- The best selling pc game ever is about to hit the stores, relieved the hard work is finally over?
Yes a lot of work is finally over, in fact this morning (day before official release) I was still getting e-mails about the Mac version software update that finally worked. It was really up to the last minute we were working on it.

- How long has the idea of a seamless neighborhood been around? Was it something that

was originally thought about for The Sims 2?
I think the idea was completely new. We were thinking of things we could improve and the one thing that took the players out their experience were the loading screens. Especially when you had a slow computer it was frustrating to wait 1-2 minutes before you could play again. So we created a world for The Sims 3 without, or as less possible, loading screens.

- Can you tell me something more about the interactions between your Sims and the neighborhood?
Yes, your Sim is constantly in interaction with the town and vice a versa. For example when a friend of you dies, you’ll see a warning on screen which will result to a slightly more depressive Sim. Actually I have to tell you something funny that happened in an earlier stage of development. We bought our Sim a life prolonger, so he could get much older than all the others. But all his friends began to die because of elderly and my Sim became really depressed. He stayed home for days, stopped eating and committed suicide at last.
But yes there are a lot of other interactions between Sim and town. You can visit all the places in town, you can steal from others,…

- Which is your favorite new feature of The Sims 3?
Ooh, there are so many. I think if I have to choose one then I go for the statistics we added to the activities. For example, you can track how many fishes you’ve caught and which breed of fish. If your Sim is athletic you can see how many sit-ups he has done, or how far he’s off of running a marathon, etc.

- Do you think The Sims 3 has new elements that will attract some more hardcore gamers?
Yes, I think the fact we added statistics to everything you do will attract the hardcore part of gamers. Hardcore gamer like to see how their character evolve, how good you are at some things and then like to see the progression of their work.


- Not that a game like The Sims 3 needs it, but will there be any online functionality?
Actually, there's quite a bit. We're not an online game, but you can upload houses, Sims, patterns, movies, and screenshots easier than ever to share with friends. Furthermore, we're giving players awesome new tools like the online video editing tool that lets you edit movies. It's really cool and so easy to use. I've made so many movies and I cannot wait to see what people with talent (our fans) come up with.

- It’s almost inevitable, but are there some expansion packs coming our way for The Sims 3? If so, which one is next?
It looks like you are familiar with The Sims franchise ^^
Yes there will be coming new expansion packs, but we still don’t know which one first.

- You probably already know that a leaked version of The Sims 3 is spread out on the internet two weeks before the release of the game. Will EA punish the consumer by adding DRM and other irritating software or is it going to reward the players that actually bought the game?
Yeah it was very sadly to hear that it was already leaked on the internet. But we are not punishing the consumers who bought the game, certainly not. The honest buyers of the game are rewarded with extra privileges and extra stuff like a new neighborhood named Riverside and we gave them a coupon of 1000 Simpoints (€10) which they can spend in de the Sims Store for extra items.

- And my last question: Which Sim do you prefer: A rich, attractive one without husband or a poor, ugly Sim with a family?
(Laugh) I think I have to choose for the family side. I like to have a kid(Sim) and see how he grows up and turns out to a fine adolescence. And yeah girls like the family dream and the nice house…

Thank you very much for your time.