SOURCE: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical...p/8271641#M5813

Do you think if Microsoft stop supporting 32-bit applications, we may get a 64-bit version of The Sims 3 for PC?

Wow. Could have knocked me over with a feather when I read that. In fact, I checked the date three or four times to make sure today wasn't April Fools.

It's very good to see EA putting some effort into making the mess of game that TS3 for Mac has become continue to work. But I'm not reading where they are really making a 64-bit version of the game no matter how they refer to it. Forgive me for being skeptical, but what they might be doing is tricking the current 2 GB limited mess into running in a 64-bit only environment. But if they have really, over ten years later now, finally decided that the crippled Cider implementation that had been holding the Mac version of the game back all this time was not worth trying to service anymore and they really are spinning up a redo, that would be a fascinating turn of events.

It is also totally not clear what patch level this game will be at and how tight the Origin control will be, thus leaving open the possibility that mods intended for 1.67/69 may present issues on it. But I'm now looking forward to playing the Mac version of the game again to see what this thing they are creating is gonna do (or not do) once it's released.

It's tough to say honestly. I feel as though EA is only doing this because a fair amount of people still prefer TS3, and they could potentially be losing money since it's still pretty popular.

Also, Apple has made it clear for some time now that they're catering to people who can afford to pay premium price for their products. So, it makes sense for them to go 64-bit since Macs aren't known for gaming in the first place. Windows, on the other hand still has in incredibly large and varied ecosystem. Not only with gaming, but business as well. And backwards compatibility is still a concern for both. Gaming, because there are still many older games out there that run on 32 bit architecture, some of which will probably never be updated to support 64 bit. And businesses because many of them have been running on a 32 bit infrastructure for years and it would be a fairly big and costly endeavor to update everything they're running. It's why many companies were still running XP for years after Microsoft was done with it.

It's also not clear when Microsoft would drop 32 bit support if assuming they do so in the near future. Which, again, I don't see happening. If it ever does happen, it would probably be pretty far off from now, long after TS3 would be profitable for them to update.

OH MY GOD!!!

Sorry, does this mean I can play the Mac version on my PC or that I absolutely must get a Mac? I would get a Mac just to play TS3 64-bit. Literally the full potential of The Sims 3 UNLEASHED

No, neither Mac version of the game will run on Windows if that is what was meant. Sorry, but I still have to suggest some caution over how we are to interpret what EA is doing and one might want to wait to see just how 64-bit ish (this is a word?) the new version will be. But either way, those of us who have been playing on a Bootcamped Mac so we have both the Mac and Windows versions available to us on the same machine now get something interesting to wonder about. Guess it's a bit too early for "told you so!" and other gloats of that nature.

It's just an update to the Mac version of the game exclusively at the moment, meaning those who actually play on Mac. It's being done because Apple is dropping 32 bit support completely, so people that play TS3 on Mac won't be able to play until EA does this update.

What remains to be seen, as igazor stated, is whether this is a true update to 64 bit or simply more or less tricking the game into working with 64 bit like they did with Cider way back just to make it work on Mac.

I find this hard to believe b/c they will have to reprogram the whole thing to make it 64 bits. If it was something so easily doable they would've done it a while ago.

I think what they're saying is they'll make a Mac version that "runs" on a 64bit machine, which suggest they'll use some sort of bridge interface to run the 32 bit on a 64 bit platform and calling it a 64 bit Sims 3, though it really isn't 64 bit.

They said that the minium specifications will be ADJUSTED so we'll have wait and see if they're truly making a 64-bit version or just making the 32-bit version run on a 64-bit platform somehow.

Keep in mind when The Sims 4 was released it wasn't 64-bits either. It took like 2 years to get a 64-bit update if memory serves. The Sims 3 is still being played by thousands monthly and it's always in the top selling games on Steam (LINK). So EA is still making money with The Sims 3. Releasing a version that runs better on modern systems would be a good way to get even more sales since there's clearly an interest even 10 years after release.

But that was an update for a game still being developed. TS3 is no longer actively developed or maintained by a dedicated team of people. Things like this are most likely done with a small skeleton crew specifically for handling this sort of thing. EA has also been on record for saying that they don't tend to do remasters or long term updates for games that have finished development since they want to "focus on the future", even for popular games or franchises. I'd bet that the main reason that they are doing this is so the help center won't get flooded with reports of "my game doesn't work!!" for people who don't know what's going on. Look at TS2, a game that will be 20 years old in about 4-5 years. It's still going strong and some still consider it to be superior to everything that came after. But EA doesn't seem to care. They won't even sell it on Origin, and it arguably has fewer critical issues than TS3 out of the box, or at least things that can be remedied easily.

This is why I personally am skeptical as to whether this is an actual update to 64 bit or not. It doesn't make sense, for EA at least, to put in the amount of work needed to truly update this game's architecture to something better in every sense of the word. Yeah, it would definitely suck if they're doing the bare minimum once again, but it's what I expect from them at this point.

This doesn't sound like an upgrade, just a compatibility patch. Either way I'm impressed they'd bother. But my money's on the game not being upgraded to actually take advantage of the hardware.

Maybe I'm giving EA too much credit...

they probably just recomple the executable with 64-bit flags (bad idea if they won't reprogram RND (and more), which make this scenario rather stupid and really complicated), you know what will happen when 32bit word expected will be delivered to the method as 64-bit one... a great fun, indeed; or just put the 64-bit runner which will be acting as container for the 32-bit application; strategy which actually works. Not really benefitial in any way in regard to the possibilites of 64-bit architecture (it may be even detrimental for the efficiency if done wrong) but at last the Mac users should have the game without 2GB limitation, but with full 32-bit address area (if they have enough of the RAM in the 1st place ofc).

I am really hype for this despite I didn't own Mac at all.

I find weird that Sims 3 wasn't 64 bit to begin with, it came out in 2009 64 bit was mainstream back then. Also will there be a 64 Bit Sims 2 as well?

When the game was developed and released, the current Windows operating systems were Win XP and Vista. Win 7 wasn't out yet. The users on XP 64-bit and Vista 64-bit were very much in the minority back then as I recall, it took things (and users) quite a while to switch over from 32-bit environments.

To state again, we have no evidence that EA is making a 64-bit version of the game. What they are making, we have to believe, is a compatibility patch so that the game as it now stands will run in a 64-bit only environment. The Mac version has been so crippled and held back since the beginning, but we have no idea if this new patch or version will improve things or lift the limits as to what the tricked out game can do in any way. There may very well still be a 2 GB limit (Cider) or a 4 GB one (32-bit programming) on RAM in the end, although the latter will at least be some improvement over what Mac users have now pre-Catalina.

Aspyr did the port for TS2 into the macOS. They are also independently of EA working on making a version/patch for that game that will run in a 64-bit only environment (Catalina and whatever follows).

This. But I'd be really mad if Mac got a version of TS3 with better support than what we have on Windows.

I risk to get this thread derailed, but on top of what Igazor already wrote, I don't know of ANY game or any other casual use Windows software back in 2009 that was 64 bit. On the contrary, actually. I still remember that at that time, when Vista was the newest Windows and even for some time after 7 was released, it was suggested to keep on 32 bit even if your CPU can handle 64 bit architecture, unless you have 4 GB RAM or more, and virtually no one had at that time. So, as sad as it may seem now, ten years ago it did make sense for EA to make The Sims 3 32 bit.

^ I got a PC back then with Vista (64 bit, I think) and 4GB RAM, and that thing was meant to be used for rendering and gaming (simming, anyway - mostly TS2), so I'm guessing we're pretty on-spot. I think I may have had TS3 on it as well.

I do wonder if they'll ever release 64-bit versions for other formats than Mac. I'd like versions of both TS2 and TS3, at the very least something that makes them run better on 64-bit without having to jump through so many hoops.

It reads as if it is just a fix so that TS3 runs on that upcoming MacOS Catalina version. A compatibility fix like others mentioned. The DLC will be updated too, because they have their own executables. It does not change anything for people on an older MacOS version. Only for when they upgrade to the upcoming MacOS Catalina.

Interesting bit we can take from this, is that apparently TS3 still sells well enough to warrant a fix.

I don't have a MAC, but I've subscribed to this thread because I am waiting for someone to come and report on how well this fix worked for them. But I'm worried. Every time EA announces something that looks like it would be a really cool idea, they seem to mess it up somehow. I really want them to prove me wrong here.

And one day we, should we all live so long, or our descendants will look back on this using our 512-bit browsers running on 1024-bit operating systems and laugh. Or at least wonder what all of the fuss was about.

Actually, after the nuclear apocalypse, we'll be more than overjoyed to know a guy who knows a guy whose cousin found a working Amiga.

So we're finally getting a 64-bit version of The Sims 3... except we're not really getting it because it's only for Mac...

Seems Maxis lost just about everything except their sense of humor.

To be fair, EA and Maxis ignored the Mac version of Sims 3 and the mess it is (which is worse than the Windows version, from what I've heard) for so long that the Mac users deserve better version. But if they will get such version or if they will simply get a compatibility patch that may also force the infamous 1.69 Windows patch features, which no one really want except for Maxis, on Mac users, we'll have to wait and see.

Why? If you buy it for the worse platform you get the worse experience, seems pretty fair to me. Who in their right mind plays games on a Mac anyway? I'd understand if we were talking about Linux or one of the consoles, but Mac? Gimme' a break, Apple is basically the Supreme of the consumer electronics market.