Interview with the man in charge
There is a great interview on gamespy with Rod Humble, the man in charge of the Sims franchise. The most pleasing part of the interview for me was him acknowledging how frustrating load times can be:
The biggest thing that annoyed us, frankly, were the loading times.
The only disappointment is there is still no word on a release date beyond ‘some time next year’. My guess is it will be later in the year rather than earlier.