50 Fun Facts About The Sims

On what date was the original The Sims released for Windows?

It went on to be the best-selling computer game in the United States in both 2000 and 2001.

Losing his home in which 1991 disaster pushed Will Wright toward the idea that became The Sims?

Rebuilding his life and replacing his possessions made Wright think about turning that experience into a game; the Maxis board was unimpressed, and Electronic Arts backed it instead.

What is the name of the currency Sims use to buy furniture and pay bills?

The unit is written with a section-sign-style symbol, and every household in the original game began with the same fixed pile of it regardless of family size.

What is the name of the gibberish language Sims speak?

It began as raspberries and nonsense; later games recorded tens of thousands of lines, and dozens of pop acts have re-recorded their hits in it for the in-game radio.

What is the green diamond that floats above the active Sim's head called?

It doubles as the franchise logo, and expansion packs add coloured bands around it to mark vampires, mermaids and aliens.

Which expansion pack for the original The Sims introduced the Grim Reaper as a character?

The same pack added a genie lamp, a chemistry set and a guinea pig whose bite could be fatal.

When a Sim pleads with the Grim Reaper for a dying housemate, what game decides the outcome?

Win and the Sim is revived; lose and they are taken away or, in some cases, brought back as a zombie.

In the original The Sims, which NPC spawns from a painting and always fails to cheer up a miserable Sim?

It was Will Wright's 'pet object' for the expansion; the only ways to get rid of it are to raise everyone's mood or set the painting on fire.

How much money does every new family start with in the original The Sims?

The amount was the same whether the household had one Sim or eight, which is why big families started out squeezed into tiny homes.

In 2002, The Sims overtook which game to become the best-selling PC game in history at the time?

It had passed 6.3 million copies worldwide by March 2002, and the game and its expansions together went on to ship over 41 million.

Under what title was the original The Sims released in Japan?

The rename kept it in line with the studio's other Sim titles, from SimCity to SimAnt.

Will Wright dedicated The Sims to which pioneering game designer, known for M.U.L.E.?

Bunten Berry, best known for M.U.L.E. and The Seven Cities of Gold, died in 1998, two years before the game shipped.

Which comedian makes a cameo in The Sims: House Party if your Sims throw a good enough bash?

He shows up once the party hits full swing, one of several celebrity nods that peaked with the Superstar expansion two years later.

Which expansion pack first brought cats and dogs to the original The Sims?

It also expanded the ten-lot neighbourhood to more than forty lots and let players rezone them as shops and cafes.

In which year was The Sims 2 released?

The sequel moved to full 3D, added genetics and ageing, and sold a then-record one million copies in its first ten days.

Which iconic Sim, wife of Mortimer, famously vanished before the events of The Sims 2?

Fans still trade theories about her disappearance, and she has turned up in nearly every game in the series since the 2000 original.

In The Sims 3, Mortimer Goth's future wife appears as a child under what maiden name?

The Sims 3 is set decades before the original game, so the whole Goth clan appears much younger, and she and Mortimer are childhood friends.

Which pre-made Sims 2 neighbourhood is a loose modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet?

Its feuding Capp and Monty families are named after the Capulets and Montagues, and the town is styled after old Europe.

What hidden 'joke' aspiration in The Sims 2 comes only from a malfunctioning mood machine?

Sims with it want nothing more than to eat, cook and talk about the sandwich, and a later expansion even lets them paint still lifes of it.

Which Sims 2: University career reward, inspired by Little Shop of Horrors, can eat your Sims?

Sims who drink the 'milk' it produces after a meal live five days longer, which makes it a grimly popular household pet.

Which Devo co-founder composed the main theme and Build/Buy music for The Sims 2?

The original game's jazz-piano Build Mode tunes were by Jerry Martin, who returned to help supply the sequel's made-up-language radio songs.

What is the name of the town that ships with The Sims 3 base game?

In-game lore says it is the same town as the original neighbourhood and Pleasantview, just seen decades earlier; a second world, Riverview, was a free download.

Which Sims 3 tool for recolouring almost any object or outfit was famously left out of The Sims 4?

Its absence, along with the open world, was one of the loudest complaints in reviews of the fourth game.

Sims 3: World Adventures lets Sims travel to fictional versions of which three countries?

Each destination teaches a skill: nectar making in Champs Les Sims, martial arts in Shang Simla and photography in Al Simhara.

Which pop star got her own 'Sweet Treats' stuff pack for The Sims 3 in 2012?

It came alongside a Collector's Edition of Showtime built around her Teenage Dream album imagery.

In which year did The Sims 4 launch on Windows?

The release date was announced at E3 that June; the game reached macOS the following February and consoles in 2017.

Which two worlds shipped with The Sims 4 base game at launch?

A third, empty-lot world called Newcrest was added free in 2015 for players who wanted a blank slate.

Under what codename did Maxis begin The Sims 4 as an online multiplayer game?

The plan was scrapped after the disastrous always-online launch of the 2013 SimCity reboot, and the game shipped single-player and offline.

Which two features, absent from The Sims 4 at launch, were later added in free updates after backlash?

A Change.org petition followed the announcement; pools returned within months, but toddlers did not arrive until 2017.

The secret alien lot 'Sixam' in The Sims 4: Get to Work takes its name from what?

Reaching it requires a wormhole generator unlocked at the top of the Scientist career.

In which year did The Sims 4 base game become free-to-play?

The switch on October 18 came the same day the next Sims project was announced, and 31 million new players joined over the following year and a half.

What was the code name of the Sims project Maxis announced in October 2022?

Announced the day The Sims 4 went free-to-play, it was pitched as a free-to-play, cross-platform game with co-op building that EA said would co-exist with The Sims 4 rather than replace it.

In 2024, which production company co-founded by Margot Robbie was announced to produce a Sims film?

Kate Herron, who directed Loki, is attached to direct and co-write, with Amazon MGM Studios joining later that year.

EA's Kate Gorman said the Sims movie should aim for 'an impact the size of' which 2023 blockbuster?

The comparison was pointed: the film's star is a co-founder of the production company making the Sims picture.

The Sims Social, launched in 2011, was a game built for which platform?

Developed in Flash by Playfish, it was one of the fastest-growing games on the site before being shut down in June 2013.

Shortly before its 2008 shutdown, The Sims Online was rebranded under what name?

The relaunch merged the servers into a single city and added custom content, but the servers were closed for good on August 1, 2008.

Which Sims spin-off with chibi-style characters debuted on the Wii and Nintendo DS in 2007?

It sold over four million copies, and in 2010 Taco Bell handed out copies with kids' meals in the United States.

Which hip-hop group appears as non-player characters in The Urbz: Sims in the City?

EA Trax signed them fresh off Elephunk, and licensing issues later kept their tracks off the soundtrack album.

Typing the cheat 'motherlode' into The Sims 4 adds how much money?

Its smaller siblings 'rosebud' and 'kaching' add §1,000 each.

Which keyboard combination opens the cheat console in The Sims 4 on PC or Mac?

Many cheats also require typing 'testingcheats true' first to unlock the more powerful options.

Jeff Braun's rules for naming the studio he co-founded with Will Wright required 5-7 letters, no meaning, and what?

The winning name was suggested by Braun's father, and the studio was founded in 1987 to get SimCity onto home computers.

In 2007 Will Wright became the first game designer to receive which honour?

The fellowship had previously gone only to film and television figures; Wright had already been inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame in 2002.

What was Will Wright's very first published game, a 1984 helicopter shooter?

He enjoyed building its islands with the level editor more than playing it, and that editor grew into SimCity.

The Sims' made-up language was first devised by Will Wright for which 1996 helicopter game?

Wright wanted to avoid real languages so players would not tire of repeated dialogue; the two original voice actors carried the role until 2006.

Which set of real languages did Will Wright experiment with before settling on gibberish for his Sims?

One voice actor was handed a pidgin of Swahili and Cherokee before suggesting he simply improvise nonsense, and Wright agreed.

Which Sims 4 game pack drew heavy backlash after its theme had ranked last of 21 options in a fan poll?

It remains the only Sims 4 DLC built on an outside intellectual property, and fans suspected it was a contractual obligation.

At the 1999 E3 demo of The Sims, what unscripted moment happened during an in-game wedding?

The team then reworked the relationship system so a Sim's orientation emerged from the player's choices rather than being fixed.

What was the early working title of The Sims, back when it was pitched as an architecture design game?

The focus shifted when someone suggested the houses be rated by the virtual people living in them, and the people turned out to be the interesting part.

Roughly how many copies has The Sims franchise sold worldwide?

That puts it around tenth among all video game franchises, with lifetime revenue past five billion dollars by 2019.

What is the in-game currency Maxis introduced in 2026 for a custom-content marketplace in The Sims 4?

The plan to sell Kits only for the new currency sparked such backlash that PC Kits returned to Steam and the EA App within about a month.