Executive Producer Rod Humble of EA's Sims Division recently got interviewed by GameSpot. The interview - naturally mainly about Pets - has now been published. Humble starts by saying how Pets is a result of what the community really wants. They try to make the first expansion pack in the year, the spring one (e.g. University, Open for Business), to be a new experience to the Sims fans, while the second expansion pack (Nightlife, Pets) focuses more on what the community wants to see in the game. The differences with Unleashed are also briefly mentioned, as well as why the Pets title is coming to all platforms at around the same time: to make the console franchise move forward a bit more. All platforms except Xbox or Xbox 360. Since the general focus is more on the next-gen console, Maxis decided to stick to all current platforms instead, excluding the classic Xbox since it doesn't make much sense releasing a game for that. In the future there will be next-gen titles though. The interview continues about the various games that are in the make, and the difficulty the Sims franchise is having on getting in the top 5 sales on consoles. Overall they do sell pretty good over time, but the handheld franchise is more popular still. Going on about the next generation consoles, Humble says that more plans will probably be announced in the next year or so. Small expansions using micro-transactions (purchasing objects for a small price, for example) for those consoles might be possible, though it's not yet determined in which way that'll work. Finally Humble talks about what Will Wright, the original designer of the Sims games, still means to the team, and where the franchise will go in the future. Many more details can be found in the actual interview.