Danish site GameReactor has published a short interview with Sam Player, executive producer of The Sims 3 on consoles and InfiniteSims was kind enough to help translate it into English:

With The Sims there are always fun things in the game, but mostly it is outside the player’s control. We decided that it might be fun to give the players some control. Many players The Sims, especially on consoles in small periods of time, and Karma Power allows the player to achieve and have more fun in a shorter time. Of course we have to keep the game strategic, as this is part of the gameplay, so the player does not feel that the game has changed completely when playing on console.. It is of course why we have added Karma Points, which opens up this ability in the game, but does not change too many aspects.

continue reading in English at InfiniteSims

continue reading in Danish at GameReactor