A dataminer has discovered what seems to be the entire map for The Sims 5, which looks to have taken inspiration from Paris.
After it was originally announced as Project Rene in October 2022, several leaks have appeared that suggest the next instalment in The Sims series is slowly working its way towards a full release.
Project Rene is a prototype version of what’s expected to become The Sims 5. EA has teased various improvements since it was originally revealed, including more hair customisation, lighting effects, and a detailed object designer.
After a playtest build was leaked earlier this year, which appeared to confirm the existence of a mobile version, a dataminer has found what seems to be the game’s full map.
As unearthed by DzXAnt22, the map shows a smaller red zone which was the playable area in the playtest, along with a surrounding, and expansive, grey area which is believed to be the full map for The Sims 5.
The dataminer claims the map is based on Paris, after they found real-life photo references in the game’s files.
The map’s size also suggests The Sims 5 will return to an open world format last seen in The Sims 3. In The Sims 4, players travelled between smaller worlds divided by loading screens, with each containing several community lots.
When asked about the possibility of The Sims 5 being open world, DzXAnt22 explained that while there ‘isn’t a whole lot to go off’, there’s some evidence in the game files, that The Sims 5 is open world, including the lack of any travel icons in the user interface and no references to ‘travelling’ in the files.
‘Do keep in mind that this build is over a year old and things could have changed from then and now,’ they added in the comments. ‘However we strongly believe this will be an open world game, much like The Sims 3 was.’
The Sims 5 is expected to be free-to-play, after a job listing showed EA was hiring a Head of Monetisation & Marketplace for Project Rene.
There’s still no word on when The Sims 5 will actually be released, but developer Maxis stated Project Rene is ‘still in the very early stages of development’ back in June last year – so it might be a while off yet.
