Project Rene is Mobile-Only: What This Means for The Sims 4's Future

SO, SO, Plumbobs, Welcome to The Plumbob Report. Imm Becca Hartwell And Imm joined by...

Danny Reyes, here For The autonomy fails And Community Chaos, And Oh boy, Becca, do We

have Chaos today. My meme account's been getting tagged non-stop since The announcement dropped.

Um, Yeah, SO... Project Renee? NOT The Sims 5. Itss Mobile First And The Community Is...

Okay, Theyree completely UNHINGED Right Now. Itss Absolutely on fire.

The autonomy said, burn It all down. Like Twitter Is Absolutely UNHINGED Right Now.

Imm getting notifications every second. Itss beautiful And Absolutely chaotic.

I mean, I GET It Though. We waited years For news And EAss Like, Surprise, Itss NOT What You thought.

Right, Right, Right. SO Weree diving deep into What THIS Actually Means For The franchise,

Because The Community Is spiraling And I Need to break down The business logic behind The madness.

Exactly. Weree Decoding EAss Roadmap. What Next Evolution For Sims 4 Actually Means,

Whether our saves Are safe, And Honestly, Whether We should even be worried.

Spoiler, Some of us Are Very worried. But Weree ALSO going to tour The absolute

wildest Community reactions, Because Sul Sul And What Is happening.

The memes Are hitting different levels of UNHINGED.

The memes Are peak Sims, Honestly.

Plus, Weree predicting what's Next For Sims 4, Because Honestly,

THIS game isn't going anywhere. The modders will make sure of It If EA won't.

And We want to Hear from You. But First...

Letss break down THIS bombshell Right Now. Becca, walk us through Exactly What EA announced,

Because My timeline needs ACTUAL facts before The speculation spiral takes over completely.

We want to Hear from You. Submit questions via The web form in The description,

Or give us A call at 747-677-1037 And leave your question.

Dontt be shy. Our AI assistant makes It super easy.

Sul Sul, everyone! Welcome to The Plumbob Report,

your weekly dose of Sims news, Community Chaos, And build mode breakdowns. Imm Becca Hartwell,

And after years covering THIS franchise, I couldn't be more excited to finally be doing THIS.

And Imm Danny Reyes, here to provide The UNHINGED commentary And autonomy fail analysis,

Sul Sul, And ALSO, What A week to launch THIS thing.

Right! Like, we've been planning THIS podcast For weeks,

And then EA just drops A BOMB on The Community three days ago.

Okay, But before We spiral into That, Because We Absolutely will,

Letss Tell People What THIS show Actually Is.

Yes. SO every week, Danny And I Are breaking down The latest Sims news,

pack releases, Community drama, mods, builds, Basically everything happening in The Sims

universe. Imm The Chaos gremlin who literally lives on Sims Reddit And TikTok, SO If The

Community Is screaming About something, And They ALWAYS Are screaming, Imm bringing It here.

And Imm The build mode nerd who's been playing since The original Sims launched in 2000,

literally The day It came out. I will Absolutely go on tangents About swatches,

BB move objects, debug items, Youvee been warned.

Imm NOT exaggerating. She's got color-coded spreadsheets About swatches.

The organization Is GENUINELY UNHINGED.

Theyree ORGANIZED, Danny!

Anyway, Weree here to celebrate THIS beautiful, broken, deeply UNHINGED game We all love.

Exactly. And speaking of UNHINGED, We Need to Talk About Project Rene.

Oh, here We go.

SO For anyone who hasn't seen The news, And Honestly, Weree

Where have You been? EA officially confirmed That Project Rene, Which everyone thought

was The Sims 5, Is Actually A mobile-first game.

Mobile-first?

NOT The Sims 5, NOT A PC successor, A Mobile game that'll eventually come to other platforms.

And Like, Ivee been doom-scrolling My replies all morning And The vibes Are GENUINELY bad

Because The Community Is Absolutely NOT Okay About THIS.

No, Theyree really NOT. And I GET It. As someone who's been playing since day One

And covered THIS industry For years, we've been WAITING A long time For news About The

franchise's future. The Sims 4 Is almost 11 years old.

11 years!

And performance issues, lack of features, broken AI, People wanted to Hear That A next-gen

game was coming.

Instead, We got, Hey, SO Weree making A Mobile game. Enjoy!

Okay, But to be Fair, EA ALSO said Theyree committed to The Sims 4ss Next Evolution

For PC And console.

Ooh, Next Evolution. Very corporate. Very vague.

It Is vague, But I think Theress more to unpack there than People realize.

Wait, Are You defending EA Right Now?

No, No, No, Imm NOT defending The communication, Which was terrible, But I think The ACTUAL

strategy might make more sense than It looks.

Okay, Okay, Imm listening. But Youvee got maybe five minutes to convince me THIS

isn't just corporate speak before I go draft an ACTUAL riot post.

SO here's The thing, And Weree gonna dive deep into THIS in The Next SEGMENT, But EA

Is Basically splitting The franchise into Two tracks. Mobile For new audiences And accessibility,

And continued support For Sims 4 on PC And console.

Right, But Like, will That Actually work? Or Is THIS just them abandoning The idea of

The Sims 5 entirely?

Thatss The billion-dollar question. And I mean That literally. I covered The industry

long enough to know how much money THIS franchise makes EA.

Motherlode energy, Truly.

The thing Thatss frustrating to me, And Ivee interviewed multiple devs who GENUINELY

care About THIS Community, Is That The Community has been BEGGING For transparency, And THIS

announcement created more questions than answers.

Yeah, Like, Are We ever Actually getting The Sims 5? Is Sims 4 just gonna keep getting

half-baked updates forever? And can We PLEASE Fix The autonomy Chaos? Imm tired of My

Sims mopping during fires.

Exactly. And I have thoughts. Many thoughts.

Shocking. Truly Shocking.

Shush. But Seriously, Theress Actually A business logic here That I think makes sense

once You break It down.

Okay, But ALSO, Ivee literally watched My Community split in real time over THIS. Like,

TikTok And Reddit Are in SHAMBLES. Half The People Are Like, Fine, keep Sims 4, And The

other Half Are ready to organize A full riot.

Which Is why We Need to Talk About What Next Evolution Actually Means, What EAss Roadmap

looks Like, And Whether THIS franchise split Is genius Or A disaster WAITING to happen.

Okay, Imm ready For The deep dive.

Good, Because Weree About to break down EAss entire franchise strategy, decode The

corporate speak, And figure out What THIS Means For The Community moving forward.

And Whether We should be excited, terrified, Or both.

Honestly, Probably both. Thatss peak Sims energy Right there.

Alright, Letss GET into It.

Okay, SO Danny, We Need to break down THIS Roadmap Because The Community Is, Um, Confused.

And Honestly, I GET It.

Confused Is generous. Ivee been doom-scrolling Reddit all morning And The threads Are Absolutely ABLAZE.

Right, Right. SO here's What EA Actually said in their official blog post.

Theyree doing A split strategy.

Project Renee Is mobile-first.

First, Which We covered, But For PC And console players, Theyree calling It The Sims 4 Next

Evolution.

Okay, But What Does That even mean?

Like Thatss such corporate speak.

I know, I know.

But let me translate.

Basically, Sims 4 isn't going anywhere.

Theyree committing to continued updates, new content packs, And, THIS Is The important

part, potential engine improvements.

Wait, Wait, Wait.

Engine improvements?

Are We talking ACTUAL performance fixes?

Because My game legitimately takes 10 minutes to load, And Ivee just accepted It As part

of My ritual at THIS point.

Thatss What Theyree implying.

I mean, The engine Is almost 11 years old Now.

If Theyree serious About long-term support, And I really hope They Are, They have to address

The lag, The memory issues, all of It.

Okay, But Becca, Are They Actually going to Fix It?

Or Is THIS just another corporate promise Weree going to watch them fumble?

Thatss The million-dollar question.

I will say, When I was at EA Play A few years back, The dev team was GENUINELY passionate

About The game.

They know The problems exist.

But knowing And fixing Are Two different things.

Absolutely.

And I think Thatss why People Are upset.

The Community wanted Sims 5.

A fresh start, A new engine, all The features we've been asking For.

Instead, We got Next Evolution, Which sounds Like A gym membership plan trying to sell

me on leg day.

Oh My god, It Does.

But here's The thing.

From A business perspective, THIS makes sense.

Does It, Though?

Hear me out.

Sims 4 has Like 70-plus packs.

Thatss A massive library built over years of development.

Starting over with Sims 5 Means rebuilding everything from scratch.

Right, Right.

Which Is What happened with The Sims 3 to Sims 4 transition.

People lost SO much.

Toddlers, pools, functional careers.

And Honestly, The Community still hasn't recovered from That.

Exactly.

And People Are still mad About losing toddlers, pools, And careers at launch.

EA doesn't want to repeat That disaster.

Okay, Imm on both sides A little bit.

I GET The business logic.

But ALSO, with frustration, My game takes 10 minutes to load.

And My Sims autonomously eat spoiled food Like The autonomy said, No thoughts, head

empty.

Yeah, Yeah.

The autonomy Is NOT Okay.

Soul soul.

And ALSO, What The heck.

You know?

Exactly.

SO The big Community concern Right Now Is, Is Sims 4 being abandoned in favor of Mobile?

Because Thatss peak Sims energy, Honestly.

Which to be Fair, Is A valid fear.

EAss Mobile game track record Is, Letss call It chaotic in The wrong way.

True.

But They specifically said, Next Evolution Is For PC And console.

That suggests parallel development, NOT abandonment.

Hmm.

But What About Sims 5?

Like, Is It ever happening?

With A sigh, Probably NOT anytime soon.

And I think Thatss What hurts most.

Ivee been with THIS franchise since 2000, And The Wait has just been long.

The memes Are BRUTAL Right Now.

My 200k followers Are going Absolutely feral.

My timeline Is flooded with skeleton WAITING memes tagged Sims 5 players, And Theyree

all Chefss kiss levels of BRUTAL.

I saw That.

The Sims Community Is UNHINGED, And I love us.

Same.

But Seriously, what's The realistic expectation here?

Okay, SO If I had to guess, And I spent years covering The industry, EAss betting on Two

things.

One, Mobile gaming Is Absolutely massive, especially internationally.

Two, Sims 4ss existing player base Is stable.

SO Theyree playing It safe.

Exactly.

Innovation on Mobile, stability on PC.

Itss risk management.

I mean, I GET It.

But Itss just NOT giving The Innovation We Need, You know?

Itss Very corporate risk management energy, And NOT Very chaotic neutral Sims energy.

No, Itss NOT exciting. And Thatss totally valid.

But here's Where I GENUINELY think The opportunity Is.

If They Actually deliver on engine improvements…

Then Next Evolution could be Good.

Right. Like, imagine If They fixed performance,

added features The community's been asking For,

maybe even brought back Some Sims 3 open world elements.

Okay, Okay. Now Youree getting My hopes up, And Thatss DANGEROUS territory.

Imm just saying, The potential Is there.

Whether EA follows through, Thatss What Welll be Watching.

SO Basically, Weree in A wait-and-see mode.

Unfortunately, Yeah. The Roadmap gives us direction, But The execution Is everything.

And The Community Is Absolutely NOT patient.

Like, Ice Speed run The 100 Baby Challenge.

Weree talking days, NOT months.

SO Watching us Wait For information Is hilarious And painful at The Same time.

No, We Are NOT. Which brings us to…

With excitement. Oh, Danny, You Need to Hear The reactions.

The memes, The TikToks, The Reddit Chaos.

Itss been wild. Like, Absolutely UNHINGED.

Letss dive into That Next, Because Honestly, Some of these takes Are… something.

Okay, Becca, We gotta Talk About The Chaos. The Community Chaos.

Oh No, What happened?

SO, Like, within minutes of The announcement dropping,

The Sims subreddit Absolutely exploded. My timeline was flooded.

There was THIS One meme That went viral of A Sim autonomously setting A kitchen on fire

with The caption, EAss Roadmap explained in One image. Motherlode energy, Honestly.

Thatss peak Sims, Honestly.

Right? And TikTok was Absolutely UNHINGED.

Theress THIS trend Where People Are doing dramatic readings of The EA blog post

Like Itss A breakup letter, And Honestly, My For You Page Is still recovering.

Dear Simmers, Itss NOT You. Itss our Mobile First strategy. Chefss kiss of Chaos.

Stop It. Thatss SO accurate, Though.

I know. But here's The thing. NOT everyone's mad.

My community's Actually split down The middle Right Now.

Theress THIS whole side Thatss cautiously optimistic About Sims 4 getting more love.

And then Theress The burn It all down crowd.

Yeah, Ivee been seeing That too.

Like, The Gallery creators, especially being One myself,

Were hopeful That Next Evolution Actually Means better build tools And maybe Some UI improvements.

But then Youvee got The performance rage threads.

Twitter was an absolute war zone.

Screenshots of loading times That look Like slow motion videos with captions Like

Fix THIS before You make anything new. People Are NOT Okay, Becca.

I mean, to be Fair, Theyree NOT wrong.

We talked About That last SEGMENT. The performance issues Are real.

Exactly. And You know what's wild? The modding Community Is already making jokes About how

they'll Probably patch whatever EA announces before EA even ships It.

Ivee reviewed enough mods to know Theyree NOT exaggerating.

The team really understood The assignment there. The modders, I mean. NOT EA.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. But Okay, wild pivot here,

And Imm GENUINELY asking, What Are We Actually expecting in 2026?

Okay, SO realistically, For Sims 4, I think Weree looking at smaller content drops.

NOT huge expansion packs, But more Stuff packs And kits focused on refreshing existing…

SO Basically What we've been getting? Stuff packs And kids That feel more Like

content stretches than ACTUAL expansions? Well, kind of, But I think they'll lean harder

into Community requests. Like, We might finally GET That farming refresh everyone's been BEGGING

For. Thatss been A top request For years. Skeptically? You really think Theyree

listening? Because The community's been screaming About autonomy fails And performance issues For

years. Imm optimistic. When I met The dev team at EA Play, They GENUINELY cared About THIS game.

And If Theyree NOT splitting resources For A Sims 5 launch, That budget has to go somewhere.

Wait, Thatss Actually A Good point, Huh? Right? SO My prediction, And Imm putting THIS on The

record, Is Welll see at least three expansion-level updates to existing packs.

Okay, But What About Project Renee? Like, what's The ACTUAL timeline there?

Because The community's been theorizing About THIS For years.

I think late 2026 For Mobile beta, maybe early 2027 For full release, But Thatss pure speculation.

SO Weree Basically locked in Sims 4 land For another Two years minimum? Which Is Fine, I guess,

But ALSO, oof. Pretty much. Which brings us to something Ivee been WAITING to Talk About,

What Weree Watching For. Oh, Now Imm listening.

Okay, SO Imm keeping My eyes on three things. One, any major base game updates,

especially to Create-A-Sam, Because The swatches matter, Danny. Two, how They handle inevitable

bugs from refreshing old content, And three… And Whether They finally Fix autonomy. Like,

Actually Fix It, NOT just patch It. Danny, You And autonomy, I swear. Though,

Honestly, My First Sim literally set herself on fire making Mac And cheese back in 2000,

SO The Chaos Is kind of on brand. Listen, My Sims keep autonomously

mopping The floor during house fires. Theyree literally choosing cleaning over survival.

THIS Is A crisis, And Weree just supposed to accept It?

Okay, Okay, Fair. That Is Actually concerning. Thank You. SO What should listeners be Watching

For? Honestly, The Community. As someone who covered THIS industry, I can Tell You,

fan feedback GENUINELY shapes roadmaps. If People Are vocal About wanting life states refreshed,

better elder gameplay, ACTUAL consequences For actions…

Thatss what's going to drive The content calendar.

Exactly. Which Is why We want to Hear from You all.

Yes, SoulSoul listeners. Jump into our comments, Tag us on Twitter, Tag us on TikTok. My meme

account's literally ALWAYS Watching. Send us your wildest predictions For what's coming.

And your memes. Danny Absolutely lives For The memes. And Same, Honestly.

The Community creativity Is What keeps THIS franchise alive.

I do. I really do. ALSO, hot take time, send us your most controversial Sims opinions,

And Imm talking Actually UNHINGED. Like, Sims 3 was better UNHINGED.

Ooh, DANGEROUS. I GENUINELY love It, Though.

Right? Like, Actually, pool ladders Were never That funny. Or, Sims 4 build mode Is

better than Sims 3. Or, My personal favorite, Ivee never let A Sim drown,

Which Is Basically admitting Youvee never played The game correctly.

Danny, You Absolutely cannot just say That on The record.

Imm NOT even sorry. And Honestly, Itss working,

Because Thatss The energy The Community runs on. Chaos And accountability.

Okay, SO Next week, Weree diving into something special. Weree breaking down The top 10

community-made mods That Basically became must-haves.

The Unsung Heroes of THIS Franchise Oh, THIS Is going to be Absolutely spicy.

The mod Community literally runs THIS franchise.

I review these things constantly, And Honestly, We should Probably be paying them A salary

at THIS point.

They really do.

Weree celebrating them properly, And we've got Some exclusive creator interviews That

Are going to be SO Good.

SO keep your notifications on, back up your saves, And I mean Seriously back them up.

I learned THIS The hard way during My 100 Baby Challenge speedrun When My entire legacy

got corrupted.

Yes, Seriously, ALWAYS back up your saves.

Trust me, I learned THIS The hard way with My Sims 3 legacy.

And Welll see You Next week on The Plumbob Report, Where We celebrate The People Actually

keeping THIS game alive And functional.

Until then, happy Simming!

And Hey, quick build tip of The week?

Use D-bag objects to create custom wall decor.

Youree Welcome.

And may your autonomy be ever in your favor.

Or at least make sense occasionally.

Thatss terrible.

I know.

Bye, everyone.

Okay, SO Project Rene Is Mobile First, NOT Sims 5.

We covered That Chaos Pretty thoroughly.

And The Community?

Absolutely UNHINGED.

I live For It.

My timeline Is thriving.

The takeaway?

Sims 4 isn't going anywhere.

And Thatss Honestly kind of Okay.

Imm choosing optimism.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, Welll see What EA Actually delivers versus What They promise, You know?

Sool sool, Simmers.

Subscribe And leave A review to help other fans find us.

Tell us your wildest Sim stories on at Plumbob Report.

I love hearing them.

Seriously.

We want The Chaos.

Tag us on Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, wherever Youree posting your UNHINGED takes.

Thanks SO much For listening to The Plumbob Report, building dreams One tile at A time.

Welll be back Next week with more Sims news And deep dives.

Until then, keep those autonomy fails coming.

And If You GET creative with pool drownings, Weree all ears.

Bye, everyone.

And back up your saves.

Dag Dag.