In a strange interview with The Times Online, Electronic Arts label The Sims' president Nancy Smith discussed the company's plans to expand community features in The Sims games, hinting that an online element "could be of interest" to the series' fan base. She added that the game's producer would consider it, as they are "constantly exploring new kinds of content and experiences.

Of course, EA already launched the exact solution Smith claims that the studio will consider, The Sims Online, in 2002. The virtual world was rebranded as EA-Land and switched to a free-subscription model in February of this year, several months before Electronic Arts announced that it would be closing the community on August 1st, 2008.

Discussing another potential virtual world experience for The Sims, Smith hinted that the franchise would explore new revenue models, including sponsorship and selling virtual goods.

Smith also predicted that the label's future products would require players to buy and install software to play, contrary to online worlds played entirely through users' web browsers, such as Club Penguin and Habbo Hotel. She explained that the game's complex graphics and tools were too complicated to manage within a browser.

Said Smith: "Micro-transactions will be important, but I think people will continue to pay [a one-off fee] for client software. If you think about the hours of entertainment people get from interactive entertainment, you'll find that software is enormously well-priced. I don't think we're experiencing price ceilings just yet."