The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff

The Electronic Farmyard writes: A few amazing facts regarding our Virtual Neighbourhood A Decade later. The EA Play Label of Electronic Arts Inc. announces the celebration of the ten year anniversary of The Sims, the groundbreaking game that allowed players to create and live a virtual, simulated life on a computer. Since the original The Sims debut on February 4, 2000, the unstoppable, award-winning franchise has produced three core games – The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3 – supported by dozens of expansion and stuff packs with lifetime unit sales eclipsing 125 million worldwide. As the best-selling PC game* in nearly every major video game market worldwide, The Sims has continuously reset the bar over the past decade delivering new content, gameplay elements, platform support, and partnerships that resonate with its global fan base in meaningful ways and take the play experience to new levels of fun and entertainment.

GI.Biz writes: Electronic Arts has promoted Rod Humble to executive vice president and head of The Sims Label at EA. Under this role, Humble will be responsible for The Sims Label, while the former The Sims head Nancy Smith will manage special projects until she begins a new executive role at EA, yet to be announced. Like Nancy Smith before him, Rod Humble has demonstrated strong leadership in defining EA's The Sims brand as a stand-alone product label. Rod has great creative instincts, uncompromising quality standards, a deep connection with the player community, and most of all, the respect of the team he works with, said John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts.

GamesIndustry.biz reports that the US PC chart was once again dominated by releases from Blizzard and Electronic Arts as The Sims 2 Apartment Life expansion pack made it to the top of the list for the week ending August 30. According to the latest data from NPD, the World of Warcraft: Battle Chest came in at second, with The Sims 2 Double Deluxe taking third place. The original World of Warcraft title was fourth, with the Spore Creature Creator in fifth, followed by the only non Blizzard/EA title in the top ten - Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm from Greenwave was in at number six.

GamesIndustry.biz writes: The Sims 2 Double Deluxe was top of the US PC chart for the week ending August 2, according to the latest data from NPD. That was followed by Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice and World of Warcraft: Battle Chest in second and third places. The taster to the forthcoming Will Wright title, Spore Creature Creator, was fourth followed by the original World of Warcraft release and the IKEA Home Stuff Expansion for The Sims 2 in fifth and sixth.

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Electronic Arts and Vivendi are dominating sales of PC games in the US, according to the latest data from NPD. EA's budget title Spore Creature Creator is the top seller for the week ended June 28, with two other EA titles ¿ The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff Expansion and The Sims 2 Double Deluxe ¿ at two and three in the charts. Vivendi's World of Warcraft Battle Chest is at four, with the original World of Warcraft at six. Sandwiched between the two is Eidos' plucky upstart MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

If you haven't purchased all the expansions or you have and want some new tricked out gear for your sims, the folks at EA have launched The Sims 2 Store Beta for online shoppers in the U.S. and Canada. Right now there are about a 1000 items to choose from with more than 100 of them released exclusively via The Store. Look for constant upgrades to The Store over the next several months. Will we see a slick conversion for The Sims 3? Check back for more details as they are released. For now, click through for a look at the press release:

Highlights this week include Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox 360/PS3), Alone in the Dark (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PC) and The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff (PC). Check out the full list of new video game releases (USA) for the week of June 22, 2008 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS, and PC!