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The Sims Online reborn as EA-Land

Electronic Arts relaunches the online version of the Sims; gamers can reactivate old accounts or sign up for free.

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The Sims Online was originally launched in autumn 2002, but was left to die by Electronic Arts in October 2003. But now that Internet speeds are faster and broadband connections are pervasive, EA has decided to relaunch the game.

Now titled EA-Land, the game is currently still partly under construction, and bods have been working on it since May 2007. People who used to have a Sims Online account can reregister before March to get all of their privileges and stuff back. The 12 cities from the original online game will be expanded, each house can now have more simultaneous visitors, and players can now have more than one sim in each city.

EA-Land will be free to play, but to purchase furniture and other items, gamers need to earn simoleans (the in-game currency). These can be bought for real money, or earned by selling custom-made objects, running a store, or doing jobs for other players. If gamers want to convert a bucketload of simoleans into real cash, or build a house on a bigger lot, they will need to be subscribers.

EA senior vice president Luc Barthelet commented, "We have made some big changes already to the game, and many more are coming over the next few months."

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