Former developers of XCOM, Marvel's Midnight Suns, and The Sims have come together to form a new studio called Midsummer Games, all in the name of rivalling The Sims in the "life simulation" genre. Jake Solomon and Will Miller, best known for their work on Firaxis titles like Marvel's Midnight Suns and XCOM, founded the company after raising $6 million in investment. Now, the team will set out to build a next-gen life sim game.
The game pitch is as follows: "a next-gen Life Sim that emphasizes player-driven narratives, allowing communities to share memorable moments that grow out of the creativity of players themselves." Midsummer Games has recruited 18-year Maxis Studios veteran Grant Rodiek, who worked on various iterations of The Sims during his time there.
Jake Solomon explained: "The best stories in games are written by the players. At Midsummer we’re making a life sim focused on the drama of modern life, where our players will write meaningful stories just by playing, and then share those stories with the world."
In a separate interview with Bloomberg, Solomon added: "Any moderately successful game generates 10, 15 competitors. How has The Sims been massively successful for 25 years, and there’s virtually no competition? Until now."
The project won't see the public eye for a number of years, but do you like the sound of a new life simulation game in the vein of The Sims? Post your thoughts in the comments below.
Comments 13
Sounds good to me! Absolutely loving Midnight Suns, almost finished it. These are talented devs and The Sims is missing that wacky, satirical edge it used to, so I’m well up for a competitor.
There have been a lot of "SIM" games out there but still nothing has yet to outshine The Sims. A friend of mine was highly addicted to Second Life in college and almost ended up flunking out though, so there is a chance.
I love The Sims, but can you really beat The Sims. I know The Sims 4 is quite clunky and outdated now, especially on console, but you have to imagine The Sims 5 will be pretty polished.
Hmm, would have preferred them working on titles more in the vein of X-Com and Midnight Suns, though.
And when they say "The best stories in games are written by the players", they lie; I'm rubbish at writing stories
It will be polished, but that mtx is outrageous. If you want to enjoy all bits of game and it is priced over 1k £. Sims 5 will go Free to Play, it will get more creative to charge for anything small.
Look what they did with Sims 4, you want Animals? Ranch? Cool! 35£... but there is no horses. And no wonders, shortly after they released Horses dlc for another 35£.
50% discount is at max after longer periodnof time. Just milking Sims fans professionally
@FuriousMachine you need to bring back your childhood play times, where your imagination created stories very easy
Hmmm really is this news for a console website?
Life sim games are really pc centric and at this moment there are 3 rival sim killers on the horizon.
Life By You - literally being headed by Mr Sims himself Rod Humble.
ParaLives, a more cartoon art style sims game.
Enjoy- developed by people in South Korea, now if this game actually does what it says it will and keeps the look its showing off. This game will be the one to kill them all. The graphics of this game and what's been shown off, are absolutely surreal.
I was hoping for Xcom3... 😭
Would be great if they allowed you to visit other player houses and neighborhood.
I like their logo
Theres another sim game by someone who worked on a previous the sims game, forgot name. And there's another coming from a Korean dev, also forgot name.
1 is called inzoi
I don't play The Sims. I do play Xcom.
I'd rather an Xcom 3 than a Sims competitor. But good luck to Jake & company anyways!
If it's the one I'm thinking of then sure I think I saw it it looks fine. It being a more lived in world (or very similar to Sims limited in areas) hmm not sure about that but if it's better refined then sure.
Sims has being pushing pathetic content packs for years for Sims 4 let alone the cursor focused controls when Sims 2 on console was the best playing the series ever was for console controls. 1-3 did a fair job with quality of life or content packs 4 is just a joke. Expansion packs weren't the best and were a money making format for a reason but at least they felt like you got worth while content in them nowadays they are pathetically lacking for the prices.
They feel like Minecraft updates sometimes, but you pay for them with Sims. In Minecraft it being free is less painful but the updates are still underwhelming of ideas and concepts.
If they have a fair idea I'm all for it. XCOM is fair but I guess the tactics space is pretty full and they wanted to try something new or more money hungry and direct competition with Sims. Sigh I don't know about that seems risky and a waste of time. Depends what ideas they have in mind.
They just need a better design then Sims. Will people move on from Sims lol I doubt it but a handful of people may if they want a better experience, if one is offered.
Then again direct competition with a big game where have I seen that before. Sigh give us more exciting games then direct competition style games. The industry and products are just getting boring at this point.
Heard this song and dance before. The Sims needs to be dethroned but nobody has gotten close yet.
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