on Reddit from what they claim is early access to The Sims 5.
https://twitter.com/centralsimmerML/status/1591043035370262528?s=20&t=yT6YxFnZBQ1wMboVVcDHIQ
The images from the supposed playtest appear to match the early footage shown at the Summit, lending credence to the leak’s authenticity. “This play test mostly was focusing on the new building and furniture features,” the post’s author commented in the thread. “It had four preset studio apartments for you to mess around in or an empty one for you to build in. There were no sims in this at all.” they continued. This may disappoint fans of the Sims franchise. It’s worth reiterating, however, how incredibly early in the development process this game is. It’s no surprise that the demo is barebones and lacks exciting features for now.
We’ve seen this recently with the pre-alpha footage of EA’s Skate, which leaked earlier this year. Following the leak, fans of the franchised criticised the developers for the quality of what they saw in the leaked footage. There were complaints about everything from basic models to missing textures. This is despite the likelihood that the build was primarily focused on physics and motion fluidity.
Regardless, this marks an exciting time for Sims fans. The Sims 4 launched in 2014, meaning that fans have been waiting for a new Sims game for close to a decade. If you’re feeling nostalgic about the franchise, the Sims 4 is now free to play on all platforms, you can read more about it here.
