The Sims 4 coming to PC and Mac in 2014

Maxis and EA today announced plans to release The Sims 4 for PC and Mac in 2014. In what was one of the more boring announcements, there was absolutely no details, images, or videos released alongside the news. But either way, a new Sims game is good, right?

The Sims 3 turns four years old next month, so I'd say it's about time for a new game. Since its release in June 2009, The Sims 3 has seen  several expansion packs including Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, the latest University Life, and the upcoming Island Paradise in June. It has also seen countless "stuff" packs release.

"The Sims franchise is fueled by the passion and creativity of its millions of fans around the world," EA said during today's announcement. "Their continued devotion to the franchise ignites the fire of creativity of the team at The Sims Studio, driving them to continually improve and innovate on one of the world’s most successful simulation game that has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide."

There's certainly a lot to look forward to with a new Sims game. How will EA and Maxis continue to improve upon the features introduced in The Sims 3?

There's also some cause for concern, though. Will Maxis and EA continue to push always-on DRM as it did with SimCity? The Sims has slowly incorporated more social features, so the next natural step would be some sort of multiplayer component. That sort of logic still hasn't been embraced with the SimCity crowd, but you'd think it would work with a game that revolves around social habits like The Sims does. Then again, didn't EA attempt that with The Sims Online? Perhaps, a Sims MMO was just too ahead of the times.

Maxis promised more information later today, but I'm expected we'll see some sort of full game reveal at E3 during EA's press conference.