The Sims video game franchise first appeared twenty years ago and has since become the best-selling desktop series in history. However, even before its debut in 2000, the makers themselves did not believe that a video game where people could be directed, go to work, and build would be such a global success, the Independent concludes.
Electronic game (EA) video game development company The Sims has generated more than $ 5 billion in revenue.
The game was dreamed up by game designer Will Wright, who had already made his name in the industry with SimCity, released in 1989 – in which players could build and control a city – launched by Maxis, a company co-founded with Jeff Braun.
SimCity was sold in nearly two million copies and was followed by more, less successful simulation games than SimFarm or SimCopter.
The company debuted on the stock exchange in June 1995 and then acquired EA in 1997 through a stock exchange in which Maxis was valued at $ 125 million.
After the success of SimCity, Maxis developers started working on The Sims, where the player can control his in-game characters as gods, but the developers themselves were skeptical about the success of the game, as players would buy a game where things of everyday life are cooking. , cleaning, work – should be addressed. What’s more, during this time, both graphics and gameplay became increasingly important to customers, making it incomprehensible why Wright insists on making a digital dollhouse.
However, one of The Sims ’great successes was that the game proved timeless because children and adults alike could play with it. The game hit store shelves on the fourth of February 2000 and soon topped the sales charts, so much so that in the years that followed, there were several expansion packs. The game sold 1.7 million copies and generated $ 72.9 million in revenue.
In addition, it sold an additional 1.48 million copies in 2001, making it the most popular computer game in the United States. And in 2005, 16 million copies were sold worldwide.
By 2016, nearly 200 million The Sims games had been sold worldwide. And in the twenty years since its debut, the game has been followed by three more sequels, several standalone console games, and a mobile version.