The Sims 1 and 2 are coming back to PC this week with all original expansion packs, says report

rockpapershotgun.com:

The Sims and The Sims 2 are getting digital PC versions with all their original expansion packs included, and should be released by the end of the week, say Kotaku. The report follows teases made by the official Sims account on X as part of a 25th anniversary celebrations roadmap, as well as a few other scattered hints in various bits of promo as collated by Redditor skyline7284. "According to a source familiar with the plans, both games will be released digitally on PC later this week," write Kotaku.

The first two Sims games released in 2000 and 2004 respectively, but neither domestic simulation game has been easy to play on PC for years. Rebecca Jones (RPS in peace) had to install The Sims on a Windows Vista machine from 2008 to revisit it in 2023, and the Sims 2 has long been offline, with the last digital copies removed from sale in 2014 around the time that The Sims 3 released.

The next Sims thing, Project Rene, is still in development, although EA have said that it won't be Sims 5, technically. "The Sims will move beyond linear, sequential Sims releases and offer more options for players than ever before," they blogged last September. "We're focused on creating a variety of games and experiences that will touch different categories across the simulated life genre including cozy games, social and collaborative based gameplay, mobile narrative games and continued depth, improvements, and modernization of The Sims 4, which will continue to be a foundational Sims experience."

Paradox cancelled their own Sims competitor Life By You last year, and laid off staff following what one developer called "a month in purgatory". They've since said they'd like to take another crack at a similar game.