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The Sims 2 Earns Big Simoleans for EA - Best PC Launch in EA's History

Monday September 27, 8:02 am ET
Best PC Launch in EA's History

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 2004--Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS - News), today announced that, based on internal data, The Sims 2(TM) sold more than one million copies at retail stores worldwide within the first ten days -- the biggest PC launch in EA's 22-year history.

"The Sims franchise has become a cultural phenomenon and The Sims 2 is a game that changes the way we think about our industry," said Frank Gibeau, senior vice president of marketing, EA. "The game has sold one million units worldwide in its first ten days at retail -- more than fifty percent of those games were sold in Europe."

"The Sims 2 was easily one of the most anticipated PC games of the year, and incredibly, the game turned out to be even better than we expected, earning our highest rating 5/5 stars and earning an Editor's Choice award," said Computer Gaming World's Editor in Chief Jeff Green. "The fact that the early sales of The Sims 2 are so high comes as no surprise at all, given the consistently great quality of this franchise. At a time when console gaming tends to dominate the hype and headlines, The Sims franchise is one of the current saviors of PC gaming."

The Sims 2 kicks off a diverse lineup of EA GAMES(TM) branded titles for the fall including: Def Jam® Fight for NY(TM) and Burnout® 3: Takedown(TM), which are available now, and coming later this fall: Medal of Honor Pacific Assault(TM), GoldenEye: Rouge Agent(TM), The Lord of the Rings(TM), The Third Age(TM), The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle-earth(TM) and the follow up to 2003's global best selling game, Need For Speed(TM) Underground 2.

The Sims(TM) franchise also will deliver a new console game this November to its loyal fan base, The Urbz(TM): Sims in the City(TM). For the first time, The Sims are moving to the city and it's all about building your reputation. Players will be able to unlock nine different districts in the city that never sleeps and gain access to all the hottest VIP spots while interacting with The Black Eyed Peas. The soundtrack to the game includes nine exclusive re-recorded music tracks from The Black Eyed Peas all in Simlish -- the game's quirky language. The Urbz: Sims in the City will be available early November for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Xbox® video game system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube(TM), Nintendo Game Boy® Advance and the Nintendo DS(TM).
 

DSN2K

Member
MightyHedgehog said:
HL2 will fail to sell so well, so fast.

dont bet on it, Steam sales + retail is going to be huge.

I give it a week and more then million sold worldwide.
 

DarienA

The black man everyone at Activision can agree on
Damn another reason to hate EA.

<goes back to creating EA voodoo doll>
 

Zaptruder

Banned
None. But you can be damned sure that

1. They'll be plenty of them

2. They won't be featuring work environments for your sims, so you can watch them 24/7 :p
 

Alcibiades

Member
Wait, what how did Doom 3 do?

DoomOWNED!

I thought Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 would totally dominate but I forgot about how popular The Sims was...

maybe it was the lackluster reaction to Sims Online (which pretty much bombed and lost EA money) that had this game not really on my radar, but considering how people were inquiring about the pre-order when I worked at Best Buy, I should have noticed the anticipation...

I wonder if Pokemon File (both versions combined) will even be able to challenge this for August...
 
sonycowboy said:
"The game has sold one million units worldwide in its first ten days at retail -- more than fifty percent of those games were sold in Europe."

Wow, very interesting. This kinda puts the kaibosh on those in the industry that claim PC piracy is rampant in Europe. Either that, or Europeans are very very voyueristic. :) What were sales of Singles: Flirt Up Your Life in Europe again? :)

sonycowboy said:
Players will be able to unlock nine different districts in the city that never sleeps and gain access to all the hottest VIP spots while interacting with The Black Eyed Peas. The soundtrack to the game includes nine exclusive re-recorded music tracks from The Black Eyed Peas all in Simlish -- the game's quirky language.

WTF?
 

Tortfeasor

Member
Sims has been kept in the mind of the PC game playing population... I think they have been releasing expansion packs as recently as 5 months ago. Half-Life on the other hand has not... It is well known in the enthusiast crowd, but (IMHO) it has lost it's mainstream appeal.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
Tortfeasor said:
Sims has been kept in the mind of the PC game playing population... I think they have been releasing expansion packs as recently as 5 months ago. Half-Life on the other hand has not... It is well known in the enthusiast crowd, but (IMHO) it has lost it's mainstream appeal.

Half-Life never had the mainstream appeal The Sims had in the first place.
 

Alcibiades

Member
I don't even get all this Sims fuss (then again I've never played the game).

Customers would be fanatical about owning all the versions, and it seems the console versions were at least moderate successes.

It surprised me that someone would even want to own the GBA version of Bustin' Out (I bet EA was definitely happy with the sales and that's why The Urbz is their flagship DS title), but kids would ask for it and I'd go to the back and case it to make sure it was on the shelves...
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
jenov4 said:
How about Sims Online game? Was that ever a success?

hahaha.

No.

EA was hoping for 1 million + active subscribers, and right now they're struggling to break 50,000 again. I think the max it ever hit was 120k or something like that.

They just shut down Earth and Beyond and I wouldn't be surprised if they shut down Sims Online soon to focus on UO.
 
ManaByte said:
hahaha.

No.

EA was hoping for 1 million + active subscribers, and right now they're struggling to break 50,000 again. I think the max it ever hit was 120k or something like that.

They just shut down Earth and Beyond and I wouldn't be surprised if they shut down Sims Online soon to focus on UO.

I think it's safe to say EA doesn't quite understand online gaming yet; at the very least, how to make a profit off of it. I'm sure SOE could give them some pointers (and maybe NCSoft too).
 
doom 3 sold 300,000 copies first week in USA. Probably over a million by now including Europe. Sims 2 and possibly HL2 will likely outsell it.
 
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