A Sims game is coming to the Nintendo Switch for the first time — two games, actually. Electronic Arts announced Tuesday during a Nintendo Direct presentation that Nintendo DS and Wii classics MySims and MySims Kingdom will come to Nintendo Switch packaged together as MySims: Cozy Bundle.
In a news release, Electronic Arts said it “revamped” the Nintendo Wii and DS controls to work on the Switch’s touchscreen and controllers. All textures have been updated, too, so that the game is rendered at a higher resolution than it originally was. It’ll be released on Nov. 19.
MySims was originally released in 2007 for the Nintendo DS and Wii systems, with the follow-up MySims Kingdom also coming to those platforms in 2008. The games don’t much resemble the main franchise’s simulation games, like The Sims 4. Instead, they’re more like Animal Crossing and Animal Crossing: Wild World, which were released in 2001 and 2005, respectively.
Basically, Electronic Arts squished its Sims down into Mii-like, cartoon people. You don’t farm all that much — if at all — but it otherwise follows the farming or life simulation blueprint: Build up a town by building homes and businesses, collecting resources, and help out the residents. MySims Kingdom puts a medieval spin on that gameplay foundation.
MySims has never been the most popular Sims game — the mainline series takes that prize! — but the game has a hefty fan base that’s been waiting for this moment for a long time. Back in 2008, the Guinness Book of World Records called MySims the best-selling Sims game on a Nintendo console; it sold 3.7 million copies, according to Edge. Though The Sims 4 may never see the Nintendo Switch, Sims games used to hit Nintendo platforms quite frequently — especially in the Nintendo DS era.
It’s quite possible that MySims will be the only Sims game to be released on Nintendo Switch, as Nintendo heads toward its next generation of consoles. Folks started to believe early this year that The Sims 4 would be released on Nintendo’s most recent console, thanks to The Sims 4’s website itself, which mentioned the Switch as a supported console. Eventually, Electronic Arts tweeted some clarification saying that was “an error in the search data,” and that The Sims 4 isn’t available on Nintendo Switch, with “no plans for release.”
