Well, this came out of the blue.  It appears that EA has teamed up with Gaikai – an online service in which you can play the latest games without having to download or install the game.  They are offering a pre-registration trial where you can sign up to be selected for a free one-hour demonstration of the game to give users a taste without purchasing it.  On top of that, if you like it, they’ll give you a 25% discount.  I’d like to have more details on this service – and I’m sure we will hear them soon – but for those that can’t run The Sims 3 on their current computer and would like to play, I’d consider giving this a shot to see how it’ll work out for you.

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Note – the fact that it says online doesn’t mean that this is The Sims 3 Online, but rather you need an online connection in order for you to stream the game from the Gaikai servers.