25 November 2025

As a Longtime Sims Player, Project Rene’s Leaks Have Me Nervous

By newsgame

After two decades in The Sims ecosystem, I’ve learned to adapt. New art styles? Neat. New systems? Awesome. New expansions every six minutes? I pay my own bills, sure. But Project Rene is the first time in years I’ve found myself quietly bracing instead of thoroughly excited. This new iteration of franchise—one that was formerly assumed to be The Sims 5—was meant to usher the franchise into its next era. Instead, every new reveal has left me with more questions than confidence.

The pivot away from a numbered entry was the first unexpected turn for me. Then came the early gameplay previews that put multiplayer front and center, tugging the franchise back toward the very development pitfalls that haunted The Sims before. Now, the latest round of leaks showcases a gameplay loop that looks suspiciously like a far cry from the pure life-simulation identity that anchored the series for nearly twenty-five years. Individually, these changes could be harmless experiments. Together, they can be a major revamp that changes the franchise’s entire identity. And as a longtime Simmer, I can’t help but bite my fingernails as I watch this unfold. And I know I’m not alone.

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Project Rene Has Some Beige Flags—Arguably Red Ones, Too

The Sims is in a transitional era—which is not always comfortable. No transition is ever smooth for any IP. We’ve seen it time and time again: Dragon Age has shifted its visual identity in every installment, Halo has had changes in content and playstyle, and the story always starts with resistance. The growing pains are felt throughout a fandom. As a creature of habit myself, I understand the fear tied to change.

I’ve challenged myself to see changes in gaming spaces as a neutral-until-proven-otherwise. I’ve loved some changes to beloved franchises, as I have been hesitant to embrace others. I’m applying that same logic to The Sims. There are some aspects shown in Project Rene’s early gameplay that still have some of The Sims’ typical DNA. It might be a little different from what we’ve seen, but we’ve also seen entirely cohesive content for the past 10 years. So far, here’s how Project Rene suggests only slight shifts that feel more like safe, beige flags:

More customization options: In early footage, Project Rene is letting Build Mode relive its glory days. With modular pieces, a throwback to The Sims 3’s Create-a-Style, and just overall greater flexibility, Project Rene promises a win for Simmers who thrive on decor.
Familiar visual identity: Aesthetically, The Sims 4 hasn’t aged terribly. That’s thanks to its cartoonish art style. Of course, after 10 years, some aesthetic polish and technical tweaks could go a long way. If Project Rene launches with a similar visual identity to The Sims 4, some fans may be inclined to give it a good college try.
The skeleton is there: A life-sim like The Sims will still have your typical Sims fair—no matter what iteration it is. Players will still meet friends, romance them, and indulge in all the recognizable chaos that has made the franchise a cornerstone of EA’s portfolio.

The Red Flags Are Creeping Up, And I’m Afraid They’re About to Jumpscare Me

Project Rene didn’t need to earn my suspicion, but it’s doing it anyway. None of these warning signs are catastrophic on their own. But stacked together, they paint a picture of a franchise drifting toward something unfamiliar, maybe even unstable. And as someone who’s played The Sims for two decades, I can feel the shift in my gut before I can name it.

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Multiplayer keeps haunting the franchise: Project Rene has been advertised as a game where friends can come together to experience The Sims through multiplayer gameplay. This is a significant departure from The Sims’ single-player model. And frankly, it is perhaps its most controversial feature.
The Recent Leaks: The latest gameplay leaks for Project Rene lean heavily into fashion. So heavily, in fact, that some players have drawn comparisons to Roblox’s Dress to Impress. That, is, indeed, a choice. One that has drawn criticism from some perplexed fans.

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It’s Not the Dress to Impress Comparisons That Make Me Nervous About Project Rene

Back when I was an edgy pre-teen and Shadow the Hedgehog was the coolest being I had ever laid eyes on (he still is), I carried a secret. One I scribbled into diaries, hid behind browser tabs, and guarded like state intel whenever my friends and I terrorized the aisles of early-2010s Hot Topic. Despite all my efforts to project maximum angst, I adored dress-up games. Girlsgogames, Dolldivine, and DeviantArt creators coding fashion dolls in Flash were my haven. I spent hours styling characters in outfits that would’ve made any mall goth proud.

So trust me when I say: I am not anti-fashion mechanics. I grew up on them. I have the emotional muscle memory of rotating a digital outfit by dragging my mouse. I treat RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 as a dress-up game at my big age sometimes. But when Project Rene’s leaks started to resemble the structure and style of those games, right down to the challenge-based “style something to win” loop, it didn’t make me excited. It made me uneasy. Not because dress-up games are bad, but because The Sims has always been more than that. And Project Rene suddenly looks a lot less like a life-sim and a lot more like a genre pivot wearing familiar Sims branding.

Losing What Makes The Sims… The Sims

I’m now genuinely worried The Sims’ next generation is chasing trends instead of embracing its own identity. It’s not that style systems are unwelcome; The Sims practically invented digital self-expression in gaming as we know it. But the recent leaks suggest a project leaning far more toward Dress to Impress than a full-scale simulation of lives, consequences, relationships, disasters, and chaos.

If that’s truly the direction, then this isn’t innovation. It’s abandonment. The Sims was always about possibility, not “best outfit wins.” And if Project Rene is prioritizing virality-ready features over the complexity and weirdness that defines The Sims, we’re not looking at evolution. We’re looking at a pivot that breaks the series’ spine.

The Multiplayer Angle Gives Sims Veterans War Flashbacks

The Sims 4 began life as a multiplayer project, and its ghosts have haunted the fandom ever since. The engine, the systems, even The Sims 4‘s most infamous missing features at launch all trace back to that original direction. The final product, while much improved today, did not align with what longtime players expected. It carried the residue of compromises.

The Reaper arrives to take an old Sims' life - The Sims 2

Project Rene will be stepping into territory that makes the average Simmer shiver. Even The Sims‘ spin-off games with multiplayer have come and gone. The renewed insistence on multiplayer risks isolating the very fanbase that made The Sims a global phenomenon: people who value autonomy, solitude, personal storytelling, and the ability to pause the chaos of life to micromanage virtual chaos instead. For many players, The Sims is less of a social activity and more of a reflective one. A digital journal. A place to breathe. Turning that into a co-op experience may thrill some newcomers, but it risks leaving core players behind.

The Plumbob in the Room: We Might Actually Still Need The Sims 5

I hear the hesitation. I hear the exhaustion. I understand the anxiety tied to starting over when over a thousand dollars in DLC and decade-long legacies sit inside The Sims 4. But the truth no one wants to say out loud is simple: a clean break may be overdue. The Sims 4′s prolonged lifespan is a band-aid solution, and a game can only last so long. Every time the game updates, it is practically unplayable for a few days. Every time there’s new DLC, the player base braces for impact. This is a game that grows more fragile by patch.

And the rumors of a Sims 4 remaster only complicate things. A remaster implies EA wants to sustain the current generation while simultaneously building a new one. But why? To smooth the transition? To keep players’ saves intact? To keep having me sit on a pile of endless rhetorical questions as I watch this beloved franchise change, the point where I am afraid of not recognizing what says “Sul, Sul” to me?

None of the answers I have at hand about Project Rene, or the future of The Sims, inspires confidence. All I have are observations. These observations show me an emerging identity crisis when I crave stability. With its parent company undergoing massive corporate restructuring, fandom fears about what that could mean for the game, and so much uncertainty in the air, familiarity would, at least, make the rest of us less nervous.