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The Sims 3 sells 820,000 US copies in 1 month

Jeff Baker — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:18:29 +0000

Ever since the first Sims title hit the market it’s been generally accepted that every game then after would be a huge success and The Sims 3 is no different.’

According to recent reports, in the US The Sims 3 sold a full 820,000 copies in June alone. Added to that, Gamasutra strongly believes the game has sold over 2.5million copies globally.

Just to put that into perspective, the entire Sims franchise had sold over 100 million copies worldwide as of April 16th, 2008.

I think it’s safe to say that The Sims is definitely here to stay.

EA to advertise Dr Pepper, vice versa

Jeff Baker — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:59:04 +0000

It seems that EA and Dr. Pepper have signed a multimillion dollar advertising deal that will have the two companies cross advertising eachothers products.

The first project announced involves EA advertising Dr Pepper products in The Sims 3 early next year while Dr Pepper will include codes for unlockable Sims 3 content in their products.

This sounds great considering Dr Pepper is one of my favorite sodas, but I still think I like Mountain Dew’s introduction of Game Fuel as an advertisement for Halo 3 and reintrduced it for World of Warcraft. Anyone agree?

Read (IndustryGamers)

The Sims 3 Proves Piracy Is No Threat To Sales

Will Prusik — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:05:00 +0000

Before the era of P2P file sharing if you wanted to get a game for free you had a few options. First if you had a buddy with the right knowhow he could send a disc your way with the game and a crack program on it. If none of your friends were quite that delinquently minded you only had one choice: to hunt through ‘warez’ sites which were generally just spawning grounds for popups, viruses and porn advertisements.

Peer to peer downloading programs changed that and Bittorrent has been one of the most popular downloading programs in years. Though the first protests came from the music industry thanks to Napster, the video games industry has gotten in on the act, with many companies complaining that developing for PCs has become nearly impossible due to rampant piracy. Those who do often institute draconian DRM measures, frustrating players and anarchists everywhere.

The Sims 3 was leaked and downloaded over 180,000 times from May 18th to May 21st, yet the DRM-free game has sold over 1.4 million copies in its first week, making it one of the most successful launches in EA’s history. EA has been one of the main proponents of the argument that piracy is killing the PC gaming industry, but their arguments seem to have been invalidated by this.

My guess is that the theory behind piracy goes like this: you’ve got a small subsection of the market who will pirate a game no matter what. Then you’ve got people who are willing to pay full price for a robust, well-crafted experience, but don’t want to pay full price for something that they think might be cool yet is only netting five or six out of ten on the reviews. In the end even if the panic-mongers at EA are right and piracy is a huge problem, the industry will simply evolve into an online focus where verification is built into games and money will be made by subscription fees or optional VIP packages in free games.

The Sims 3 sells 1.4m copies during first week

James Hyde — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:00:39 +0000

EA reports that The Sims 3 has sold over 1.4 million copies during its first week on the market, making it the fastest selling Sims game ever. The original Sims game sold more than 16 million copies, while the sequel, The Sims 2 sold over 14 million units worldwide, excluding all the expansion packs.

EA Invites British To Rewrite Commandments

Will Prusik — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:13:38 +0000

The Ten Commandments, basis of moral law for both the Jewish and Christian faiths alike have often come under fire by comedians. I can recall one bit in particular where George Carlin whittles down/condenses the list into a mere two or three general guidelines. Even some Christians will acknowledge that while certain commandments still make a lot of sense (murder, theft, etc.) others might be a little out of date.

It seems that despite the country’s long history of Christianity the British aren’t very well informed regarding the ten commandments. In celebration of the the release of god simulator The Sims 3 EA did some polling and found that more than a quarter of British youths 11-16 can’t recall even a single one of the commandments and only six percent of British children and adults can recall all ten.

The revised and updated list of commandments has been assembled and will be carved into two limestone tablets (the same type of stones Moses had been given) and presented to the Houses of Parliament this week as a benchmark of where public opinion stands regarding common moral standards in modern Britain.

Here’s what the 1,000 British citizens polled came to an agreement on regarding the commandments:

Modernised Traditional Commandments (ranked in order of importance to the British public)
1. Do not kill
2. Do not steal
3. Do not cheat on your partner with another person
4. Do not envy others
5. Respect your parents
6. Do not accuse a person of something they did not do

New Commandments
7. Respect all people regardless of race, religion or sexuality
8. Do not commit acts of terrorism
9. Respect and protect the planet
10. Do not be motivated by greed

Sims 3 gets leaked

Jeff Baker — Tue, 19 May 2009 05:34:37 +0000

EA’s The Sims 3 isn’t set to hit store shelves until June 2nd but it seems a group by the name of RELOADED has gone ahead and leaked the game to the masses.

Clocking in at 5.3GB, The Sims 3 leak has been spread to just about every major BitTorrent tracker there is. Several posters have confirmed that this is in fact the official release but will EA care? I mean, The Sims franchise is one of the best selling PC franchises of all time. And, with all of the new features being added to number 3 it’s sure to sell like hotcakes.

Of course, Digitalbattle doesn’t condone illegally downloading games so do so at your own risk.

New Sims 3 for iPhone screenshots

Jeff Baker — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:42:02 +0000

Kotaku has recently gotten their hands on a slew of sceenshots featuring the upcoming iPhone/iPod touch title The Sims 3.

As you can see, the game will effectively utilize the iPhone’s graphical capabilities making for what seems like a true to the original experience. In other words, The Sims 3 for iPhone looks to be similiar to the version being released for the PC.

You can head over to Kotaku to see the rest of the screenshots. Unfortunately, there is no word on when this game will be hitting the App Store.

The Sims 3 gone gold

James Hyde — Fri, 08 May 2009 20:27:51 +0000

EA’s third installment of the hugely successful The Sims franchise has been completed and is in production, what the industry commonly calls “gone gold”.

The game is set for release in North America on June 2, both on Windows and OS X. A European release is followed shortly later, on June 5.

Sims 3 Gets Big DLC Store, Getting Gamers to Empty Their Wallets for Digital Furniture

Rajiv Ashrafi — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:48:09 +0000

EA is riding on top of the DLC bandwagon it seems, as the company today announced a microstransaction store in The Sims 3, one that will sell in-game items. The company plans on having quite a bit of content available on release day.

The store will make use of SimPoints – a virtual currency bought in lots of 500, 1000 and 2000 points – to let gamers purchase that items such as clothes and furniture.

Additionally, on release day on June 2, gamers can expect Riverview, a second town. It wasn’t mentioned if the town would be free or a premium download.

To get gamers going, the title will come bundled with 1000 SimPoints to get a taste of the store.

The Sims 3 to Feature Simple DRM

Rajiv Ashrafi — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:17:09 +0000

Simplifying things down for its potentially casual userbase, The Sims label head Rod Humble announced on the official Sims website that The Sims 3 will feature very simple copy protection with no online activation. Here’s the scoop:

The game will have disc-based copy protection – there is a Serial Code just like The Sims 2. To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed.

We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future.

EA has been criticized before for using – what people call – “draconian” DRM in their games. Spore is an example – it used online activation initially that allowed owners to install the game three times before having to contact EA.

Sims 3 launch date announced

Jeff Baker — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:36:51 +0000

Finally, we can report a Sims game that isn’t an add-on, expansion or anything else. It seems EA has finally pryed their hands off of The Sims 2 and onto getting The Sims 3 in stores.

The game was recently announced to be shipping on June 9th. This is a bummer for hardcore fans of the series who were hoping for an end of Feburary release date as originally thought.

Read (ThatVideoGameBlog)

The Sims 3 Possibly Delayed

Rajiv Ashrafi — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:29:26 +0000

EA’s biggest cash cow may have possibly been delayed, as the company told Edge that it is “evaluating the launch window”. The Sims 3, the third in the soul sucking money printer for EA, was initially pegged for release on February 20.

The publisher’s move is mirrored by the official UK site which now lists a “TBA” release date for the game; the US site likewise sports a rather vague “coming in 2009”. Online retailers – who are often the source of release dates and delays – disagree, however, with Amazon still marking the title for release on February 15, and GameStop and Best Buy indicating release in the days following February 20.

The Sims 3 is the third title in the immensely popular people simulation franchise that sucks the life and money out of gamers through millions (if not billions) of expansion packs and whatnot.

New Sims 3 trailer

Jeff Baker — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 01:19:10 +0000

Are there still any Sims fans left out there? Oh who am I kidding, it’s a known fact that The Sims franchise holds the title of best selling game franchise of all time.

Anyways, a new trailer for The Sims 3 was recently released, focusing on the create-a-sim aspect. This video does a really good job showing you all of the customization that’s included in the latest title. It also displays the graphics which seem to be a significant upgrade from the last games.

The Sims 3 is expected to hit shelves on Feburay 20th, 2009 for the PC.

The Sims 3 Collector’s Edition Details

Rajiv Ashrafi — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:23:51 +0000

Hoping to further drain you of your hard earned money, EA has announced that the next entry in the soul-sucking simulation series The Sims will get a collector’s edition.

The Sims 3 collector’s edition preorders are currently being taken by American retailers. Coming in at $69.99, the edition will include the game itself, a The Sims Plumbob USB drive with a matching green Carabiner, an exclusive in-game sports car, a tips and hints guide, and some Plumbob stickers.

The game is due out February 20, 2009 on PC.

The Sims 3 Release Date

Rajiv Ashrafi — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:47:45 +0000

EA has announced that The Sims 3 will be released via retail stores and digital download on February 20, 2009. The publisher also revealed that it will release a Collector’s Edition on the same date. It will include the full game, Sims merchandise and an exclusive “bonus in-game Italian-style Sports Car.”

The game follows The Sims 2, allowing players to create Sims and lead/ruin their lives as they see fit. The third entry features an open neighborhood, a new Create-a-Sim mode, new unique personality traits, unlimited customization and more.