The Sims’ Maxis Working On “Bold, New Project”

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Maxis, a division of Electronic Arts and the developer behind The Sims franchise, is currently working on something new for next-generation platforms.

While no official announcement has been made as of yet, the official careers website contains a few points of interest. For starters, Maxis is currently seeking a build software engineer for not only The Sims 4 but also unannounced projects. The candidate will be responsible for implementing and maintaining new automated workflows. Take note that The Sims 4 is expected to receive more post-release expansion packs this year. The bit about unannounced projects though speaks for itself and could possibly be related to a new Sims installment.

Maxis is also seeking an art director who will be responsible for developing “a cohesive aesthetic vision for our bold, new project” and accomplish key milestones with the Creative Director. That’s the second job listing to mention a new project in the works at Maxis. Describing the unannounced game as bold would perhaps be a nod at next-generation platforms. In addition, Maxis is seeking a senior character artist as well for “high quality character models and materials” for an unknown project.

Maxis has worked on three main franchises to date. The life simulator The Sims seems to carry the most likelihood of receiving a new entry. The city-builder SimCity has been missing in action for quite a while. There’s then Spore, another life simulator that despite praise was pretty much shelved over a decade ago. Suffice to say, many would love the idea of playing a next-generation Spore installment. However, the chances of that happening are pretty slim. The Sims has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide and is one of the best-selling franchises of all time. Hence, Maxis (as well as publisher Electronic Arts) would be more interested in getting The Sims 5 ready for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

Should The Sims 5 be in development, many fans would love to see the new installment have a larger world to operate in, as well as having no loading screens at all, something that both next-generation consoles are offering as features to developers. Something else of interest is that Electronic Arts has published a new Sims game every four or five years. The Sims 4 was released back in 2014, making it five years old in 2019. By that pattern, The Sims 5 should be releasing in late 2020 or early next year, around the launch of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.