In terms of competition, I feel like some are underestimating the power of the branding. A new IP has to come along and catch the eye of people in a way that any game with the Sims name on it already does. EA makes it seem like it would be easy for anyone to come along and make a 'Sims' style game, but a lot of their risk is already taken care of with their built in audience. A new IP from a different company has to start from scratch.
And let's be honest here, chances are that new IP is gonna be closer to Sims 1 than anything remotely like Sims 3. A lot of the gurus here have been here since Sims 2 days but new devs would have to build that experience from scratch too. That's not to say there wouldn't or couldn't be competition, but I feel like the Sims genre or series has to be crazy popular enough for others to want some of that pie, like how people didn't make battle royale modes until PubG got super popular.
