Huh. Despite the lack of any experience with OsX in the job requirements, I guess that could still very well be it. After all, their prior efforts of porting to Mac certainly reflected a lack of attention to well, actually working, so why break a winning streak?

It's probably just an expansion...the first expansion is usually a few months out and it's already been 2 and a half months...that and the fact that Sims 4 is already selling better than most people really thought...they probably won't work on Sims 5 for at least another year or two since they started on Sims 4 a year after Sims 3...even if they were working on Sims 5 they wouldn't just announce it like that...

Perhaps someone is leaving?

My guesses:
-The first Sims 4 expansion.
-Porting Sims 4 to another console, either the new gen PS4/WiiU/Xbone or the mobile market. Honestly, a tablet is the only medium I can see myself enjoying TS4 on, but that's only if they don't do the stupid "real time/money grab" thing again, which is very unlikely.
-They still wanna do the MMO thing, only they're finally smart enough to not do it in the main game branch.
-Some other spin off, like medieval, stories, mysims or some other new stuff. Simulation games like fantasy life, tomodachi and animal crossing have been extremely popular for the 3DS, so maybe a new stylised series for that console?

So pretty much anything but TS5, although after TS4 it would be smart of then to start the planning/making of the new instalment early.

Considering the amount of time it would take to fully develop a quality game, if they want to release a quality successor to TS3 by 2020 they need to get started now.

You know, I've actually started to like The Sims 3, but it is not what I'd call a quality game... It has a lot in it. But most of the content is either ill thought out, broken, not compatible with something in another EP the conent clearly should be, or pointless... It's kind of like Frankenstein's monster... A bunch of pieces of good sims games grafted onto an inherently flawed base game with little connecting the added pieces. Especially without the later expansions...

Heck there are still massive bug issues, and EA's no longer patching it... Not that it matters because I swear when they were patching it, all they were doing was inadvertantly making the game more of a buggy frankenstein of a mess...

You guys are so fickle! I don't post here as much as I used to because it's become a bit of an echo chamber. The HATE for TS3 was ridiculous but now you all think it's the most magnificent thing since sliced bread! Oy vey.

Anyway, regarding the post - somebody's probably left and they're advertising for a replacement. This kind of thing does happen, you know! No need to start with the conspiracy theories just yet!

I guess it's just for EP's.

We all know they are already working on the first EP's. If they are doing it like they always did, they are already working on 2 EP's. (Since there always were 2 teams working at EP's at the same time).

I guess we will get the announcement of the first EP 'Soon', since I guess that it will release somewhere between mid february/march 2015.

I highly doubt it's Sims online or Sims 5.

Lol they been working on Sims 4 since a year in on Sims 3? and the game still was not complete at launch? are you havin a laugh? LOLOLOL @ EAXIS.

@ Acid_fairy: Absolutely! these boards wer constantly SIMS 2 VS SIMS 3 and a lot of people hated the sims 3. Heck, even I didnt like the sims 3 that much, but now that the sims 4 is out, how those opinions have quickly changed.

I sure hope this doesn't mean there's a Sims 5 in the works... I'm not ready for that! I love Sims 4, and I hope they make ant least a few expansion packs with a TON of new features/content (beefier than the ones they did for Sims 3)

I would imagine that the teams for the first two expansions are pretty much set by this point. My guess would be a more hip, goal oriented game akin to The Urbz. EA is probably looking for a gateway drug to lure in players who are turned off by the sandbox/dollhouse idea.

I said quality successor to TS3, not successor to quality TS3. Frankenstein monster is an apt description of the mess EA made of the TS3 expansions.


TS3 did suck at launch; then along came Twallan.


I am.

No I think it was technically quite good quality compared with others in the series. Just the sims were kind of soulless. Sadly I don't think the TS4 emotion system has really come off in that way either. The Sims 2 still seemed to feel things more deeply and react in a more aware way than the TS4 sims. *even though Graham says they only looked like they were feeling things*

Yes. in that it was a virtual chat room. However, in Second Life, the experience is 90% user made, whereas TSO was not at all user made.

Guess it depends on what you consider quality... The Sims 1 and 2 were by no means perfect games, but they had a consistent charm, functioned, and seemed to have better thought out content.

Not to mention modding The Sims 1 and 2 was much more accessible... Something which it does seem The Sims 4 did right... For better and for worse...

TSO had a game to play, second life is just a sandbox. Well, apart from any games the users themselves manage to design in their own parcels.

In the end, it all comes down to how one reads the phrase "a brand new Sims title". To me it sounds too grand for an EP but I might be wrong. EAxis is certainly thinking about TS5 but, as far as I know, not in a very positive way; I don't believe that they started developing it already and I too wonder if they ever will.
Having read posts in this thread, two possibilities appear most plausible;

- An online TS4 game, parallel to the single player game we've got. I am sure that at least a fraction of EAxis CEOs never dropped the idea: they lost a battle but they intend to win the war. TS4 was turned into a single player game and it could be turned back, probably without too many problems. And two would certainly seem better than one to the company.
- Something like The Urbz. Everybody knows how big the combined console games market is and everybody wants a piece of the pie.

Personally, however, I am leaning, more and more, towards a PR trick. The introductory text mainly explains how good and beautiful the 25 years old EA is and how much she loves us; Duties and Responsibilities are tailored to suit almost everybody who knows at least something about programming. I don't know about gaming industry but for movie industry this is one of the oldest and most effective tricks in the book; it worked for Gone with the Wind and it sure works these days. Why not try it with The Sims as well? I am sure that long lines of proactive people are forming as we speak,

Interesting that the only language they mention is Python.

You know, I've never heard it described so aptly. I've been trying to wrap my head around what it is about the Sims 3 that bothers me and I think this is it. There's no interweaving threads, it's just a bunch of random things thrown together, a bunch of decent ideas tossed into the soup of the Sims 3 rather than actually mixed in to make a nice meal.

The Sims 4, for all its flaws, ruined the Sims 3 for me. Well, the Sims 3 ruined the Sims 3 for me with its terrible AI, but I've been a bit spoiled already by the ability to multitask. If they put that into the Sims 3, I'd probably go back in a heartbeat. I just wish the AI was a bit better...and that it ran better. It's a mess mechanically. I still wouldn't call it a good game, but it ended up being an ok package in the end, mediocre and not too offensive after you spent $400 on expansion packs. Even if none of those packs built upon each other.

That's because they were stressing the ability to write scripts, and Python is their go to for now. Clearly the position is not as a drone programmer, as then you would just need C++/#, and knowledge of Sims games is likely not even an issue.

The position sounds more along the lines of a producer, much like the current Guru population, where the "big picture" matters, and communication skills are paramount (I was amused by the requirement of being "Comfortable in Microsoft Word and Excel; can write clearly and succinctly" in the requirements, as who is NOT proficient with Word and Excel and looking for a job in anything these days, except maybe in retail sales or entry level manufacturing, if it even still exists in the US). They titled it Developer, but I have no clue where that falls in their current HR organizational structure, but it sure sounds like some level of producer as we're currently familiar with.

They do talk about the position interfacing with other "artists, animators, modelers, engineers, producers, and scripters to find creative and effective solutions to problems", so maybe it's like a producer, but different?

Bottom line, who the hell knows what they're up to over there. Judging from the verbiage thrown around in that posting, I think HR just makes up positions as they go along. Which, IME, is not uncommon with HR departments, either. You send them one set of requirements, and then smack your head on your desk when you see the posting they finally concocted and published for you.

The status is currently unknown. According to EA's latest quarterly report Live Services for The Sims 4 -- which could be “ongoing revenue from sources such as microstransactions, subscriptions, and downloadable content” -- are scheduled for FY2015. The French retailer who was accepting pre-orders sent out a letter to their customers last month telling them the product would not be available on October 10th as previously listed and the new release date is unknown. Poorly translated excerpt of the letter sent:

"You are receiving this email because you have a pre-order of the game “The Sims 4 Premium Service” off the release date has been passed as “unknown” on the part of the publisher. We have currently no new date, although estimates say “2014.” Source

RIP chat thread -- I miss you.

I think the word you're looking for (or HR is looking for) is 'Scapegoat'.

Yeah, that's probably what they're trying to hire. Because no one on the team right now is raising their hand and volunteering for that title. Even with a promotion, a raise, and an office with a view.

it grand theft sim that y no car in sim4

There are a lot of scripting languages, depending on what your need is. Honestly, I thought Python was a dead language. As for job postings, I work at UCSF and the garbage that departments pile into their job postings is....astounding seems like the word.