The Sims 4 announced, always-on netcon not required

The next installment in EA's life simulation series, The Sims 4, has been officially announced.

The game is in development at Maxis and will be hitting PCs and Mac sometime next year.

EA's put up an official announcement post on its website -

"The Sims franchise is fueled by the passion and creativity of its millions of fans around the world. 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."

TheSimsHub, a Sims fan site, has put up an extended version of EA's announcement which reveals that the game won't require players to be connected to the internet in order to play it.

"The Sims 4 celebrates the heart and soul of the Sims themselves, giving players a deeper connection with the most expressive, surprising and charming Sims ever in this single-player offline experience," it reads. "The Sims 4 encourages players to personalize their world with new and intuitive tools while offering them the ability to effortlessly share their creativity with friends and fans."

Maxis' recently released SimCity was subject to a lot of negative reactions because of the game's always-on internet requirement.