EA updates The Sims 3 Pets Console Development

With the release of the console version of EA’s The Sims 3 Pets drawing nearer, development is wrapping up on the stand-alone The Sims 3 title for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

“We are pretty far in development now,” explained George Pigula, an Assistant Producer on the game. “We are not yet final but we at the point now where we’re working on a lot of tuning polishing bugs and making the game look really great now that we have all of the great content in.”

The content includes hundreds of different breeds of dogs and cats as well as the neighborhood itself and its residents. Unlike the Sims 3 Pets PC version of the game, which features a rural town setting, The Sims 3 Pets for consoles has a New England-style setting.

While the console version lacks the horses that the Sims 3 Pets PC version has, there are a few exclusive features that EA believes makes up for the equestrian exclusion.

“The console version has extra features that are in there such as the karma powers. We have the mysteries, which allow you to go through these quests throughout town and discover a lot about the town,” said Pigula.

Pigula went on to say that the development team decided to add the extra features to the console version to give console players more things to do.

“We wanted to make something that applied to their play styles with story telling, achievements, fulfilling challenges, and doing all these tasks,” he explained.

Finally, EA has stated that console gamers who currently have the console version of the core The Sims 3 game will not be able to import their already-created sims and families into the console version of Sims 3 Pets as the two titles are completely stand-alone and independent from one another. Console gamers can, however, import sims from the official exchange content sharing network that EA has set up online for The Sims players.

The Sims 3 Pets for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is due to release this Autumn of 2011.

- Game Guy Barry White bcwhite@news10.net

News10/KXTV source for EA updates The Sims 3 Pets console development.