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Prerelease:The Urbz: Sims in the City (GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox)
This page details prerelease information and/or media for The Urbz: Sims in the City (GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox).
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The Urbz: Sims in the City spent a whopping four years in conceptual stages and development, originally going into limbo during the first few years. It had also planned to be a spin-off for The Sims franchise, where Electronic Arts wanted to release multiple ports and merchandising but was cancelled due to sales not meeting their expectations.
The first preview wasn't shown until Summer 2004, where the game felt very different. A few noticeable changes can be seen, such as characters having different appearances and different District layouts.
Contents
Development Timeline
2000
- Feb-May - The Urbz is first pitched.
- Sept - The Urbz begins development.
2001
- Mar - The Sega Dreamcast version of The Urbz is dropped, due to the console's fated discontinuation.
- Sep - The Xbox and GameCube versions start development.
2002
- Jun - Development is suddenly put on hold due to the cancellation of SimsVille and small staff.
2003
- Mar - Development for The Urbz is resumed.
- Sep - Development steps up even further when Electronic Arts merges the team with those who previously developed The Sims expansions.
2004
- Apr - The Urbz is officially revealed by Electronic Arts, with a Fall 2004 release.
- Nov. 9 - The Urbz is released in North America.
Pre-Reveal
After the massive initial success of The Sims in 2000, Electronic Arts wanted to bring the game to the console market. But rather than a port, they wanted to make a spin-off hoping it would evolve into a sub-series for the franchise, so The Urbz was pitched a few months after the game's release.
The game started development in late 2000, around the time when the Livin' Large expansion pack came out and was originally supposed to be developed for the PlayStation 2 and the Sega Dreamcast with a 2001 release window. It had suddenly entered Development Hell due to the cancellation of SimsVille in late 2001, the ill-fated discontinuation of the Dreamcast in March 2001 and the lack of developmental resources where they only had less than 200 staff.
At that time, development was broken up into three groups; one to focus on The Urbz project, one to focus on The Sims 2, and one to focus on the expansions for The Sims. It was also when the The Urbz's development slowed down drastically. Development wouldn't pick up until late 2003, where EA decided to merge both teams working on the The Urbz and The Sims expansions after the latter's concluded development on Makin' Magic.
The sequel to The Sims for consoles, known today as The Sims: Bustin' Out would eventually come out in late 2003 after being developed for an impressive five to six months, as it uses the engine created by Edge of Reality. After development for Bustin' Out concluded, development for The Urbz project stepped up even further.
2004
April 2004 Reveal
The Urbz was officially announced by Electronic Arts in April 2004, with a release date stated to be later in the year. The Windows version of the game was the first to be shown and advertised by Electronic Arts, due to it being more polished than the other versions. At that time, that incarnation of the game had been in development for over a year and a lot of things were completed before being cancelled at the beginning of 2005.
June/July 2004 Preview
The first handful of Urbz information was officially posted to IGN on July 15, 2004. At that time, Urbzville was known as Urbia, Gasoline Row was known as Gasoline Alley and Skyline Beach was known as 125th Street. Some screenshots were first posted on IGN and a handful of differences can be spotted within the photos.
An early variant of Central Station. Kidd Chaos had a different hairstyle and clothing style while Genghis had a lighter skin tone. The stairs leading down weren't present in the final.
Another early variant of Central Station. A cut character known as "Tiny" can be seen in the picture.
Early Gasoline Row. Harry Snivel had a thinner, muscular body, different shoes and hairstyle at this point in development. Venus Moonflower had no makeup or glasses and lacks clothing detail and accessories.
An early variant of Skyline Beach. Mazuiko Jackson had blue hair compared to blond in the final. The bulldog from 98th Ave, 3rd Floor can be seen, meaning you were likely supposed to take them out at somepoint or they served as decoration.
Another early variant of Skyline Beach. The seats were different, the fighting cage wasn't present in the final and the Ferret Packing job was moved to another part.
Yet another early variant of Skyline Beach. The skybox wasn't present, and it seems that skill-building objects could be placed in districts.
An unknown location, likely the early layout of Cozmo Street. The main building looked completely different and the bulldog was still present.
Fall 2004
Scrapped PlayStation Portable Port
A PlayStation Portable version was planned for a release in 2005, but it got cancelled due to poor sales. According to some lost leaked screenshots found on a portfolio site in 2008, the game was pretty much a port of the PlayStation 2 version except with lower-resolution graphics and draw distance. A Sims game for the PlayStation Portable using The Urbz engine would eventually come out in 2006 as The Sims 2 Pets.
