Sims 3 getting Ambitions in June

As has been the case with every PC Sims game, The Sims 3 was a big hit. How big? In January, Electronic Arts claims its latest life-sim was the best-selling PC game of 2009, having sold 4.5 million units in the six months after its June 2, 2009 launch.

Though large, the Sims 3's haul was just a small chunk of the 125 million units that the Sims series has sold over its 10-year lifespan. The vast majority of those units have been expansions and add-on packs to previous Sims titles, which EA usually releases every few months. Today, the company announced the latest in its long line of Sims expansions, The Sims 3 Ambitions--developed by the internal Sims Studio.

As the name implies, the Sims 3 Ambitions will let players give their virtual selves either a lofty or a low goal in their non-lives. Examples provided by EA were a stylist who can either exquisitely coif or hideously crop a neighbor's hair, a doctor who can heal the sick or use them for horrible experiments, a tattoo artist who can beautify or desecrate a customer's body, and a firefighter who can save a burning home or chop the interior into kindling.

Being good or evil will provoke a reaction in the Sims community, according to Sims Studio manager Scott Evans. "Players actions at work now directly affect their lives, community, and neighbors and become an extremely important part of how the game is played," he explained.

The second full expansion for The Sims 3 will ship this June, seven months after the first, World Adventures, hit the market. The iPhone spin-off of Ambitions will arrive later in the year.