The issue is that they don't want to work for their money.

Every single business and every single person works so they can provide a service to society. Right now we're all sitting in office chairs, typing on keyboards, and using computers sitting on desks, and not a single one of us produced or constructed these things. Some people none of us know helped make these things, and it's thanks to those people that we can all communicate. We cannot thank them directly, but we can give back to society in our own way by working a job and providing society with goods or a service. Money? Money is just a means of making transactions go more quickly and conveniently (rather than having to trade milk for meat or wheat for cotton or the like), as well as to provide incentive to the more self-serving members of society to actually work.

What EA is doing is they've completely forgotten the purpose of their existence is the product and the service, not raw money. There's this story that the founder of LEGO had one of his sons helping him closely to produce their products, and one day his son figured out they could save money by using less paint and making less-detailed toys that have an easier/simpler paintjob. The founder was outraged and considered that to be crossing the line, precisely because this prioritized money and profit over the quality of the service. He went through and refunded all the customers that had gotten the toys with less detailed paintjobs and basically taught his son a lesson about never utilizing such tactics.

That's exactly what EA does now. Money and profit at any cost, including consumer satisfaction and product quality.

Mobile games with microtransactions are exceedingly simple to produce. Just look at what they are: one brief animation and some number adjustments, then activate another timer the player has to wait on. Compare the depth to the Sims 2, 3, or 4. All of them have a simulation running 24/7. They need AI, they need animations for anything the Sims might touch, they need a time and weather/daylight system. A mobile game needs none of this. They can basically fire the ENTIRE staff in charge of programming Sim AI or simulation, and because much of the content is locked behind microtransactions or time waits, they can even get away with less build mode objects. And of course, every single asset in that mobile game is taken directly from Sims 4. They aren't making anything new, just copy-pasting assets we've already paid for.

What's more, I've pointed this out multiple times before on the forums, but go load up and check ANY Sims 4 pack from Fitness Stuff or later. Every single one of them has a choppy animation somewhere. For Jungle Adventures it's when they put the relics together, for Laundry Day it's simply interacting with the washing machine, for Fitness Stuff I think it's falling off the climbing wall (I forget since I've only seen it in a vid and it caught my eye), and there's at least one occurance of these in every pack for a solid year now. Those choppy animations may not seem like much, but they're actually the first tip-off that had me thinking Sims Mobile is our fabled Sims 5. You know what doesn't need as fluid of animations as a Sims PC game? A Sims Mobile game. They probably actively told the team to cut corners and save money on less-fluid animations precisely because their end-game is the Sims mobile anyways, and fluid animation won't be noticeable there. They don't care about how bad it looks in Sims 4 because Sims Mobile is the goal.

There is a difference in being pragmatic and realizing you need money to survive or simply being a frugal penny-pincher. What EA is doing is going against the entire system of supply and demand or more coin for more work. They aren't penny pinching, they're trying to figure out how to reach deeper into our products. They aren't earning that money either, they're just openly exploiting a blind fanbase. This is their bread and butter: look at how many beloved franchises they've bought out, then they've simply marketed and relied on consumer-brand loyalty to sell the game while making no effort to actually make the game any good. And then when people catch on and realize the franchise is a shadow of it's former self? Time to murder it and go find another beloved franchise to buy out, exploit and eventually murder. They simply sit there like spoiled children and demand more coin for less work, simply because they feel they can get away with it. There is no spike in the demand side of supply and demand, but rather they realized a good chunk of consumers are dumb enough to demand ANYTHING with the right label on it regardless of quality. I've said it before: the only difference between the Sims 3 Store and Sims 4 Stuff Packs is the Sims 3 Store didn't sell. Someone figured out they just needed a nice shiny "OFFICIAL" label on all those chairs and table lamps, and lo and behold a fool and his money are soon parted. Every single focus point on EA's end is all about how to get more money for less work, whether it just be re-branding or re-marketing old ideas or blatantly cutting content to see how much can go before sales are affected.

And yeah, I actually meant what I said: I actually question if that Guru from the other page is trying to convince herself her job on the mobile team is more valuable than it actually is. They all tend to throw marketing statements around to try and rebrand bad moves (AKA "we're not greedy sons of bitches, we're trying to spread the joy of the Sims to those poor mobile users without computers!"), but that one sounds more for her benefit than the consumers. It sounds like something she needs to tell herself so that she can keep waking up and do that job. Likewise, I question if the increased ban rate (I keep seeing a lot of bans when I poke my head in) aren't a result of the same: perhaps it's comforting for the staff to not have to face hard truths, so they remove them and that helps them lie to themselves about this game and it's future. I think at this point the bans play a role in some of the fans turning on them (which is happening), but they're too lost in their own little plan to somehow make this mobile game work that they don't see how terribly things are going.

Problem with lying to yourself though is it's a self-imposed blindness. It is blatantly clear at this point they're just gonna milk Sims 4 to the bone and then Sims Mobile is gonna bomb and disappoint....clear to everyone except EA and their most die-hard fans. Those undying fans will be rewarded for their self-imposed blindness with an empty wallet and a disappointing experience, whilst EA itself will be rewarded for it's self-imposed blindness with a TERRIBLE investment (Sims Mobile) alongside even more infamy for finally killing yet another beloved video game franchise, with this one being the most beloved of all that they've ever killed.

I'm just glad that at least in this case, it looks like EA has absolutely overshot and underestimated fan reactions by a catastrophic longshot. This is going to damage them, and it's going to damage them big. They're in the process of murdering their biggest cash cow, and for what...? The 0.000000000001% chance that terrible mobile game succeeds. Yes it sucks to see the Sims die, but omg I'm gonna love watching when EA suddenly realizes one of their most reliable income sources is suddenly gone due to downright idiotic management.

Why would you love watching it go down due to poor management, @DeservedCriticism?(btw, are you Reap?) The Sims means a lot to some folks. I mean, just look at the official boards; there are shut ins and people with serious health conditions for who this game is a bit of a life replacement. Yes, some of them are in denial about quality decreases and the mobile threat but that denial is their compensation for the fear of losing their beloved game. I feel bad for them, not gleeful that a corporation is ruining a game many people love.

*****

TL;DR version:
I'm not happy. Grr, Ea! You suck EA, you ruin everything. You suck too Maxis! The Sims 4 is no fun unless it's modded into a different game entirely, one with tiny serial killer druggie fairies and dangerous vampires who go clubbing on Sixam with aliens, a robot mad scientist and his cat-sized giant rat that sounds suspiciously like a raccoon. I hate mobile games! Not-yet-old woman shakes fist at clouds shaped like Rachel Franklin surrounded by dancers and Grant Rodiek resting on a doghouse roof.

Lengthy self indulgent rant version:
Hi

I've been following the conversation here from time to time ever since Sims 4 dropped, mainly 'cause I didn't recognize my Sims - it had morphed into a kiddie game with hand holding and no bad scary things - and while I was not happy it seemed like a lot of folks were, so I went searching to see if I was the only sad puppy who wondered why the Sims looked and played a bit like a high end mobile game. I was suspicious that there were more changes coming, and not fun changes. Changes like Sims popping up on phones as a dress your digital dolly for real money game kind of changes. Now here we are, a few years later than I expected, and the rumor is mobile-only is coming?

I bought every pack from Sims 3 - Yeah, even that pack. I like my cupcake bras and banana split sofa, thank you very much. - have all the store content (no, I didn't buy all of it myself. I'm not completely insane. Yeah, INSANE - it's a valid word EA) and ended up owning all of Sims 2 via gifts before that. I wanted to love Sims 4. The Sims is my baby, I love it like chocolate chip waffles and don't ever get between me and my chocolate chip waffles. But, so far, Sims 4 is no waffle, not even a plain, frozen one. If I didn't have a sim-loving friend supplying me with packs in a desperate attempt to make me smile like a creepily joyful Sims 4 sim I wouldn't have the game on my laptop.

I mean, the simmies are cute; if a person was into crafting exaggerated cartoon characters (which I admit I enjoy) or making pretty, pretty sims (which isn't so much my thing) CAS is the best so far but there's nothing to do with all those characters and prettiness once they're created. I tried to build some lots for my sims to visit but soon realized there wasn't much in the way of interactive objects to add. The nightlife venues are all the same. The kids have what for their parks? - the base game climbing and giant shopping mall play area apparatus and ...talking? Chess? It's the same for the toddlers, minus the chess and plus a goofy ball pit. I wanted some diversity to send them all out to experience, I'm not into playing homebody sims, but ended up with mostly restaurants since that's the most interactive thing going for community lots.

It isn't like I haven't tried options. I have all the big game changing mods. The height sliders, Basemental, Sacrificial's stuff, Nyx's supernaturals and Triplis' sorcerers, Wicked Whims, MCCC, Icemunmun's gameplay mods, Zerbu's Go To School, Roburky's emotion retooling, the gameplay/annoyance killer mods from Scumbumbo, Coolspear, LittleMsSam and Bienchen plus more cc than I can ever use and even with all that I'm still bored by the game as it is meant to be played. I use the options provided by the aforementioned mods more than the actual game content (I love my tiny serial killer druggie fairies). Why mention this? Because if the Sims transitioned entirely to mobile then all that we get is the vanilla EA version, no mods and cc.

For me, the Sims is all about the modding/cc options. I open up every mod I download and alter it to suit my preferences. CC goes right into Sims4Studio before it goes anywhere near my game. I write my own mods too, and also mess with the game files as needed to take care of little irritations like EA taking away the bowler hat for men and the Parenthood sleep pants. I don't want anything to do with a point and click, real time, event happening, unmoddable mobile sims game. I play Sims as my own little world full of craziness. I don't especially want other folks peeking in at it or trying to change it up. I don't want to be locked into the experience EA decides I should have. I sure as hell don't want my sims to get flirty with some dude sitting on his (talking?) toilet in Spain and a ten year old German kid bored in maths class while I'm furiously clicking away at daily tasks on my mini screen and trying to avoid accidentally retiring my sim or buying a $100 real world money pixelated patio set in The Sims Mobile. EA can shove that experience into their damn weirder stories giant telescope where I'll never have to see it.

There. I feel better now. Rant over.

Wow, you took the words out of mouth. Impressive sir, specially the last part. Is exactly how I feel. Imagine those execs, they only understand $ and marketing/sales tools and jargon, they don't see at the player level. They really don't and that might be just their demise. They forgot their roots, what EA provides (supposedly was fun and games). Might as well become an online casino at this point...

I must admit all this news is discouraging me from playing the sims at all, after the annoucement then release of My First Pet SP, I presumed at least things couldn't get much worse, but obviously I was wrong.

Lol some people hated sims 3 too, is not like sims 3 was the pinnacle of the series. Will Wright checked out the door when sims 3 was looming for some reason. Imo sims 1 and 2 are the best, specially 2, and weirdly 4 is more fun for me than sims 3 (pudding robotic faced sims in a boring empty world, couldn't get into, plus the annoying launcher/installer).

First time I lay eyes on this (new?) guru, what the...? What kind of completely useless, irrelevant and condescending talk is that? This is the way simmers are talked down upon from now on? I took the liberty to translate those tweets into what they actually are saying:

“Everybody’s a simmer in our eyes, also people who hardly play Sims and prefer playing some kind of ripped off version we just slapped the name ‘Sims’ on to make money. Remember they have a voice too and you know what, you don’t anymore (because it’s so much cheaper and easier for us to cater them instead of you lot, the ones who want to play daily and on good computers with all your tiring expectations and wishes) so we’ve decided to completely abandon you, bye bye.”

The series has no pinnacle, just 3 great versions loved by many (and differently appreciated due to different preferences and playing styles). And 1 boring joke. The last one. With, in fact, the most robotic characters in the whole franchise.

Will didn't even work activley on TS3 (he acted more like a consultant) he was making Spore at this time and left when that flopped. Not because it flopped but he didn't feel that he could bring his visions to life anymore.
EA higher-ups activley supported that few people at Maxis that wanted Spore to be a cute game (they believed it would sell better=more $) instead of a realistic one. (Will's vision)

Can EA now just end this misery and call it a day? Better sooner than later.

Couldn't they've at least given the seasons. All I wanted was the seasons. Then pulling the plug on sims 4 is ok if it's a must.

I don't want the Sims to go down due to poor management, I want EA to go down due to poor management. There's a difference.

Basically, if someone sells me a computer that doesn't work? I have no reason to "hate" the computer or to wish it to do worse. It's an unthinking, unfeeling product that could accomplish a lot when it works well. As a rule, we as people want that computer to succeed and we want bad products to succeed because we're the ones that have something to gain when they do. On a practical level though, obviously some of us don't sit around waiting and hoping for the computer to magically repair itself and suddenly obtain a lot of great, revolutionary new features, but rather we rationally recognize it probably won't ever improve if it's creator is a greedy asshole. Same thing with Sims 4.

A company? That's built by people that think and plan. If they made a shoddy computer in hopes of just pocketing my money real quick and running off with it, yes, I absolutely want this company to face consequences for it, whether those be legal consequences or consequences where they fail on the market because consumers catch on. They are no use to me or anyone else, their plan is selfish and sucks, and honestly if they were removed from the market, it might increase consumer chances of buying a working product or give way for a better competitor to take place. I have to ask honestly here: what service does EA provide to the public these days? It's certainly not quality games. They've been producing money-grabbing failures for over a year now. They've always had a bad reputation for periodically producing cash grabs, but this past year has practically been a 100% cash grab ratio ever since Mass Effect Andromeda. They have become leeches on society, more or less.

Yes, I'm sure they have a marketing team that's very good at what they do and works very hard. I'm sure they've got very talented developers on staff, too. I personally liked what I saw of SimGuruEmory and I believe I saw him credited with Vampires, and that's the only pack I thoroughly liked. I'm sure there are plenty of individuals of value there, but their talent is wasted there and even used for ill-intended purposes. Kill the company and set them free so their talents can be put to good use elsewhere.

I absolutely, 100% want the Sims' failures to hit EA and hit it hard. I am not wishing for the Sims to fail, I'm simply acknowledging that all signs currently point to the Sims being reduced to a mobile game with Sims 4 never improving. And if and when it does fail, I want it to take EA down with it and leave it with a sizeable scar across their wallet. Luckily, that's looking like it will be the case, since what they're effectively doing is refusing to improve Sims 4 and denying the opportunity to make a Sims 5. They seem all-in on Sims Mobile, and Jesus Christ what a terrible bet. Get the popcorn ready.

Well this is just tragic innit?

What the fuck, EA.

Why do I get a feeling that at EA Play will showcase Seasons as the last EP and that will be the end of TS4 PC era?

Your comment doesn't deserve so many reds disagrees clicks... What your saying is actually true, Of course not everyone like TS3 and prefer sticking to the past games or to TS4 for good reasons. Though, never had a sequel sucked so much and felt a massive downgrade with the prequels. That's hard to deny also. I'd admit, I do really wish to see TS4 end sooner, but I'm not sure If what I'm wishing for the better good of us. If TS4 ends, what's next? We aren't guaranteed that TS5 will be created (since EA might be too blind to see it with their new platform project, and the waking call to them might not come any time soon) and we aren't sure there will be a competitor as there isn't any no blatant hint some other reputable corporation is planning to make it (I'm not buying the ticket for the hype just for my hopes to be shatter when Paradox brutally announce they aren't gonna make one). It might take ages or years until somebody would dare to revive/challenge the series. Simmers will eventually need to come to accept the fact and terms that (if) there will not be any sequel and they will have to stick playing with what they have (TS3/TS2/TS1). It's unfortunate, but hey, eventually the franchise will need to come to an end. I know I sound like a downer, but hey we still have the modding community to keep the games running and stable for as long as someone takes the wheel (again, a competitor). I feel so sorry for all loyal TS4 fans and the whole community that's looking forward ahead of the time tuned that have some strong feelings with what's going with the franchise, that feel pure disappoint with where our beloved game is heading.

I never played Freeplay, but it was still on my phone. Yesterday I deleted it.

I encourage all Sims players to delete Freeplay and Sims Mobile. If the response to the news that Sims is going to be entirely mobile in the future is that thousands of people delete the game, maybe that will wake up EA.

As someone who did hate TS3 when it first came out, I can attest to this. I remember it being loathed by a big chunk of the community....at first. The hate was there but it was nowhere near as intense as TS4. There were occasional scuffles but the community didn't turn into the toxic cesspool that it became with TS4. The seeds were planted for laziness, cut corners, and corporate pandering. But they didn't fully blossom until TS4. You needed mods for anything even remotely resembling a fun and functioning game. But I need a lot more mods and CC to enjoy TS4 than I ever did with TS3 (Note. I said need. Not want. My mods folder in TS3 may be bigger. But most of them are mods that I want. Not ones that I need. I cant really think of any TS4 mod that I have that isn't a necessity)

While I do play both games regularly anf while TS3 is FAR from perfect and even further from being a functional game, I can now at least appreciate the effort that was put into making it. It was a game that SCREAMED ambition. The devs were taking risks and doing things they hadn't done before. For the most part they paid off. It may be a pain in the ass to run but I still end up having more fun playing TS3. I don't have pudding faced sims anymore and haven't for years (the same way a lot of my TS4 sims don't have the default plastic looking hair textures and playdough skin). My worlds are not boring or empty. I dont need a launcher to open my game (I didn't even know people still used the launcher). A lot of complaints about TS3 are so easily rectified, I can link you to every single way to fix them at a moment's notice.

TL;DR: TS3 was a wreck when it first launched but TS4 has definitely helped me see it in a new light and appreciate the fact that the gurus and EA at least tried to think outside the box and not be held back by made up limitations.

I'm not sure If it's a good thing or bad. Though many starting to believe that they will showcase the mobile focus as their promised "newspaper", while I foresee Seasons.

I really have to hope I always can get a comp with a cd/DVD drive because if not, I'm screwed. I can't get the ultimate collection from origin for S2 so...yeah.

I tried playing Sims Freeplay but it was beyond frustrating. Couldn't do anything without spending money.

I haven't tried the Sims mobile but I doubt it's any better.

So this just makes me sad. Sigh.

Fuckin' EA.

Well, the problem isn't so much finding a cd/dvd drive, there's external ones if your computer doesn't have one, and you could make some digital copies of your discs. The biggest potential issue is compatibility. At some point, the game might stop working or run very poorly on newer components and/or operating systems. Better keep an old PC around or buy/build a PC with old components (I found quite a few websites that do it). Then keep it offline so that no newer version of Windows gets installed and no viruses due to weakness in protection of older systems. I'll just download stuff on a PC connected to the internet, put 'em on a USB stick and then transfer it to the "retroputer".

That's my plan anyway. I just need to steal "borrow" my husband's old PC.

I was afraid that you would say that. Ugh, too bad nobody other than EA is there to sustain compatibility, which of course thinking they're willing to do that is pie in the sky. Thank god they have given us Ultimate Collection after the end of TS3.

You missed the point of the post I wrote. I know not everyone likes the Sims 3. That’s why I wrote “I’ll always have TS3”. The open world is something I, personally, will always treasure.

For some people the game they favor will be one of the other Sims. TS1 and TS2 were both also amazing. I can even imagine some people liking TS4.

The point was: I don’t have any faith in EA developing a good TS5. Maybe it would be best to give another studio a change to develop something similar. It worked for Simcity.

It seems to me that this will happen. Only the seasons already are in the game. There are mods that add autumn and winter separately. It remains only to make so that the textures of the external world from these mods succeed each other after a certain period of time.