According to our affiliates at WorldSims The Sims 3 has been delayed until June 2 of this year. Apparently a press release went up on the official Sims 3 site earlier today, which got removed again shortly thereafter. More definite news is expected in about an hour (2PM PST), during EA's quarterly conference call, but it looks like 2 June will in fact be the date. The information seems genuine. Simultaneous to the PC release, the Sims 3 will be out on Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch and mobile. Note that 2 June is the US release date: in other countries the game may be released a few days later. We expect the UK and most of Europe to get the game at Friday 5 June.

[Update] It's official, the press release is out. Read more here. During the conference call EA CEO John Riccitiello remarked that in the last quarter, EA's titles did not perform as expected. As stated in the press release, EA wants to raise more awareness for The Sims 3 in the extra development time. EA will launch a worldwide marketing campaign that The Sims 3 deserves, according to Riccitiello. This falls in place with a new strategy to invest more time and effort to be really innovative with the marketing. The move of The Sims 3 (and other EA titles) means that instead of fiscal year '09, the game will be out in fiscal year '10 (April 2009 to March 2010). EA does believe that The Sims 3 is the most important title of fiscal 2010.

Along with this news, EA has published three new screenshots and a trailer, as well as a new box shot for the regular and the collector's edition. The first box shows that the PC and Mac versions will both be on the same disc. Click the thumbnails below for large versions.