The Sims has a big year ahead.
Maxis, game developer of the widely-beloved life simulation franchise The Sims, has kicked off 2026 with a lengthy blog post addressing the future of the series. In the blog post, the game developer teased the “next evolution” of the mainline Sims series, along with an all-new project called Project Rene slated for release on mobile devices.
Maxis and EA dive into the “next evolution” of The Sims
Maxis and Electronic Arts have more in store for fans of The Sims franchise, according to a recent blog post on The Sims website. The post outlined its ambitious plans for The Sims franchise, which include “a family of new Sims experiences across PC, console, and mobile.”
The post also assured fans that “deep, single-player life simulation” will remain at the core of future Sims games, as the developer continues to work on new content for The Sims 4. Interestingly, Maxis also confirmed that “more than half of our global development team [is] dedicated to The Sims 4 and the next evolution,” which would appear to be a successor to The Sims 4.
And what of Project Rene, the developer’s earlier-teased next-generation Sims game? In the post, Maxis confirmed that Project Rene has “evolved into a social, collaborative, mobile-first life-sim game” with a focus on “social multiplayer play.” That means the game is set to be a mobile multiplayer video game, though its release date is still undetermined.
However, Maxis was careful to note that the game is “not the successor to The Sims 4,” and is meant to give players “a new way to explore and play together within the growing Sims family of games, welcoming Simmers who want to connect directly with other players.”
In summary, Project Rene has been downgraded from the next-generation Sims installment it was originally meant to be, and is now headed to mobile devices. Meanwhile, EA and Maxis are now hard at work on a mainline Sims sequel, following the cancellation of The Sims 5 earlier in 2024. However, both games will not immediately replace The Sims 4, which is set to get its usual spread of new annual content this year.
Project Rene does not have a release date yet.
