According to this IGN article, The Sims 3 may in fact, already be in development. From the article:

design outfits Gamma Ray and Feng Zhu Design listed The Sims 3 among the projects to which they're contributing. (The title has since been removed from both sites.) ... the design work that the above companies would contribute usually comes early in the development process, meaning The Sims 3, if it's in the works, is likely still years away.

Interesting, though I can't say I'm surprised. It's unbelievable how much one single franchise can be milked, but hey, they give the people what they want. :rolleyes:

Of course ea would be planning or even beginning the initial development phase, it won't launch for a while but you've got to make a start some time.

Exactly, it's interesting that we already have initial reports, though. I still say they're milking it for all it's worth, but it's what the people want...

It's been in development since the release of The Sims 2.

I don't know what more they can do, I'll just await the next expansion for now.

I wouldn't say they're milking it since in its first sequel, it's already made a mass amount of changes. It's the expansion packs that milk the franchise, not the original or its sequel

There are still a tonne of things that I want improved for the Sims 3.

Global aging: Everybody in the neighbourhood should age the same amount, no matter who you are playing as. This would gett rid of those weird time warps, where one of the sims you don't plays ends up knowing 15 generations of a family that you do play as, and having relatives that should have die a long time ago. Familys around the neighbour hood should have random deaths and new children, aswell as changing jobs, moving house and getting married to other sims.

Actuall growth: Hair that gradually changes length, getting longer. Same for sim aging, instead of growth spurts every couple of "years", have the sim model gradually change from baby to child and so on.

Better house building: It would be nice to have the option of building the current simple way, or a more advanced way that would allow for things as simple as curved wall, to more complex things such as getting rid of the grid and having custom length and angle walls.

Well, thats not many thing, but they are massive, and would improve the game even more than the Sims 2 did over the original.

Yeh, I suppose the expansion packs milk the franchise way more than the sequels and such...

Anyways there are still quite a lot of awesome things they could do with the next one, like Resident-Seven said. Real-time aging would be awesome... Also, it'd be crazy awesome if they could make a Simcity/Sims game where you can play it like SimCity and go into peoples' houses as well and control individual sims.

Anyone else have any ideas?

I've got an idea, how about when you sell your house, you could have an auction for it?

All the other neighbourhood sims would gather around and bid on it, how much you'd get could be completely random or only get 1 bid. Then whoever wins the bidding war, those neighbours move in there and you might have some extra money to buy additional things for your new house. I loved the usage of it in Theme Park (the original 1992 game) when selling your park so you could move to another one. It just added that extra excitement

Also, the more advanced building option would be good. Perhaps actually seeing your sims physically build your house and having the same problems people have in real life (though still sparing the technical details). Think of it as Tim Allen's Home Improvement show.

And how about controlling your car too when you go to work? There could be a running timer and you'd have to try and arrive to work on time. Though that could be a recipe for disaster if applied as it could be like Tony Hawk's Underground attempt. Bad driving physics and no damage model. Hmm, probably best not to do it at all..

What about more of an interactive approach when working? Perhaps doing actual activities to help achieve a promotion than the guesswork of "who should you treat first? the dog or the llama?" whilst working as a medic.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but The Elderscrolls III: Morrowind was in the works before they had even released its predecessor. I'm also pretty sure they were working on The Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion before the release of Morrowind.

I'd say we will see a fair few more expansions for the Sims 2 before the Sims 3 comes out.

'Open for Business' is the next expansion...

You've gotta be kidding me! Not another one...

In any case, I really should try getting back into The Sims 2, as I haven't played it in over half a year.

Well there was like 8 released for the original sims.

7 actually, Livin' Large, House Party, Hot Date, Vacation, Unleashed, Superstar and Makin' Magic.

Probable safe to assume there will be about 7 for this one too.

Seven, actually... :P Well, I suppose if you count the game itself then it's eight...

Livin' Large
House Party
Hot Date
Vacation
Unleashed
Superstar
Makin' Magic

They're still making money from them, too, selling them and whatnot... <_<

EDIT: dang it! beaten by like seven seconds >_<