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151. The Sims Five Years Old

Written on Saturday 5 February 2005 at 00:36 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

This week the Sims has turned 5. The first version was released early February 2000, and now we're 5 years, 7 expansions, a sequel, 3 console games and 2 handheld games further. The Sims is the most successful franchise on the PC ever, as the first game has sold more copies than any other PC game before. Although official sites don't seem to be mentioning it, we do. Congratulations to Will Wright, Maxis and EA with this!

152. Sims Franchise Strong in 2004

Written on Wednesday 26 January 2005 at 01:27 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

EA has released their quarterly results of the third quarter of financial 2005 for EA. The Sims has been the most successful franchise for EA in calendar year 2004. In total, the games sold over 16 million copies during calendar year 2004. The Sims 2 has been number one in both the United States and Europe. The Urbz sold over 2 million copies during the last quarter, which means it's reached platinum status. The Sims 2 sold more than 1 million units in the same quarter. In Europe, both the Urbz and the Sims 2 sold over a million units.

EA thinks the current generation consoles is still strong, and will continue developing games for it during the next year, despite the next generation consoles (X-Box 2, PlayStation 3) to make their entrance in 2005 or 2006. However, premium prices for premium games on those new consoles are expected to be higher than current prices, at least at first. As EA will continue to develop games on multiple platforms, it's quite likely the Urbz 2, mentioned earlier, will be released on both current generation and next generation platforms. EA hopes to be the main player on the market for the next generation consoles as well. The Urbz 2 was not mentioned anymore - not in the press release or the conference call - but the earlier announcement by EA Netherlands doesn't make it unlikely the game is in development anyway.

153. EA wants to be biggest in Entertainment

Written on Monday 17 January 2005 at 23:16 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Electronic Arts, publisher of the Sims series, wants to become the biggest company in the entertainment industry. It wants to compete with companies like Disney. To achieve that goal, the company wants to create more games which target a mass audience. The next generation consoles might help that, as they will be superior when it comes to graphics. According to EA, the games industry is already bigger than the music industry now. The Sims TV-show is also briefly mentioned, and it's said this show will let video games play a more central role in popular culture. Besides that, EA is planning an internation awards show "similar to the Oscars and the Grammys" which would combine video games, music and movies. Game companies will also have to work more closely with celebrities, so players can play with their heroes. See this article at BBC News for more information.

154. Possible Awards for Sims 2 and Urbz

Written on Friday 24 December 2004 at 00:23 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

GameSpot has been giving away awards the past week, but Maxis games weren't awarded so far yet. Now the Reader's Choice voting has started for the best games of 2004. You can vote for all platforms, and Game of the Year. You can vote for the Sims 2 on PC, and the Urbz can be voted for in the console sections. If you want to help one of these games to win, then enter the Reader's Choice Awards and start voting.

155. UrbzDay [Update]

Written on Thursday 2 December 2004 at 22:24 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

Besides SimDay, there's also an Urbzday this week. It's not much though - just a new comic. This time Jayde visits Diamond Heights, trying to look right for the party. If you want to know if with the help of Darius it all works out, then check out the comic by Chynna Clugston.

[Update 5 December, 0:05] The site has had a few more updates. There's a note about the toys based on the game. The action figures based on the GBA version of the game are out. The Miniopolis pack contains 20 2-inch characters and pets, whereas the Console Edition has 10 4-inch articulated characters. See the Atomic Toys Urbz site for more details. There's also a little note about the Urbz object for the Sims 2.

156. Sims can play Urbz

Written on Wednesday 1 December 2004 at 00:24 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Besides the patch, Maxis has released a new objects for Sims in the Sims 2. The object is a new video game: the Urbz. When you download it, you can take your Sim to the community area where they can buy the game and play it on their computer or game consoles. It's a fairly big download for an object, 7.66 Mb. If you like to download it, check out the object info page. This is probably an object for next SimDay, which is still two days away.

157. UrbzDay

Written on Friday 26 November 2004 at 17:26 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Yesterday was Urbzday again, and as usual the past few weeks a new comic was added. This time it's done by R Stevens. Instead of visiting one of the districts of the console version of the game, he checks out a different place: Miniopolis, where the handheld game is set. If you'd like to know what the Bouncer is doing to Crystal there, check out the new comic.

There's also a new movie, showing off the fighting cage down at Central Station. If you want to see what's happening there, head over to the Flix section. It's available in both low and high resolution. Finally, after a few weeks' absence, there's a blog again. Scot Amos tells that the very rapid development (just 10 months) has paid off and they've launched the Urbz. A busy time is behind them, but pre-production on a new title for the consoles has already started:

"Now... we're in pre-production on THE NEXT game (which is WAY too early to talk about). That early startup time of analyzing what we want to keep from the Urbz, what we can build on, what great new ideas we can steal from Sims2, and what all new things we can throw in there to create a unique offspring from this new spin-off in the Sims universe."

Read the blog for more information.

158. UrbzDay

Written on Friday 19 November 2004 at 00:22 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

This week's UrbzDay really comes with just a new Comic and descriptions of the pets. The latter can be found in the crew section, where you'll meet the bulldog, the cat and the monkey (consoles), or the chicken, some dogs, a lizzard and a pet dragon for the GBA. No descriptions for these guys, just pictures (and sketches) are to be viewed. The comic takes us to Skyline Beach this time. It's written by Jim Mahfood, and can be found through the Comix section along with the rest of them.

Finally, the official site now has the city guide that GameSpot posted earlier. Check it out on the city guide section of the official site to tour through the city. That's all from Maxis this week. We'll soon put up a review index as usual for this game, and we'll have our own review a bit later. Stay tuned for those.

159. New Poll

Written on Thursday 18 November 2004 at 12:46 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

As you can see on the right, there's a new poll about the Urbz. Let us know if you got it and if you like it. If you feel like voting in the poll, get down there, or else visit the latest poll page. If you'd rather just see what most people have been waiting for these days, check out last week's poll results:

1. The Sims 2 Expansion 1: 55.72% (185)
2. The Sims 2 Patch 1: 15.96% (53)
3. A new computer to play the Sims 2: 12.95% (43)
4. The Urbz (Console): 6.93% (23)
5. I'm not looking forward to any of the above: 6.63% (22)
6. The Urbz (Handheld): 0.90% (3)
   A console for the Urbz: 0.90% (3)

160. New Poll

Written on Thursday 11 November 2004 at 12:43 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

This week's poll is all about the performance of the Sims 2 on your computer. How well does it run? Smoothly with all settings to the max, or doesn't it run at all? Vote on the right or the latest poll page. As for last week, we asked you what you are waiting for the most. The first expansion for the Sims 2 is by far the winner; it got almost 56% of the 332 votes. The patch is second with 16%, and a new computer to play the game got 13%. Then there's a difference of one vote in favour of The Urbz on the Consoles compared to nothing of the possible options at all, with approximately 7% of the votes. The handheld version of the Urbz and a console for the Urbz were both tied at 3 votes, which is almost 1%. All the results are on the results page.