The Sims 2 has lived a long and productive life. It was born, it made lots of friends, it worked at H&M for a period , and now it's ready to retire. In an email sent out to Sims 2 owners, EA claim that the game will "lose technical support" next week, on 22 July. As a concession to the game's owners, all copies registered digitally through Origin will be upgraded to the Ultimate Collection—a complete edition containing every expansion pack and "stuff pack" released for almost 10-year-old game.

"Your current version of The Sims 2 will lose technical support on 22 July 2014," wrote EA in an email, published on NeoGAF . "We want you to have the most up-to-date version of The Sims 2 in your collection, so you will see a brand new addition to your Origin library: The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection."

EA provide more info in a new FAQ page on their site. "The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection is going out to gamers right now," they write. "Everyone who had a digital copy of The Sims 2 will find the Ultimate Collection in their library within the next 5 days."

Hopefully the move will also prompt EA to actually sell the Ultimate Collection, too. The Sims 2 is, of course, a classic—despite its long and bizarre history of expansions—and it seems strange that it's not available for digital purchase.