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The Sims 3

The Sims 3 lets you immerse truly unique Sims in an open, living neighborhood just outside their door! The freedom of The Sims 3 will inspire you with endless possibilities and amuse you with unexpected moments of surprise and mischief.

release: June 2, 2009platforms: Macplatforms: PC
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The Sims 3

Overview

Game information

First release June 2, 2009
Platforms
Mac, PC
Developer
Maxis
Publisher
Electronic Arts

Release history

Release dates by platform & region

PC, Mac and console editions can have different regional launch dates.

Computer edition

PC / Windows

United States
Japan
Europe
United Kingdom

Regions without a recorded date or explicit release status are omitted.

140 Images
91 Sims
44 Tracks

Gameplay highlights

Key Features

New Seamless, Open Neighborhood - Explore the neighborhood freely.

New Seamless, Open Neighborhood - Explore the neighborhood freely.

Your Sims can roam throughout their neighborhood, visit neighbors' homes, and explore the surroundings. They can stroll downtown to hang out with friends, meet someone new at the park, or run into colleagues on the street. If your Sims are in the right place at the right time, who knows what might happen?!

New Create A Sim - Create any Sim you can imagine.

New Create A Sim - Create any Sim you can imagine.

New easy-to-use design tools allow for unlimited customization to make truly individual Sims. Determine your Sims' shape and size, from thin to full-figured to muscular - and everything in between! Choose your Sims' facial features, their exact skin tone, hair, eye shape and color and select their clothing and accessories.

New Realistic Personalities - Every Sim is a unique person, with a distinct personality.

New Realistic Personalities - Every Sim is a unique person, with a distinct personality.

Create realistic Sims with distinctive personalities. Select from dozens of personality traits and combine them in fun ways. The combination of traits you choose - brave, artistic, loner, perfectionist, klepto, romantic, clumsy, paranoid, and much, much more - help shape the behavior of your Sims and how they interact with other Sims. Your Sims can now rise above their basic set of every day needs. They are complex individuals with unique personalities.

New Unlimited Customization - Everyone can customize everything!

New Unlimited Customization - Everyone can customize everything!

Build your dream house or design the ultimate home. Customize everything from floors to flowers, shirts to sofas, wallpaper to window shades. It’s fun and easy to change colors and patterns giving you endless personalization options. Or you can populate your Sims’ neighborhood with pre-designed buildings and furnishings. Which of your Sims will live in high-end mansions, cool bachelor pads, ultimate dream homes or low-cost cottage?

Presentation

About this game

The freedom of The Sims 3 will inspire you with endless creative possibilities and amuse you with unexpected moments of surprise and mischief! Create millions of amazingly unique Sims by customizing their appearances and choosing specific personally traits. With all-new quick challenges and rewarding Gameplay, The Sims 3 gives you the freedom to choose whether (or not!) to fulfill your Sims' destinies and make their wishes come true.

Screenshots, renders, logos and covers

Image archive

114 images
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In-game screenshot of The Sims 3 showcasing custom stone and tile textures applied to outdoor architecture and flooring.
Screenshot of the user interface for The Sims 3 Create a Pattern Tool highlighting the layer management panels and color wheel customization options.
In-game screenshot of various furniture pieces in The Sims 3 upholstered with custom-designed patterns and fabrics.
In-game screenshot from The Sims 3 showing a Sim wearing custom-patterned apparel created with the design tool.
Monochrome concept art sketch of the very first design for The Grim Reaper in The Sims 3, featuring a hooded skeleton figure holding a scythe and casually checking a wristwatch.
Monochrome concept art sketch of the Business and Journalism rabbithole building from The Sims 3, featuring a modern multi-story glass architecture with angled skylights, steel framework details, and surrounding palm trees.
Monochrome concept art sketch of the Business and Journalism rabbithole building from The Sims 3, featuring a modern multi-story glass architecture with angled skylights, steel framework details, and surrounding palm trees.
Digital concept art of the Business and Journalism rabbithole building from The Sims 3 University Life, featuring a modern glass-paneled multi-story corporate architecture with distinctive blue reflective windows, angled skylights, and surrounding landscaping.
Monochrome concept art sheet from The Sims 3 base game showing a collection of early black-and-white perspective sketches and architectural studies for the Police Station rabbithole, featuring varied massing models, entryway designs, and structural layouts labeled "PoliceStation".
Monochrome concept art sheet from The Sims 3 base game showing a collection of early black-and-white perspective sketches and architectural studies for the Police Station rabbithole, featuring varied massing models, entryway designs, and structural layouts labeled "PoliceStation-1".
Monochrome concept art sheet from The Sims 3 base game showing multiple alternative perspective sketches and floor plan layouts for the Police Station rabbithole, featuring varied building footprints, entryways, and rooftop elements like a helicopter pad.
Monochrome perspective concept art sketch of the Police Station rabbithole from The Sims 3, featuring a classical municipal building facade, a prominent entryway shield emblem, rooftop communication towers, and front flagpoles.
Monochrome perspective concept art sketch of the City Hall rabbithole from The Sims 3 base game, featuring a classical municipal building with a grand entrance colonnade, grand staircase, a tall clock tower, and subtle blue shading.
Monochrome perspective concept art sketch of the Grocery Store rabbithole from The Sims 3 base game, featuring a two-story corner commercial building with an entryway, outdoor produce display stands, awnings, and architectural detail notes.
Monochrome perspective concept art sketch of the City Hall rabbithole from The Sims 3 base game, featuring a classical municipal building with a grand entrance colonnade, staircases, a tall clock tower, and surrounding flagpoles.
Monochromatic blue digital concept art from The Sims 3 base game showing an alternative nighttime design for the Stadium rabbithole illuminated by bright spotlights, featuring celebratory fireworks bursting in the sky above the modern arena building, surrounded by parking lots, trees, and paths.
Monochromatic blue digital concept art from The Sims 3 base game showing an early isometric design for the Stadium rabbithole, featuring a large modern arena with a rounded rectangular roof, glass paneling, a grand entryway, surrounding parking areas, and trees.
Digital full-color concept art from The Sims 3 development showing an early, more rural interpretation of Sunset Valley's coastline circa 1900, featuring a rustic wooden cottage and pier in the foreground, a winding dirt path, a distant lighthouse on a cliff, and a small fishing boat on the water under a warm golden sunset.
Side-by-side comparison concept art from The Sims 3 development showing two stages of a coastal Sunset Valley landscape, with the bottom panel displaying early terrain blocking featuring bare rolling hills and water under a sunset, and the top panel showing the same vista fully realized with details including a rustic coastal cottage, a wooden fence, flowers, and a distant lighthouse.
Vibrant digital color concept art from The Sims 3 base game showing an isometric layout of a country-themed bedroom set designed by Norm Felchle, featuring white wooden furniture with carved floral patterns including a four-poster bed, wardrobe, bedside tables, and a dresser, alongside a patchwork quilt wall hanging, lace curtains, a dark patterned area rug, and a small vanity table.
Digital color concept art from The Sims 3 base game showing an early design for the Science Lab rabbithole, featuring a sprawling complex with a large geodesic dome, twin smokestacks, a tall radio transmission tower, a gear emblem on the side wall, an atomic model fountain in front, and the text "careers in... Science!" in the lower right corner.
Digital concept art from The Sims 3 base game showing an early design for the Criminal RabbitHole, featuring a dilapidated, run-down multi-story brick warehouse with boarded-up windows, overgrown vines, barred doors, and technical drafting lines under a dark night sky.
Black-and-white digital storyboard concept art from The Sims 3 base game showing four comic panels depicting humorous interactions between Sims and Magic Gnomes, featuring a gnome acting innocent under a "Loves You" sign, a crossed-arm gnome under a "Hates You" sign with a defaced portrait, a gnome dancing in front of speakers, and a gnome watching a Sim get pranked with a bucket of water over a door.
Black-and-white digital concept art from The Sims 3 base game showing early design sketches of mischievous Magic Gnomes in various humorous scenarios, featuring a gnome leaning over a fish tank, a passed-out gnome surrounded by bubbles and bottles, a gnome nearly getting run over by a car, and an elderly gnome wearing 3D glasses while holding a large drink and popcorn bucket on a sofa.
Digital concept art from The Sims 3 base game showing a lineup of six character states depicting different ghost types and causes of death, featuring a living Sim on the left followed by variants for natural causes, burning with warped charring, drowning dripping in water, electrocution crackling with lightning bolts, and starvation in a gaunt skeletal outline.
Vibrant full-color digital concept art from The Sims 3 base game showing a bustling town center in Sunset Valley, featuring the grand red-brick City Hall building with a clock tower as the centerpiece, surrounding commercial storefronts including an early clothing store, a central plaza with a fountain and benches, parked cars, lampposts, and rolling green hills under a bright sky with hot air balloons.
Black-and-white pencil concept art from The Sims 3 development dated 2006, showing four full-body sketches of the same female Sim at different fitness and body weight levels, ranging from heavier set on the left to lean and muscular on the right, wearing a tank top, capri pants, and heels.
Black-and-white digital concept art from The Sims 3 base game showing an early isometric layout for the Military Base rabbithole, featuring a fenced military compound with a towering space rocket launchpad, satellite dishes, guard towers, a bunker entrance built into a central mound of earth, and concrete vehicle tracks.
Digital full-color concept art from The Sims 3 base game showing an early aerial layout of Sunset Valley, featuring an isometric view of a town square with a large classical administrative building at the back, early business rabbithole towers on the left, brick commercial buildings, a central plaza with a fountain, roads, trees, and distant hills under a clear sky.
Black-and-white digital concept art from The Sims 3 base game showing an isometric layout for the graveyard venue, featuring a fenced perimeter with an arched entrance sign, scattered headstones and crypts, a central mausoleum building, a winding dirt path, a pond with a statue, and sparse trees.

Sims in this game

Characters

Households connected to this game

Families

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Neighbourhood content

Worlds & lots

Lots

Traits and aspirations

CAS encyclopedia

Traits

Aspirations

Official and archive videos

Trailers & videos

Developers, publishers and SIMusics artists

Credits

785Development credits
1Publishers
19SIMusics artists

Complete development team

Credits organized by department

Open a department to browse its teams and the exact function recorded for each person.

785
Leadership & Production 45 credits

Product Development

1

Development Directors

8

Executive Producer

1

Senior Producer

1

Lead Producers

2

Lead UI Producer

1

Feature Producers

15

Online Producers

3

Vice President

1

Development Director

1

Lead Web Producer

1

Producers

6

EVP / Studio Head

1

SVP / COO

1

Manager Sims

1

VP North America Operations

1
Design & Gameplay 13 credits

Specification Writer

1

Lead UI Designer

1

Designers

5

Design Interns

2

Text Writer

1

Lead Web Designer

1

Web Designer

1

Tuning Team Lead

1
Art & Animation 45 credits

Lead Animator

1

Animators

10

Lead Character Modelers

2

Character Modelers

3

Lead Object Modeler

1

Object Modelers

4

Lead Concept Artist

1

Lead Character Concept Artist

1

Concept Artists

2

Lead Outsource Modeler

1

Lead Outsource Skin Modeler

1

Outsource Modeler

1

User Interface

1

Lead UI Artist

1

UI Artists

6

Iconographers

4

Visual Effects

1

Additional VFX

1

World Building Team

3
Engineering & Technology 99 credits

Technical Art Director

1

Tech Lead Animator

1

Technical Artists

4

Technical Art Intern

1

Lead Engineer

1

Technical Leads

6

Engineering

44

Additional Engineering

12

Engineering Interns

6

Technical Director

2

Engineers

8

Systems Engineer

5

Associate Systems Engineer

1

Tech Support

7
Audio & Music 55 credits

Audio Director

1

Voice Director

1

Sound Designer

2

Audio Asset Manager

1

Asst Audio Asset Manager

1

Audio Interns

2

Voice Actors

9

Voice Editor Lead

1

Voice Editors

3

Recording Engineer

1

Additional Audio

6

Executive Music Producer

1

Senior Music Supervisor

1

Music Supervisor

1

Music Licensing Manager

2

Music Composed By

1

Stereo Object Music

7
Sasha

Stereo Object Music

Guitar Object Music

3

Foley

3

Additional Voice Editors

7

Additional Recording Engineer

1
QA & Testing 171 credits

Development Testers

2

Senior QA Test Lead

2

Embedded QA Test Lead

3

Embedded QA Testers

23

Director WWQA

1

Director NAQA

1

Senior QA Manager

1

QA Project Manager Sims

1

Senior QA Project Lead — The Sims

1

QA Test Leads

3

QA Assistant Test Lead

1

Senior QA Testers

7

Tuning QA Testers

2

QA Testers

95

QA Shared Services Manager

1

QA Compliance PM

1

QA Compliance Test Leads

3

QA Compliance Testers

4

QA Project Lead

2

QA Assistant Test Leads

3

QA Support

2

QA Administrator

1

Senior QA Lead

2

QA Lead

2

QA Manager

1

QA Test Lead

1

IET

5
Localization 127 credits

Localization QA Assistant Test Lead

1

Localization Test Project Managers

5

Localization Managers

5

Localization Supervisors

5

Localization Coordinators

15

Translations

20

Localization Testing Team Leads

51
Joy Dey

Localization Testing Team Leads

Mats Holm

Localization Testing Team Leads

Localization Producers

25
Sky Lin

Localization Producers

Leon Li

Localization Producers

Lin Li

Localization Producers

Marketing & Community 24 credits

Community Team Manager

1

Community Managers

2

External Web Development Team

3

Marketing and PR

17

VP Marketing

1
Customer Support 50 credits

Customer Support Senior Directors

1

Customer Support Product Management

7
Ben Jones

Customer Support Product Management

Customer Support Business Development

5
Aaron Blum

Customer Support Business Development

Customer Support Technology

9
Ed Ball

Customer Support Technology

Customer Support Operations

13

Customer Support Agents

15
Operations & Support 7 credits

Talent Manager

1

Talent Coordinator

1

Administrative Support

4

Operations Project Manager

1
Mac Development 30 credits

Mac Development

30
Special Thanks 93 credits

Past Contributors

43

Special Thanks

49

Team Thanks

1
Other Credits 26 credits

Art Director

1

Additional Art

4

External Art Development Team

4

UI Art Director

1

Video

4

Direction Development Leads

2

IP Ms

4

IPM

1

Asia Mastering

4

NA Program Management

1

Publishing

Publishers

Companies responsible for publishing and distributing this release.

1

Electronic Arts

Publisher

Music archive

SIMusics artists

Artists linked to tracks preserved in this game’s SIMusics album.

19

Ladytron

SIMusics artist

3 linked tracks

Sasha

SIMusics artist

2 linked tracks

Open the complete credits directory

Tracks and radio archive

Simusics

Tracks

44 tracks

SIMusics tracks
#GenreGameListen
1Barcarolle From String Quartet In D MinorJoseph SukClassicalThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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2Divertimento In D MajorWolfgang MozartClassicalThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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3Watermusic Suite Nᵒ 1 F majGeorg Friedrich HandelClassicalThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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4Piano Quintet In A 2nd movmentFranz SchubertClassicalThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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5StandchenCesar FranckClassicalThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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6Symphony No6 In B Minor 2nd movmentPiotr Ilitch TchaïkovskiClassicalThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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7Postal RitneyJacen TouchstoneElectronicaThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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8Rockfalls & EstuariesLadytronElectronicaThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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9She Stepped Out of the CarLadytronElectronicaThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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10Young EtrusciansLadytronElectronicaThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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11Groove onJunkie XLElectronicaThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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12DistressedJunkie XLElectronicaThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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13Gluten KingJunkie XLElectronicaThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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14MilkweedSashaElectronicaThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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15Born AgainSashaElectronicaThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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16Sta MoogieEric PressleyPopThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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17Dillis GomEric PressleyRockThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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18ArcadiaEric PressleyRockThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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19Podie TieEric PressleyRockThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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20Cat & MouseDarell BrownRockThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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21The Best you gotDarell BrownRockThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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22Last but not leastDarell BrownRockThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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23Feewa Foona WabeeDarell BrownPopThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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24I won'tDarell BrownPopThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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25Don't you cryDarell BrownRockThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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26Na MaaDarell BrownKidsThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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27Wa GackDarell BrownKidsThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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28Be gronkDarell BrownKidsThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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29Nimbo Helba Bob Queek WelpDarell BrownKidsThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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30Wan Nee FeelaDarell BrownKidsThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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31Rumba Sa SulRebbeca MauleonLatinoThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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32Salsa Salsa KRebbeca MauleonLatinoThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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33Bossa Da Neeba DooRebbeca MauleonLatinoThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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34Tango Dun Na NoobRebbeca MauleonLatinoThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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35Candombe WaayoRebbeca MauleonLatinoThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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36Cha cha Minga TicamiRebbeca MauleonLatinoThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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37Da LinnipEric PressleyPopThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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38RamoonedEric PressleyPopThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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39Blame it on meFloor ThirteenAlternativeThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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40I love LAYoung Dre The TruthHip-HopThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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41Punches, Kicks, Trenches & SwordsPint Shot RiotAlternativeThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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42RevolutionBang CamaroAlternativeThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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43The other sideDexter FreebishAlternativeThe Sims 3No streaming links yet
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44The Sims 3 Theme songSteve JablonskyThemeThe Sims 3
SpotifyApple MusicAmazon MusicDeezerTIDAL
1:55

Wallpapers and downloadable archive files

Downloads

Open downloads archive