Electronic Arts’ The Sims has been a popular and successful franchise for more than 10 years. Players can manage virtual people and their environment in the virtual world of this single player game. The game doesn’t really have any goals or an ending, which is one of the reasons why the game has become a casual gaming hit.

EA tried to launch a multiplayer version of The Sims before, but The Sims Online, was not very successful. It seems EA is ready to try again, this time on Facebook. EA announced at E3 2011 that it will release The Sims Social on Facebook.

Electronic Arts says the game cannot be compared to The Sims Online, as all virtual inhabitants in The Sims Social will be real players and there will be no AI-controlled characters.

The game will initially be free to play for everyone, while EA is still searching for the right payment model. There might be micro-transactions or mini-transactions, for instance when players want to do a certain quest or want to obtain a certain item. There could also be a fee for changing the appearance of your character.

The Sims Social will be co-developed by Playfish, EA’s social gaming studio that has already worked on many successful Facebook games.

Experts also expect that the game can be played on your smartphones, such as the iPhone, HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S2, very soon.