Upon buying Freetime the girls at the local Gamestop told me that The Sims 3 is coming out in April or so of next year. It could probably be delayed if Maxis thinks the game could be tweaked to play better. I just hope I've got a machine good enough to run it.... and that Microsoft doesn't offer a deal to Maxis so that the game will only be playable on Vista (still using Windows XP here).

I tell ya... if I was a Sim in The Sims 3, I'd be creeped out by the player now that he can follow me everywhere... EVERYWHERE!!! Even to work!!!

Microsoft seems to do that mostly with their own first party games. Most game developers don't like to make PC titles Vista exclusive and I seriously doubt Maxis would take the best selling game franchise of all time and tell the millions of potential buyers that they have to switch to Vista. It's just bad business no matter how much Microsoft offers them. Microsoft also seems to care more about the Vista exclusivity when they force games to run through Live (like Halo 2 PC). That way they can rip PC gamers off with a service they don't need.

I agree. Vista, from what I know, is still wrought with playability problems. And there are still those who use pre-XP OS's. Making Sims 3 even XP-exclusive would be a bad idea.

I got nearly all the expansions, but none of the stuff paks. When the Sims 3 comes out, I'm gonna have to buy them all over again. I'm sure that's where Maxis gets most of its money. ><

Honestly, if it was me, I wouldn't mind a pushback. I like it when they take the extra bit of time and effort to improve a game.

Of course, I don't really like Sims anyway, but still.

And just when I thought they release the final expansion pack for The Sims 2, they now announce a new one called Apartment Life! I guess The Sims 2 is still popular enough for the developers to still invest in making the game better. :)