EA Challenges Zynga's Dominance with The Sims Social

Nearly five million Facebook users have signed up to play the new The Sims social game. The game published by EA and developed by PlayFish, debuted with 4,859,046 million monthly active users after leaving public beta. A little over 842,000 new users started playing the title today, with around 3,665,500 joining in the last week.

"When we created The Sims Social, it was important for us to incorporate the deep gameplay nuances The Sims Studio has perfected and leverage what PlayFish does best- develop compelling, cutting-edge social-gaming experiences," said John Earner, GM of PlayFish's London Studios. "Our deep knowledge of the Facebook gaming platform enables us to continue to enable dynamic new features, quests and game updates on a regular basis so The Sims Social remains fresh and fun."

The game has been in development since October and will offer items from advertising partners, such as Dunkin' Donuts, in game.

"The Sims Social brings the authentic life-simulation game design that only The Sims can deliver, and melds it with truly intuitive social-interactive features," added GM of EA Play Lucy Bradshaw. "The Sims Social gives our fans tools to express their creativity, experience the unpredictability of Sims' personalities and live out their dreams, all while enabling them to connect, engage and play with their friends."

Currently CityVille is the most popular Facebook game, with nearly 76,000,000 monthly active users. At its peak it had over 100 million. CityVille managed to gain 22 million monthly active users after 11 days on Facebook, and The Sims Social seems to be on track to challenge that figure. The point being, Zynga may face some stiff competition from EA if it continues to pump out franchises that are tied to its most popular games.

Source: GI.biz