Household meters are the drama in The Sims, the 2000 PC phenomenon Will Wright and Maxis built around ordinary needs. Hunger, comfort, hygiene, and friendship tick down in a house the player furnishes, and a neglected Sim will refuse to perform.
The cube release is a separate console game inspired by that PC sandbox, not the same open-ended neighborhood on a disc. Console life has its own goals and a tighter house, while the computer original is the freeform toy people meant when they said the title.
The cube household still runs on needs and objects. It simply is not the PC phenomenon copied bit for bit onto a disc.