The Sims 5 largely still seems like a mystery to many of us. We know it's there, somewhere out in the aether, but we've not got too many details on what the game will look like. Now, thanks to the vice president of franchise creative Lyndsay Pearson, we know that the game is going to have multiplayer.
"We definitely want to introduce multiplayer," said Pearson on the One More Life podcast hosted by Radio Times. "And not multiplayer in the big, scary 'jump in a world full of strangers' kind of way. But literally, how do you and your friends want to do some play together? And there's a lot of different flavours that could take, so we're exploring a lot of different spaces there."
Pearson went onto talk about how multiplayer can mean different things in different games, and that'll be a special challenge introducing it into something like The Sims. "We're having a lot of fun exploring all those different opportunities, particularly within the context of The Sims, because it is still about these little characters, their little lives, and you helping guide them. So, what does that mean if you and I do that together? And how do we figure out how to make a little bit of that chaos, a little bit of that fun and a little bit of that positivity all come together in a way that feels Sims-y?"
It seems that the team working on The Sims 5 takes inspiration from Animal Crossing in this regard. "It is such a good example of my little space, my little island, but I can invite you over."
Perhaps, then, you won't be monitoring the same Sims with a buddy, but you will be able to visit each other's towns and houses if you so wish, just so long as you don't leave your friend's Sims in a pool and then remove the ladder.