• The Coronavirus lockdown in most parts of the world could considerably push back the release date of The Sims 5.
• There are still a couple of expansion packs of the Sims 4 waiting to be released by Maxis.
• The mobile version of the game has been released only in 2017.
• Despite all these, the Sims 5 release date could only be delayed only by a couple of months.

The ongoing social and economic crisis due to the pandemic COVID-19 has not spared any section of the society or business. If you are confined to your home and have been spending a lot of time playing video games, you may be looking for something new or fresh. However, the studios could also be under lockdown and the technical team may not have access to the high-powered systems to work on the development of the games. These factors can result in all plans being put off by a few months.

Game Development Cannot Be Handled Working from Home

California is one of the worst affected regions due to Coronavirus and the administration has clamped a lockdown except for some essential services. Now, if the creative team at Maxis which is based out of the state is working from home, you can hardly expect them to be doing complicated development work. They need high-end computers which cannot be carried home.

Many companies around the US have shifted PCs from the office to people’s residences for them to continue working. However, as mentioned these are not ordinary personal computers. Any work that is being currently done on the Sims 5 at Maxis would have stopped by now.

People may be sharing new ideas and gameplay scenarios and other details with their colleagues through mails or other forms of communication. Real graphics work on the new game cannot be done till the lockdown is lifted and regular work restored at the studio.

What About the Sims 4 Expansion Packs?

This is a debatable point. Experts point out that on previous occasions, Maxis/EA has released the successor game though a couple of additions to the older versions were still being made available. In the case of Sims 4, there is this rumor that there are two or more expansion packs that Maxis has developed for the Sims 4 game and they are yet to be released for gameplay.

Even assuming that this is true, there are two distinct possibilities.

One is that the expansion packs for the Sims 4 may still get released in the coming months and the Sims 5 released only towards the end of the year. The other scenario is that Maxis/EA go ahead and release the Sims 5 and the expansion packs for the Sims 4 are also parallelly released. All kinds of possibilities exist.

It cannot be overlooked that this is the longest gap between one Sims game and another. The four-year gaps went up to 5 and now since 2014, it is already six years. Purely from the commercial perspective, the game’s publisher, EA, has much to gain from releasing the Sims 5.

A new game can be priced slightly higher and the sheer novelty of the game will make it sell in large numbers. These will bring in higher revenue and better profitability. There can be tie-ups or bundling with gaming console companies that will also result in higher sales and additional royalties. It is, therefore, a win-win game situation for Maxis/EA.

There may be more delays by a few more months, but the broad expectation is that the game will be up for release before we say goodbye to 2020.