A family of overachievers

The original The Sims™ was the best-selling PC game worldwide in 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003, until it was dethroned by its own sequel The Sims 2, which was the best-selling PC game of 2004, and the second best selling PC game of 2005. In October 2006, The Sims 2 Pets was the most successful expansion pack in franchise history, ranking in spots 1 or 2 of the PC game charts for more than 3 months. In 2007, the franchise dominated the top ten charts claiming four of the ten spots including The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion pack at number 3 along with The Sims 2, The Sims 2 Bon Voyage, and The Sims 2 Pets. In 2008, The Sims had three games on the charts with The Sims 2 Double Deluxe, The Sims 2 FreeTime and The Sims 2 Apartment Life. In June of 2009, The Sims 3 sold a whopping 1.4 million units according to NPD data in its first week making it the biggest PC launch in EA’s history and now the worldwide best-selling PC game of 2009!

A worldwide phenomenon

The Sims franchise has fans around the globe with combined sales for the franchise topping 125 million - that’s more than enough for one for every single person in the UK!

Blockbuster Entertainment

The Sims franchise has generated more than $2.5 billion of revenue, putting it in the same class as blockbuster films Avatar, Titanic, and The Matrix Trilogy.

Celebrities Love The Sims

In the mix of Sims fans from around the world, famous actors, TV personalities, and musicians have shown their support for The Sims over the years. From attending parties, lending their voice stylings to the games, spoofing the games on TV shows, or just professing their adoration, celebs know how to get their game on.

Making news

The Sims was the first and only video game franchise to make the cover of Newsweek! Since then, The Sims franchise has graced hundreds of magazine covers to date with a more than 45 for The Sims 3 alone.

Fun that translates

The Sims 3 has been translated into more than 22 languages including Swedish, Thai and Russian and is available in over 60 countries worldwide! Da!

A language that doesn’t

Sims speak Simlish, an emotion-filled language that defies translation. In creating Simlish, the development team experimented with fractured Ukrainian and Tagalog, the language of the Philippines. Inspired by the code talkers of WWII, The Sims creator Will Wright also suggested Navajo. Over the years, fans have learned to recognize some words like dag dag for hello and nooboo for baby.

Funny Money

The Sims have their own form of currency called Simoleans. The currency originated way back in early eighteenth-century Britain, where sixpence were often slangily called a simon. Simon mixed with the much more valuable French gold coins called Napoleans became Simoleans! And, what more appropriate currency for The Sims!

Hot tracks

Rock Stars like Simlish too! Soundtracks for The Sims games read like a who’s who of chart-topping talent; The Black Eyed Peas, Nelly Furtado, Katy Perry, LeAnn Rimes, Natasha Bedingfield, the Pussycat Dolls and Depeche Mode have recorded their chart topping hits in Simlish.

Play from the comfort of your living room

Kick back and enjoy playing The Sims 3 from your couch! Play with life like never before on the PlayStation® 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, the Wii™ and Nintendo DS™. In 2011, the most popular life simulator franchise comes to a 3D world with The Sims 3 for the Nintendo 3DS™. Various The Sims games are also available on PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft, the Nintendo GameCube™, the Game Boy® Advance, the Nintendo DS™, Wii™, the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable), and on mobile phones including the iPhone!

Drop in for a download

Imagine having the entire city of San Francisco drop by each week for a visit. That’s close to what’s happening at The Sims 3 official community site, www.thesims3.com. The site welcomes up to 7 million unique visitors monthly, handles nearly 260 content downloads every minute, and more than 3.4 million uploads have been made to date including 12 movies each hour. Fan intensity is evidenced through the more than 200 million downloads of player created content including: The Sims characters, houses, stories and more.

It’s all about the hair

Over the years, the most popular downloaded content is hair, with over 670,000 downloads to date. The most popular style is female, long and wavy.

It started with a toilet

The first object ever created for The Sims was a toilet featured in the 1993 prototype. A variety of ways to interact with the toilet were introduced, from using it to cleaning it. According to the team, it was also the only object in the original game that different genders used differently—the men tended to leave the seat up!

The Sims go green

With the release of The Sims 3 in 2009, Sims can now be environmentally friendly. Not only can they live entirely off the land by growing their own food, but they can also reduce pollution by riding their bike or driving their Toyota Prius to work.

Hello neighbor!

In 2009, for the first time ever Sims can leave their homes with no loading screens and wander the neighborhood. Sims can go to the town square, ride their bikes to the beach and take a jaunt to the gym.

It’s A Material World

The Sims finally get their materialistic fix in 2006 with must have stuff to decorate, redesign or dress up new outfits. To date, there have been nine stuff packs which included items for your family, holiday, mansion, garden and of course, glamorous life.

Name Brand Envy

In 2008, nearly 1,000 H&M stores worldwide featured a garment designed by a player of The Sims for anyone to purchase. EA released The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff pack, making Sims the trendiest on the block.

Home is where the heart is

IKEA® and The Sims collaborated in 2008 to make home the most important place on earth in The Sims with real-world IKEA home furnishings for the living spaces, bedroom and home office in your Sims’ homes.

Social!

With the launch of The Sims 3, Sims fans are online like never before with a Facebook page, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. All together, The Sims have nearly three million friends online worldwide. That’s enough to fill up the largest stadium in the world, Rungrado May Day Stadium in North Korea, over four times. You can also play with your Sims in a new way with teaser experiences like SimSidekick, SimSocial and SimFriend.

Play it your way!

The appeal of The Sims is that there is no “right way” to play. Some players spend all their time building cool houses or following the personal lives of their Sims, while others like to create chaos wherever they go. Are you one of those players? If you have ever removed the pool ladder after sending your Sim in for a dip, then the answer is probably yes!

Before there was bird flu

Will Wright once introduced a mysterious virus to The Sims. As infection spread throughout the game, so did lively debate on the message boards. What was the source of the illness? Players finally traced it back to pet guinea pigs and shared tips for surviving the outbreak.

Feeling needy?

Like most of us, the Sims have aspirations, fears and needs. The model used in the game was inspired by “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” According to Maslow people’s needs are based on a hierarchy and once basic needs are satisfied, people are motivated by less urgent needs.

Stamp of approval

The French love The Sims so much that the French postal service issued an official postal stamp honoring the game. For that, we say, “Merci!”

The Sims in Real Life

In 2004, EA Benelux created a real glass house where a family lived out their life for all to see in true The Sims style.

Summary

The Sims™ franchise, the wildly popular game series that allows players to create and live a virtual, simulated life, skyrocketed to the top of the charts when it began shipping to stores in February 2000 and quickly became a universal gaming and cultural phenomenon. The critically-acclaimed franchise celebrates an impressive over 125 million units sold to date and is translated into 22 different languages and available in 60 different countries. The Sims has inspired two more base games, The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, numerous expansion packs for PC and Mac, titles for all major console gaming systems, and games for the iPhone, iPod touch, and mobile phones.

“At first, no one believed that a videogame about people and social interaction, without shooting, driving or what passes for action, could be published successfully," said EA President and CEO John Riccitiello. "Today this game, The Sims, has evolved to become the world’s most successful PC game and a global multi-platform success. The Sims has incredible appeal among teens and young adults, and especially among female players, has broken all the old established rules about videogames.”

The Sims franchise continues to be on the top of the charts throughout the world and is enjoyed by a wide audience of men and women from teenagers and beyond. It’s the only franchise that truly allows you to play with life.

The Sims Highlights

• The Sims franchise has sold over 125 million copies since its 2000 launch.
• The Sims is the #1 best selling PC Franchise of all time, EA’s #1 best selling Franchise and #2 in the Western World in sales across all video game platforms.
• The Sims will turn eleven in February 2011 and remains a top seller in virtually every major game market worldwide.
• Since the launch in 2000, The Sims franchise has spawned nearly two dozen expansion packs, deluxe editions, and versions for console systems, mobile phones, and an online version.
• According to The NPD Group, The Sims base product was the number one selling PC game from 2000 -2003. The Sims 2 then went on to be the best-selling PC game in 2004 and the second best-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006. The Sims™ 3 was the best-selling PC game of calendar 2009 selling through an impressive 1.4 million PC/Mac units in the first week of launch making it the best-selling PC launch in EA’s history.
• In October 2006, The Sims 2 Pets was the most successful expansion pack in franchise history, ranking in spots one or two of the PC game charts for more than 3 months.
• Over the years, The Sims and its following titles have won more than 100 game critic awards and have landed on the cover of over three dozen magazines for The Sims 3 alone.
• Fan intensity is evidenced through the more than 200 million downloads of player created content for The Sims 3 including: Sims, houses, stories and more. The Sims YouTube Channel is within the top 10 most viewed sponsored channels of all time with over 98,000 subscribers and over 42 million video views. http://www.youtube.com/TheSims
• The Sims 3 official Facebook page boasts nearly 3MM ‘likes’ and the official Twitter following is nearly 70,000 people.

Timeline

PC

• The Sims™ – February 2000
• The Sims™ Livin’ Large – August 2000
• The Sims™ House Party – March 2001
• The Sims™ Hot Date – November 2001
• The Sims™ Vacation – March 2002
• The Sims™ Deluxe Edition – September 2002
• The Sims™ Unleashed – September 2002
• The Sims™ Online – December 2002
• The Sims™ Superstar – May 2003
• The Sims™ Makin’ Magic – October 2003
• The Sims™ 2 – September 2004
• The Sims™ 2 Special DVD Edition – September 2004
• The Sims™ 2 University – February 2005
• The Sims™ 2 Nightlife – September 2005
• The Sims™ 2 Holiday Edition – November 2005
• The Sims™ 2 Holiday Party Pack – November 2005
• The Sims™ 2 Open for Business – March 2006
• The Sims™ 2 Pets – October 2006
• The Sims™ 2 Family Fun Stuff – April 2006
• The Sims™ 2 Glamour Life Stuff – August 2006
• The Sims™ 2 Happy Holiday Stuff – November 2006
• The Sims™ 2 Seasons – March 2007
• The Sims™ 2 Celebration! Stuff – April 2007
• The Sims™ 2 Deluxe – May 2007
• The Sims™ 2 H&M Fashion Stuff – June 2007
• The Sims™ 2 Bon Voyage – September 2007
• The Sims™ 2 Teen Style Stuff – November 2007
• The Sims™ 2 FreeTime – February 2008
• The Sims™ 2 Double Deluxe – April 2008
• The Sims™ 2 Kitchen and Bath Interior Design Stuff – April 2008
• The Sims™ 2 IKEA Home Stuff – June 2008
• The Sims™ 2 Apartment Life – August 2008
• The Sims™ 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff – November 2008
• The Sims™ 3 – June 2009
• The Sims™ 3 World Adventures – November 2009
• The Sims™ 3 High-End Loft Stuff – February 2010
• The Sims™ 3 Ambitions – June 2010
• The Sims™ 3 Fast Lane Stuff – September 2010
• The Sims™ 3 Late Night – October 2010

Console/Mobile

• The Sims™ (PlayStation®2) – January 2003
• The Sims™ (Xbox®/Nintendo GameCube™) – March 2003
• The Sims™ Bustin’ Out (PlayStation 2/Xbox/Nintendo GameCube/Game Boy® Advance) – December 2003
• The Sims™ 2 (PlayStation 2/Xbox/GameCube/Nintendo DS™/Game Boy Advance) – October 2005
• The Sims™ 2 (Mobile phones/PlayStation Portable) – November 2005
• The Sims™ 2 Pets (GameCube/ PlayStation 2/ Xbox/ Game Boy Advance/ Nintendo DS/ PlayStation Portable/Wii) – October 2006, November 2006, December 2006, June 2007
• The Sims™ 2 Castaway (PlayStation 2 /PlayStation Portable /Nintendo DS™ /Wii) – October 2007
• The Sims™ 2 Apartment Pets (Nintendo DS) – August 2008
• The Sims™ 3 (iPhone, iPod touch, mobile phones) – June 2009
• The Sims™ 3(Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS) – October 2010
• The Sims™ 3 (Wii) – November 2010