The track "Arch of the Sims" from the The Sims 2: University expansion pack which plays during build mode, was later used for the Season 4 DVD gag reel of the TV drama Breaking Bad in 2012.

There is an unfinished and normally inaccessible aspiration called "Power" in the game. It has some similarities to the "Popularity" and "Fortune" aspirations. Some NPCs and premade deceased sims appear to have this aspiration, and it can also be assigned to a sim using the Sim Modder cheat object.

Many features introduced in the expansion packs, like weather from Seasons and driving cars in Night-life, were going to be in the base game. However, due to an office server room fire in Maxis, the data for these and many others were lost.