New 'Ambitions' expansion pack for Sims

(GAMESPRESS) - The EA Play Label of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that The Sims™ 3 Ambitions Expansion pack* is in development and will launch in June 2010. As the second expansion pack to The Sims 3, the best-selling PC game of 2009**, The Sims 3 Ambitions allows players to pursue a variety of exciting paths and careers in their Sims’ lives that in turn affect their overall gameplay experience and neighbourhood. While on the job, the player has direct control over their Sims’ work and can choose how to spend their days. Players can opt to make house calls and save lives as a doctor or choose the devious route and test experimental medicine on patients be the hero firefighter tackling raging infernos or smashing everything in sight at the victim’s home with an axe; or take a shot at solving cases as an investigator, nicely convincing sources to divulge secrets or roughing up perpetrators in a dark alley to get information.

“ The variety of careers to choose from is unmatched and we’ve never given players the opportunity to follow their Sims to work and affect their actions on the job,” said Scott Evans, General Manager of The Sims Studio at EA. “ The Sims 3 Ambitions changes that. Players’ actions at work now directly affect their lives, community and neighbours and become an extremely important part of how the game is played.”

Players can now experience some of the most exciting and varied jobs. In The Sims 3 Ambitions, players can choose to hunt down vengeful spirits as the ghost hunter, invent brilliant and potentially destructive gadgets as an inventor, craft glorious masterpieces as a sculptor, and solve riveting cases by any means necessary as an investigator with dozens of cases to solve and numerous clues to find. Additionally, players will be able to change the look and feel of their town by becoming an architect and directly affecting the neighbourhood around them leveraging Build and Buy mode. The stylist career and new tattoo system allow players to make over their Sim neighbours in fashionable or catastrophic ways. For the first time, players will be in charge of how their Sims’ career progresses and decide if they will work for good or evil, pursue creative endeavours or technical affairs, climb to the top quickly, or be a slacker. The future of a Sims’ success or failure is entirely in the hands of the player.

The Sims 3 Ambitions will also be available for feature phones, iPhone and iPod touch in late 2010 from EA Mobile™. These versions will have customized mobile gameplay features which will be revealed in the coming months and will not require a base game to play. For information on carrier availability and pricing for all EA Mobile games, please visit www.eamobile.com.

For more information about The Sims 3 Ambitions or The Sims 3, please visit www.TheSims3.com. Developed by The Sims Studio, The Sims 3 Ambitions for PC/Mac has not yet been rated by the ESRB.

*Requires The Sims 3 for PC/MAC to play.
**According to NPD data.

The Sims 3 Ambitions Q&A with Grant Rodiek, Associate Producer on The Sims 3 Development Team

QUESTION: Can you tell us a little bit about The Sims 3 Ambitions.
The Sims 3 Ambitions allows players to control their Sims while they are at work in a variety of new careers. Instead of sending your Sims off to work all day, The Sims 3 Ambitions lets you pick a career like firefighting, investigator, architect, ghost hunter, stylist or doctor and then guide your Sim to make choices and succeed (or fail) every step of the way.  You can also make your Sim a tattoo artist, sculptor or inventor.

QUESTION:  Just how popular are careers with the fans? Is this something they have been asking for?
Career gameplay is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time and it’s something that our players consistently request. We always strive to do something new that hasn’t been seen in The Sims before.  We’re especially excited about the fact that the in-depth careers really offer something for all types of players.  Storytellers will love solving mysteries as an investigator or resolving the problems of the afterlife as a ghost hunter. The “gamers” will enjoy being the hero as a firefighter and saving civilians as the doctor. The team cannot wait to see what the Builders and Sim creators make with architect and stylist careers.

There’s a lot of depth and variety here for every type of Sims player.

QUESTION:  Exactly how does the career based gameplay work in Ambitions? 
The Sims 3 Ambitions is about your Sim’s personal venture. Each career presents a unique experience.

Firefighters need to develop relationships and maintain their equipment while at the firehouse. But as soon as that alarm rings they need to get to the fire, clear rubble piles, carry out children, stop gas leaks, put out the flames, and be the hero. Your town may fall victim to small fires, huge infernos, and even earthquakes.

Stylists will be hired by neighbors to offer fashion advice and provide partial or complete makeovers.  You can choose to make Sims look really good or just terrible. It’s a lot of power to put in the hands of our more deviant players, but the ability to give the entire town a facelift is fantastic. And profitable!

Using the tattoo chair in game (or at the local Salon) your Sims can tattoo their neighbors with both fantastic and questionable body art, for a price, of course.

The Tattoo System is an incredibly powerful new creative tool for our players. Players can apply multiple tattoos in up to five layers, scale them, change the colors, and even modify opacity. Players can also upload and share these tattoos on the exchange, giving our community yet another creative outlet.

There’s a lot of variety!