Sims 5 devs want to add multiplayer similar to Animal Crossing

The Sims, one of the most popular and well-known gaming series of all time, allows gamers to do pretty much everything under the sun with their virtual people, from raising babies to building households to pursuing careers.

One feature which has yet to be implemented — and seems like it would be a no-brainer for such a beloved franchise — is multiplayer. Will the upcoming Sims 5 have multiplayer? Maxis Studios revealed some more information about Project Rene, the codename for the upcoming fifth installment of The Sims, which is still in the early development stages. Maxis’ Vice President of Franchise Creative Lyndsay Pearson explained that the company has two very specific (and vastly different) games in mind as they put together The Sims 5 multiplayer.

“We definitely want to introduce multiplayer,” Pearson said in an interview with The Radio Times podcast. “And not multiplayer in the big, scary ‘jump in a world full of strangers’ kind of way. But literally, hey, do you and your friends want to do some play together?

Will The Sims 5 have multiplayer? / Electronic Arts

“There’s a lot of different flavors that could take, so we’re exploring a lot of different spaces there.”

These flavors include influences from Animal Crossing, which Pearson said the developers “talk about all the time, because it is such a good example of my little space, my little island, but I can invite you over.”

Pearson added, “And we’ve seen throughout the last few years of Animal Crossing, people inventing ways to play together that the game doesn’t specifically support, but they’ve made up scavenger hunts or whatever, which is amazing. Or people who hosted talk shows on Animal Crossing, I think, is incredible, right?”

Another game which the Maxis developers have in mind when developing The Sims 5 multiplayer was one distinctly different from Animal Crossing.

“We actually look at a lot of games that are doing multiplayer in clever ways, like Among Us even, which is this sort of mystery thing, but you have to talk about it and solve it.”

Project Rene/The Sims 5 is still in the early stages of development and doesn’t currently have an estimated release date attached but we’ll keep you updated as more information becomes available.

What do you think of the fact that The Sims 5 devs want to add multiplayer similar to Animal Crossing to the game? Do you think they should emulate elements from both Animal Crossing and Among Us? Let us know in the comments.