A Special 'Thank You' to all Sim Fans

Here is a special letter to all Sim fans world-wide.
This means you!

Go to Thank You on SimCity.com or Read Luc's letter on TheSims.com. Or you can click read more below to read the letter on our website.

A Special 'Thank You' to all Sim Fans Worldwide

Dear Sim Fans,

As you may have heard, The Sims has won the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' "Game of the Year" award. This is our industry's top award. I would like to thank Will Wright and The Sims development team for their incredible work and talent. I would also like to thank our fans who, from the beginning, trusted us and supported our game. Through your word of mouth, The Sims continues to be the top selling game around the world and it makes us really proud.

With the huge success of The Sims, we're planning on continuing to support the game with more free downloads from TheSims.com and a huge expansion pack to be released in early September. The Sims: Livin' Large is more than a collection of new careers, skins, and objects for your Sims to enjoy. Because of the technology used in The Sims, a number of the new objects we provide will add not only new graphics, but new game play as well. We gave the press a sneak preview of Livin' Large at the big E3 show. You can check out their reaction in the news section of TheSims.com

Also announced for the first time at E3 was our new game called SimsVille. SimsVille is a new game that combines the personality of The Sims with the city management of SimCity. We were showing an early version of the game at the show, but it captivated the audience at E3. In fact GameSpot picked it as one of the ten best games at the show. Check out the story here http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/features/pc/e3_bestof. We hope to release SimsVille next year.

On top of all the projects we're working on, there is one we've just finished and shipped: SimCity 3000 Unlimited. This definitive version of SimCity 3000 features all the great gameplay of the original game plus several new features including two completely new building sets, thirteen challenging scenarios, a scenario creator, new disasters, customizable terrain, seasonal city events and a new tool for users to create their own buildings. Along with that we launched a new SimCity.com to provide the best possible upload and download capabilities for user creations..

The teams are all very busy working on new Sim games, and I will continue to update you all about our progress. Thank you again for making Maxis #1!

Luc Barthelet
Senior Vice President and Group Studio Head
Luc@Maxis.com