PC Games News

'The Sims 3' online and community features revealed

By Hector Cortez Apr 30, 2009, 14:33 GMT

Electronic Arts today announced the online and community features for "The Sims 3" PC and Mac game, scheduled for release June 5, 2009.

Electronic Arts today announced the online and community features for "The Sims 3" PC and Mac game, scheduled for release June 2, 2009. In addition to the town included in the game, a second town, Riverview will be available for download from The Sims 3 product website at launch. TheSims3.com also will allow players to create and share their own movies, manage their online content and purchase additional in-game content. The game will also be available for iPhone, iPod touch and mobile phones.

Online features include:

The Sims 3 Store: Players can use SimPoints towards downloading exclusive in-game items from The Sims 3 Store, to customize their game. For additional items, players can purchase bundles of 500, 1000 and 2000 SimPoints in $USD, EUR, GBP and other major international currencies using a variety of payment methods including international and national credit cards, PayPal, and EA cash cards (in North America only).

Game Launcher: The Game Launcher is the key entry point for players into TheSims3.com community. This hub page connects players to both the Store and the Exchange, and provides them with news and information about game updates. Players can keep track of their downloads, uploads, installs, game updates and their media portfolio that includes the videos and photos they can capture while playing the game. The Game Launcher also alerts players to new content in the store, localized game and store promotions along with relevant updates to the Store and new content from the community.

TheSims3.Com Site: With the launch of the game on June 5, the marketing website at TheSims3.com will be replaced with the full community and product site for the game. The site will connect players, offer personally relevant information for each user, and will also serve as the hub site where players can share their content with other members, and embed them on social networking sites and blogs.

Site features include:

The Exchange: Building off of The Sims 2 Exchange’s success of more than 100M downloads, The Sims 3 Exchange highlights featured items, most popular downloads, powerful search and browser capabilities, along with giving players the ability to see what other players are recommending.

Create a Movie and Create a Story: New tools will allow players to create movies and stories and then share them with friends. Players can show off their Movies with the Create a Movie Tool by embedding them on external sites or with an email link back to their Movie on TheSims3.com.

My Page and My Studio: The Sims 3 product site will allow players to maintain their profile pages on their My Page section as well as offering them the new My Studio section to manage all their creations – Movies, stories, Exchange objects. My Page is also a blog space where players can post news, customize it with a personal avatar, track favorites and more. Users can make friends with other The Sims 3 players and share their content across a number of social network sites.