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I just bought the Sims 3 for Mac; both EA and Apple tech support are closed, so I thought I'd try here. The game will not install; I bought Leopard (10.5.6) and got the update (10.5.7) to meet system requirements, but I get an X over the install icon and an error saying "the architecture is not supported." EA tech support said that there was some patch I must be missing. What could it be?

I'm glad you decided to ask us here at Filetonic. I hope the information I found can help you solve this problem even if EA and Apple don't offer solutions that will help at this point.

If misery loves company, then you must be feeling pretty good right now. A quick look around found a lot of Mac users who are having trouble installing and running Sims 3, but some people have proposed workaround solutions that have worked for them.

Sims 3 Requirements for Mac

First off, are you sure you meet all of the requirements? You do need Leopard 10.5.7, so it was a good move to get that. You also need 2GB of RAM and 6.1 GB free hard drive space and at least 1GB of additional space so that you can save games and have space for customizations. Sims 3 won't run on systems that are using Power PC processors or Intel GMA 950 class of integrated cards. If you have all of the right components and you still can use Sims 3, then look below and see if any of this applies.

Rename

One user says that he had success by simply renaming the Sims 3 folder as well as the application. He inserted "_" into the name (without the quote marks) and was able to launch the program.

Workaround

It is also suspected that there is something missing in the Sims 3.app folder structure that is stopping the program from running. Try this workaround. Go to Applications and find "The Sims 3". Right click on it and select Show Package Contents. From here, you should be able to go to Contents and MacOS. Double click on "cider". A Terminal.app window should open and launch the game from here. Apparently this is the only way around the problem at the moment until the publisher of the game issues a fix.

This is such a new launch that there are bound to be issues, but I can see how frustrating this would be for you. I hope that one of these tips is your "aha" moment and you can install and play the game. Let us know how it goes, and if EA or Apple offered any other ideas.