EA has officially released a number of its classic titles onto Steam, including SimCity 3000, The Saboteur, and select Command & Conquer games, but while the inclusions are grand – and it’s very nice to see some games return from delisting – the move does raise plenty of questions. Are there further classic games set to be released by EA? Why now? And perhaps most importantly – where is The Sims?
EA’s classic game releases chart a fair chunk of its history, with the Command & Conquer and SimCity series being important contributions to the world of PC gaming. While previously available on fellow game platform GOG, their arrival on Steam speaks to expanded support from EA.
Arguably, a greater chunk of EA’s history is still being left in the dust – in that the company does not currently allow players to legally purchase the first two games in the iconic Sims series. For players lucky enough to nab it while it was available, The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection still functions on Origin / the EA App. For everyone else, this portion of EA history is mostly lost.
Read: The Sims 4 Crystal Creations – Tips and tricks to make the most of your jewels
The Sims, meanwhile, is essentially MIA. There are ways to obtain the game and get it running on modern computers – but not without owning the original CD-ROMs, or circumventing legal barriers. As a seminal work in the life simulator genre, and a core part of the childhoods of many, its absence is heavily felt.
Likewise, The Sims 2 also has a strong sense of nostalgia attached. It’s a game often heralded as the best game in the entire Sims series, for its devotion to cool, creepy Sims stories, and RPG-like gameplay that allowed for strong storytelling, and Sim character development. While it has more support than the original game, even the now-unavailable Ultimate Collection has issues running smoothly on PC.
For years now, fans of The Sims have begged EA to better support these games, and provide a legal avenue to experience or re-experience the joy of these classics. The Sims and The Sims 2 are important games, with legacies that should be preserved and remembered.
While it’s great to see titles including SimCity 3000 and Command & Conquer branch out to new platforms, it only underscores the absence of the classic Sims games. At the very least, it does provide hope that wider support for these games is possible – but for now, we’ll have to see what EA has planned.
