Is The Sims 5 Cancelled? (Project Rene & Cancellation Rumors Explained)

Summary Rumors suggest The Sims 5 may be canceled due to developer layoffs and a confusing LinkedIn post.

Speculation arises that The Sims 5 cancellation may be to focus on releasing more content for The Sims 4.

Project Rene, which is often associated with The Sims 5, is still believed to be in development, but details remain uncertain.

A rumor claims The Sims 5 has been canceled, but it's difficult to say just how much truth there is to it. Although it's been rumored to exist for a while now, Project Rene - the working title for a secretive, next-gen Sims game that many consider synonymous with The Sims 5 - was officially confirmed to exist back in 2022. It was only in the earliest stages of development back then, and news on Project Rene has been scarce ever since. But it's generally assumed to be under wraps while it goes through the normal development cycle.

However, the latest information suggests The Sims 5 might've quietly been canceled in recent days. The rumor is unsubstantiated, but internal goings-on at developer Maxis are concerning, and definitely point to changes in the future of The Sims franchise. What those are is open to speculation.

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A Developer's LinkedIn Page Suggests The Sims 5 Might Have Been Canceled

Layoffs Reported At Maxis

The LinkedIn page of a character artist claiming to have worked on The Sims 5 may suggest the project has been canceled, according to screenshots posted to X (formerly Twitter) by Berkay Bademoğlu. The screenshots show a series of credits attributed to an unknown developer, whose name is cropped out. At the top of the list is a credit reading, "The Sims 5 Unreal Engine 5 for PS5 (Cancelled)."

Of course, this could refer to any number of things. Perhaps it's just the PS5 port of The Sims 5 that's been canceled, and the game will still come out on PC. Maybe it's just the use of Unreal Engine 5 that's been canceled, and the devs have switched back to The Sims' proprietary engine or something similar. But the thread goes on to list a series of layoffs at Maxis, suggesting that the future of The Sims has indeed undergone some changes.

Considering the dearth of news around the next Sims game, this is a concerning development. It's only worsened by the recent cancelation of Life by You, a competing life sim game under development by Cities: Skylines dev Paradox Interactive. Of course, it's highly unlikely The Sims as a series is going anywhere. It's one of EA's most popular (and presumably, most profitable) games, especially factoring in the astronomical cost of its countless content packs. But that points to another worrying possibility.

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EA Can't Maintain The Sims 4 Forever

Costs Are Ballooning Out Of Control

Close

With a wealth of downloadable content available for the series' current installment, including the upcoming Lovestruck expansion, some players have speculated that The Sims 5 has been canceled so EA can continue releasing content packs for The Sims 4. It's been a decade to date - what's another five years? That's supported by the original Tweet thread, in which Bademoğlu claims to have seen several developers report a departmental move from Project Rene to The Sims 4 back in April.

That could be disastrous for The Sims 4, completely disincentivizing new players from picking up the game. In its current state, it costs $1,194.23 USD to buy all the content for The Sims 4. Of course, not every player needs to buy every content pack, but even so, buying enough to unlock all the gameplay features is prohibitively expensive. That'll only get worse with Lovestruck, and even worse if there are more expansions after that.

Many players are longing for a fresh start. Even if it means fewer features, and leaving their original Sims households behind, they hoped the next Sims game would provide it. Thankfully, there may still be a light at the end of the tunnel, and it all comes down to a game of semantics and a confusing naming convention.

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Project Rene Still Seems To Be Ongoing

EA Still Has Job Listings Open For The Sims Successor

But regardless of what's happening to The Sims 5 and its PC port, Project Rene still appears to be under active development. Job listings are still open on EA's career page for the title, so it's clear that at least one Sims project is still in the works (or someone at EA forgot to update their job listings). The problem is that no one, except those actually working on it, knows exactly what Project Rene is.

It's understandable to associate Project Rene with The Sims 5 - when one hears "next generation Sims game," and the previous one was The Sims 4, it's only natural to tack a one onto the numbered entry and call it a day. However, there's never been any official confirmation that Project Rene is actually The Sims 5. In fact, all signs point to it being something else. After all, if Project Rene and The Sims 5 were one and the same, why have a working title at all?

Many, including the poster of the original thread, have come to speculate that the canceled project wasn't actually Project Rene, but an unannounced Sims 5. If that were the case, maybe The Sims 5 would have been a console port running on the Unreal Engine, while Project Rene was eventually destined to become a more malleable, moddable PC release running on a custom engine.

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But what that means for the future of The Sims on consoles is unclear. The projects may have merged, or The Sims 5 may have simply been canned in favor of Rene. Perhaps the cancelation of a separate Sims 5 means that Project Rene will simply be available on all platforms, much as The Sims 4 is today. Or perhaps it means Project Rene will be a PC exclusive, at least for a time, much as The Sims 4 was.

The Sims 4 first came out for Windows PCs in a staggered, regional release throughout September 2014. It took until the following February to come out for macOS, and until November 17, 2017, to come to consoles.

If nothing else, it's worth noting that the rumors remain unsubstantiated. None of this has been confirmed, denied, or even addressed by EA. The original set of Tweets was worrying, but for all intents and purposes, it seems Project Rene is still on. It may still be a few years away, but there is a successor to The Sims 4 in the works. It just might be a few years until it comes out. The world may never see The Sims 5, at least not in its original form, but it looks like the series is here to stay.

Sources: Berkay Bademoğlu/X, EA