If you're a classic millennial like me, then you'll have been playing The Sims on PC since it was released way back in 2000. We got The Sims, then 2, then 3, then Sims Medieval, and then The Sims 4 in 2014. Mixed in with that, we got spin-off games on handhelds and consoles, but the build-and-buy-based single-player game remained on PC for the most part.
OK, yes, you can play the mainline game of Sims 4 on PlayStation and Xbox, but these were adapted to work with a controller. There was also The Sims 3 mobile game, but it got big changes to adapt it to the smaller screens. While ports and spin-offs are often good (see: Bustin' Out on GBA being one of my all-time favorite games), what I do not want is the next Sims game being a socially charged mobile game that copies Roblox.
An interesting factoid that you may or may not know - The Sims 4 was meant to be an online multiplayer game. This used to be a theory, but got confirmation by Charles London in an interview with Retro Gamer in 2019. This would have been a huge change for the franchise's core game, but it seems that EA is still desperate to make a multiplayer game. A multiplayer, mobile-based game.
The next iteration of The Sims, which appears not to be Sims 5 but more of a Sims 4.5 or any of the long list of project names (more on this in a moment), will more than likely have either heavy mobile compatibility or be made for phones. Three years ago, it came out at the 2022 Sims Summit event that cross-compatibility would feature, and not a lot of people took it well, including me. Some PC-turned-mobile games look really good, but they don't play well on either my iPad or Samsung S24, so the idea of putting The Sims worlds on it makes me very nervous.
Let's take a brief look at the fully mobile Sims games we've already seen by EA:
The Sims Mobile
The Sims Mobile was released in 2018 as a thinned-out version of the PC game on iOS and Android. Recently, EA announced that the game is shutting down in January 2026. This is, in my mind, absolutely so they can recycle the name 'The Sims Mobile' for whatever is coming next. The game did have microtransactions, an energy system, and pay-gated content.
The Sims FreePlay
2011's FreePlay came out during The Sims 3's lifespan, and has more of a town-wide focus than Mobile, which was more singular-Sim related. In FreePlay, you unlock new buildings and expand your town over time. Again, though free to play, it encourages you to spend on LifePoints to use in speeding up completion of tasks or to get items.
Sure, OK, great. Now tell me - have you ever heard anyone tell you to play either of these? Probably not, because they're no one's favorites. They're OK, but there's a reason they're not on any of our best of lists. Once again, Bustin' Out and the other Sims spin-offs were way better.
"What are these so-called new Sims mobile games, then?" I hear you ask. The Sims Labs: Life Together, The Sims: Town Stories, whatever Project Rene is, and a potential 'Project X'. There might even be another one, but I can't quite work out which project these screenshots are from, as these games all seem to look very similar.
Stay with me here, there's going to be a lot of names coming up. We know, thanks to presentations, Summits, and announcements, that the Sims team is working via 'The Sims Labs', and is creating 'The Sims Project Stories'. The Sims Labs is a "laboratory across all existing and future products" - whatever that means - but is also the name associated with two of the upcoming mobile games. Labs allows you to sign up for future playtests so you can get involved with new games.
Project Stories appears to be interchangeable with The Sims: Town Stories, which may mean a name change happened during development. Let's go with Town Stories for clarity. It's a mobile game in development that had a Google Play listing, which has now disappeared. It's another life sim where you make a character, meet some NPCs, and build a home - but with noticeably ugly graphics. Microtransactions are involved, though there wasn't much mention of a social side.
If you keep up with leaks, you may have gotten this confused with Sims Labs: Life Together - I know I did - as it's another fugly mobile game coming out. Take a look at the pictures in this Reddit post. Notice anything? Yeah, it rips off the hugely popular Roblox game Dress to Impress. Is that really where we need to be with The Sims franchise in 2026? This does specifically mention daily activities and multiplayer elements, though I'm sure most of these games will have friend-based functions.
Also, is this the same as The Sims: City Life Game with Friends? I'm not even sure. That might be a third upcoming mobile game, or it might be a playtest. For even MORE potential Sims-flavored 'fun', we might see something called Project X, which was allegedly leaked by a former FreePlay employee. Think Hoyoverse has a lot of games? Get ready to spend 17 hours doing dailies across four million Sims games.
Personally, I'm not a fan of any of these games' aesthetics or directions, but I wouldn't be mad if we got a new mainline Sims game that fixes some of 4's issues and brings the game up to modern standards. Instead, EA has almost explicitly said that a Sims 5 is not happening. If anything, we're going to get a refreshed Sims 4.5 and have to pay full price for it in the future.
We also don't need replacements for the sunsetting Sims Mobile. Let it die and listen to your fans, please. Roblox-like games have their place, but I want to build intricate houses using my purpose-built gaming PC, not to put a fridge in the wrong spot using my greasy smartphone. Maybe I'm just old and salty, and the kids do, in fact, want Sims mobile games. I doubt it, though.