EA Announces Second Sims 3 Town News

EA has announced that a second town for The Sims 3 called Riverview will be available to download from the game's product website on launch, which will be June 5th in the UK.

The game's other online features were also detailed alongside this Riverview announcement, including info on the title's movie mash-up tool and news of how every player can get hold of $10 (£6.80) worth of SimPoints when they first boot up the game.

Each player is entitled to these free SimPoints, which allow them to buy items from The Sims 3 Store to customise their game, but they'll have to register their copy of The Sims 3 before EA hands over the virtual simoleons.

It makes us wonder whether this is EA's way of combating piracy without the use of DRM and we assume that gamers will have to register to get the additional Riverview town as well. If the promise of money and real estate doesn't stem the flow of piracy then we don't know what will.

The Sims 3's launcher will provide an instant portal to the game's website, which will include everything from a hub for the game's movie mash-up tool (that will allow players to edit their in-game movies and then post them online) to a social networking style My Page feature.

Combined with the My Studio feature, My Page allows players to create their own avatar, exchange objects with other users, post news in the customary blog style, and manage their various creations.

"With such a vibrant and active community as The Sims has, we wanted to build even further on the already immense offline experience, by offering players additional functionality, content and tools available online through the game," said Ben Bell, Executive Producer of The Sims 3. "One example of the many online tools we've added to the game is the Create a Movie tool. Within the game, players can easily set up the camera angle they want, capture in-game footage, play director and producer and then post their movies online to show off to the world."

Role on June 5th...