Although rumours have been floating around for a while now, The Sims Stories has been announced today. This is a new product line of the Sims, which will be focused mostly on new players who are not yet too familiar with the game. The games are not compatible with any expansion or stuff packs of the Sims 2, but each game will be a standalone one. The main new features consist of a story mode, in which you follow a Sims' linear story as The Sims Division made it, but also its laptop-friendliness. The first story you'll play will be that of Riley who returns home to start a new life with new friends and experiences. The second story, which comes with Life Stories as well, is that of Vince, "a love-struck high-tech whiz who's been unlucky in love so far." You can continue their stories after finishing the linear mode in the classic freeplay mode. The games will have special hotkeys to make controlling the game easier than before. By default the game will also run in windowed mode, so you can switch back and forth to your IM or email programs easily.

So far three titles have already been announced: Life Stories, Pets Stories and Castaway Stories. Life Stories will be released January next year, followed by the Pets stories next summer. Castaway stories will be out in the winter of 2007/2008. Whether more story titles will follow-up Castaway is not yet certain. As the games are separate from the Sims 2, they will get their own website and community, and content from the curernt exchange will not be available for the Stories series. Of course we'll give you more information of the game as soon as we can. For now head over to the info page and check out the logos below.