Just because EA can still sell The Sims 3 'as-is' doesn't mean it wouldn’t benefit from updates. The game has major performance issues, even on modern hardware, and mods are doing what EA won’t. If they’re still making money from it, why not invest a little to make it run better? It would keep players happy and likely boost sales in the long run.
Just my opinion, but it would probably take releasing a 64 bit version of the game. I'm down for that, but unless Microsoft stops all support for 32 bit OS then it's not likely to happen. I'm sure people would flock to Sims 3 if that was the case and they would probably lose more sales of sims 4 than they would get from sims 3.
