dateline= Wrote:Gamespot

Sims 3 unveiling on March 19?

New EA teaser site promises further details about the next iteration of its megapopular life-sim series in two weeks.

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot
Posted Mar 6, 2008 1:35 am GMT

In November 2006, Electronic Arts chief financial officer Warren Jenson revealed that The Sims 3 was in the works. Though he was reticent on details about the next iteration of the series--which is so popular one of EA's four divisions is devoted to it--he did say the franchise would eventually arrive on the Wii and PlayStation 3 consoles. The Sims' Wii debut, MySims, went on sale last September to mixed critical and commercial success. However, to date, no Sims games have appeared on either the PS3 or its archrival Xbox 360 console.

That, however, may soon change. After over a year under the radar, the Sims 3 has resurfaced courtesy of a teaser page on the EA-owned URL thesims3.ea.com. The site went live this week with an enigmatic splash page showing an emerald-green crystal with the numeral "3" next to it. Below it are the words "More information coming soon!*" and below that the date "*March 19."

What exactly is EA teasing? An ESRB "Rating Pending" logo is discreetly tucked at the bottom of the page seems to indicate it is indeed a single Sims 3 game. However, the company has not elaborated on whether said game will be a proper successor to the Sims 2, which was released on the PC in 2004 and adapted for the DS, Mac, GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, original Xbox, and Game Boy Advance the following year.

Sales-wise, the NPD Group reports the original Sims 2 has sold nearly 4.9 million copies on all platforms in the US, with the PC edition spawning 15 expansion and add-on packs. Other non-PC Sims 2 games included, The Sims 2: Pets and The Sims 2: Castaway. According to EA, nearly 100 million Sims games have been sold worldwide since the Will Wright-created series launched in 1999.