‘The Sims 5’ release date, gameplay: Was the next game included in the EA Play Live 2020 show?

Electronic Arts’ EA Play Live was one of the most anticipated virtual events in the gaming community this month. The game publisher did have an announcement for fans of the life simulation series, but it might disappoint those eagerly waiting for “The Sims 5.”

EA Play Live 2020 has an announcement for ‘The Sims’ fans

EA Play Live 2020 commenced on Thursday after being delayed for a week. It was originally scheduled on June 11 until EA decided to move it to June 18 out of respect for the ongoing protests against racism around the world.

As expected, the virtual event featured announcements of much-awaited video game sequels. However, the presentation finished without any word on “The Sims 5.” While the franchise was still part of the event, it was only to announce that “The Sims 4” and all its content update packs will become available on Steam starting Thursday.

EA has its own digital distribution site called Origin, where PC users can buy “The Sims 4” and its expansion packs and other content updates. Bringing the latest life sim game to Steam is part of EA’s effort to bring more of its popular titles to Valve’s platform.

Possible release date window for ‘The Sims 5’

Not hearing about “The Sims 5” at the EA Play Live 2020 was not surprising. The video game company has yet to even recognize the next game’s development while it also announced having more content packs planned for the current iteration of the life sim game.

Without any official update to go on, it might still be too early to hope that a release date window for “The Sims 5” will be announced soon. But EA and Maxis have a year-long plan of new content packs for “The Sims 4” for the remainder of 2020, making it more obvious that a new game will not be released this year.

Meanwhile, some clues about the timeline of the next game may have been provided a few years back. Variety reported two years ago that the game’s senior producer Grant Rodiek hinted at having three years' worth of content for the current game. If the plan has not changed since then, fans should not expect “The Sims 5” to be released until late 2021 or sometime in 2022.