EA has decided to pause development on Project Lotus, the mobile multiplayer Sims game, and to focus Maxis's resources on Project Evergreen. The decision was communicated in an internal email signed by executives Cam Weber and David Tinson, shared with Kotaku and later repeated in the "Building EA's Next Chapter" post on the company's official site.
The message is clear: the goal is to give the team more time to reach "the full potential and vision" of the game. For EA, The Sims remains a franchise to invest in for the long term, even if the road to its next entry has been bumpy.
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The fate of Project Lotus
The project was long known as Project Rene. It was born as a possible successor to The Sims 4, and many fans had hoped it would become The Sims 5. Development has been running since at least late 2022. Over time, Maxis revealed it would be a free-to-play multiplayer title for mobile, a choice that fans received coolly. The pause therefore closes a phase that had not convinced the community.
As for Project Evergreen, official information is still minimal. The project has been associated with a mainline title for PC and consoles, and according to community sources it is internally referred to more as The Sims 4: 2 than The Sims 5. One source also reports that the release is internally expected around next September, though EA has not confirmed this.
The shift has drawn mixed reactions. Some celebrated the end of a controversial project, while others worry the series may be left without a true follow-up after more than a decade of The Sims 4, released in 2014 and later moved to free-to-play. The return to a traditional entry is nonetheless seen as a positive sign.
Project Evergreen
An announcement within a wider restructuring
The news came the same day EA announced a broader set of changes, including the closure of BioWare, with some sources reporting more than 400 layoffs. That is the context in which the Sims decision should be read: a reallocation of talent and investment that EA presents as a strategic choice.
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