This year marks the 25th anniversary of the release of The Sims, an occasion the gaming company Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) marked with a re-release of The Sims, The Sims 2, and their respective collections of expansion packs, along with three new kits. But 2025 also marks another important anniversary for Sims devotees. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the date Maxis went public. The gaming company was co-founded by The Sims creator Will Wright and his business partner Jeff Braun. Learn the history in this edition of Tech Time Warp.
When Maxis went public on June 1, 1995, the company was already known for SimCity, a predecessor to The Sims. Wright began working on SimCity in the 1980s, a game where players build cities on undeveloped lots. He found inspiration when he realized that his favorite part of designing Raid on Bungeling Bay was building things, not blowing them up. Video game companies were skeptical, however, about SimCity—a game without a true end goal—and it took co-founding Maxis with Braun for Wright to publish the game.
The origin of a gaming icon
The success of SimCity (released in 1989), coupled with Wright’s own experience losing his home in the devastating 1991 Oakland wildfires, made him start to wonder about the characters who would inhabit his virtual world.
Enter The Sims. Released in 1999, after EA had acquired Maxis, The Sims asked players simply to keep their characters alive. There was no end goal except avoiding death by tending to eight basic needs: hunger, energy, comfort, fun, hygiene, social, environment and, very realistically, bladder. Players direct their Sims’ careers, hobbies, and relationships. Also, the game broke barriers with its early inclusion of characters in same-sex relationships. The Sims universe includes its own language (Simlish) and its own currency (Simoleons).
The current version of the game, The Sims 4, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and EA is focusing on expansion packs vs. releasing a new edition.
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This post originally appeared on Smarter MSP.