The Sims and The Sims 2 re-release launch date may have leaked

Maxis and Electronic Arts (EA) appear to have a special present in store for the 25th anniversary of The Sims: A digital re-release of The Sims and The Sims 2 for PC. The brand-new versions of the classic games seem to contain most of the expansions released for them over the years, as Sims Community reports based on information from a reliable dataminer. 

More importantly, the re-releases have been made compatible with modern hardware, which is especially great for everyone who’s longing to dive back into the title that started it all.

Due to never getting a digital release, The Sims is a pain to get running on today’s systems: You have to find your old CD, get a CD drive, and play roulette with some player-created compatibility patches. All of these challenges will be a specter of the past for Windows 10 and 11 users — as of now, there is no indication that the new versions will be available for Mac.

According to the dataminer, these re-releases will become available on January 31, 2025. There is no information on their price yet.

Aside from being made compatible with modern PCs, we are still in the dark about what else the updated versions of the two classic games may have to offer — if anything. Since “re-release” is seemingly included in the versions’ official names as opposed to terms like remake or remaster, fans should probably keep their expectations on the lower end when it comes to optimizations and potential improvements.

Released in 2000, The Sims managed to sell over 16 million copies in five years and spawned the iconic series we know today as the top dog of the life sim genre. Its first sequel followed in 2004, further increasing the series’ popularity and making it one of the most successful gaming franchises.

Given that Maxis and EA have teased a special surprise for The Sims fans for this anniversary with social media channels heavily playing the nostalgia card, this leak has some credibility — we’d still urge you to take it with a grain of salt until an official confirmation has been issued.