The Sims 3: Simlish and Marketing

As we continue our mini-series of features marking the release of The Sims 3 this week, we follow up yesterday's interview with senior marketing director for the EA Play label, John Buchana with a peek at the crib sheet for the game's marketing plan.

Plus we've also gathered some statistics on one of the franchise's most endearing elements - Simlish - although quite how EA managed to convince a death metal band to re-record a track in their made-up language, we're not sure...

General Franchise Top Points

• Number one best-selling PC franchise in the world
• Number three best-selling franchise of all time
• Biggest EA franchise

The Sims 3 Marketing Campaign

• This title will receive the biggest Sims marketing campaign and biggest launch in the franchise's history
• The game will also see the biggest online, outdoor and social network spends for a Sims game
• This will be the first time that a music track will be used as a pre-sell item, featuring five exclusive artists
• This will be the first Sims game to hit the iPhone
• This will be the first simultaneous launch between PC and Mac
• Trial experiences will be used for the first time (see the interview with John Buchanan for more details): SimSidekick, SimSocial, and SimFriend
• A micro-transaction store will launch simultaneously with the game
• Consumers will be offered the first tangible value added reason for joining the game's community, in the form of additional content and Sim points)
• The Sims 3 was the first time fans were able to create content with pre-release code in order to be included in the game at launch