As reported by Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, several sources have confirmed that the playtesting session for The Sims 5 is supposed to begin next week on October 25. The source also shared the full text of the invitation email from Electronic Arts, claiming it has received it from those who have already been invited.
According to the email invitation, the upcoming playtest will only provide access to a certain section of The Sims 5, which is currently known as Project Rene. During the playtesting session, players will gain access to a mechanic known as Workshop, where they get the ability to customize different objects and use them as decorations in a home or an apartment. Maxis, the studio behind The Sims, asks players to get creative with the tools provided in the Workshop mode and share their creations or inspire by other players' works in the game.
Apparently, the playtesting session will allow players to join together and experience the Workshop mode with their friends. Maxis does make it clear that Workshop is only a single aspect of what Project Rene will grow to become, and as you can guess, it doesn't represent the final product at all as things are subject to change based on the player feedback.
Project Rene was officially confirmed during a recent The Sims Summit, where Maxis shared brief footage from the upcoming title's gameplay for decorating homes in the game. As expected, the game is still away from its full launch, and will probably remain under development for a few more years until a full announcement with a final name appears for it.
For now, EA and Maxis will continue to support The Sims 4 until the successor is ready to be launched. As you may already know, EA has not revealed anything about the planned release window or the target platforms of Project Rene so far.
While the playtesting session is expected to be under NDA, we can probably expect some leaks from the Workshop mode in Project Rene as soon as the playtesting begins next week. Of course, that would only be possible if the claimed information from the source turns out to be true.