I'm kind of ambivalent since I know that a Sims 5 made by these guys will only be rubbish anyway. Asking these guys to make a good Sims 4 sequel is like asking arsonists to be firefighters.


This. The base game is the problem. No amount of shallow stuff will fix it; it's just window dressing. It's like trying to cure cancer with a band-aid.


Meanwhile, at EA headquarters...

I've been saying this for so long now....about how limited and shallow the game is. I really wish someone else, another game company like Paradox / Colossal order, would rescue the sims from this loot boxing, shitty recolored nightmare EA calls The sims.

And you are so right about the whole sims 5 thing. Now I admit, I was for awhile willing to hold out hope, that if they did it right...EA could redeem themselves with Sims 5. but I realized that is just all kinds of stupid on my part. There is no redeeming factor left in EA, because The Sims is not the only franchise they have and are still destroying while they try to legally or illegally steal money from consumers. Yeah...they will go that low... if they can get away with it. There business practices alone taint the entire game.

I am sad to say it, but I totally agree.

I won’t lie, I highly regret this. The different versions of Sims have always catered different fans. Developing one version for years and years and years, dragging it on (development goes a lot slower than for the predecessors where it comes to essential content and quite often it’s even inferior to comparable content or the predecessors) is bad business for simmers who aren’t into that version. I’m not into this version.

i can see them wrapping up sims 4 in a few years, holding back on making a sims 5 and then maybe a good 8-9 years after that, they come back with a big sims 5 reveal

and i can also see that reveal to seem extremely captivating, only to have the released version of the game seem like an extreme letdown compared to the trailers they've released lol
that's usually how it goes isn't it

I cannot see why EA couldn't take all the best elements from 1, 2, 3 and 4 and develop a 64bit Sims 5 in a few years. I don't know anything at all about programming though so this is probably wishful thinking.

I don't mind old items being used again. Why waste good stuff that has worked before. It could be revived, integrated and elaborated to bring up to today's standards. It's the total experience I want. My machine plays VR already if they want to put that in.

And - while they are at it they could make it 18 plus. The people they are targetting now will be over that by then.

For the Sims, success is a new base game. That’s where the real the real money comes from, as most people (the vast majority of players) just get the base game. Those millions of sales come from base game sales. We’ve already confirmed that only 10% of players purchase DLC (I’ll be generous and say 20%), and they don’t even get all of it, just anything that involves social events, weather, and pets. That number also dropped during TS4.

If people aren’t buying the game, they aren’t going to invest 5 years of development time on a new base game. DLC is much cheaper to produce and has a faster turn over. This indicates to me that they’re trying to bleed the game dry before they can it. If by success they mean TS4 has turned a profit than that’s fine, but TS4 has managed to sell the least amount of copies of any base game.

The amount of pacs produced has also decreased over the years. There was a (relatively) large amount of content produced for TS4 when it first launched. Now, the games between releases has increased on top of layoffs and people leaving. Telling us the game is successful doesn’t make it true.

The concept of building a game for longer than usual isn’t bad, in my opinion, but it’s implementation with The Sims 4 is. Had they made a better base game I think an enlongated development cycle would be better received. Many things they did with Sims 4 were not thought through very well, and it’s had a noticeable effect on what they are able to do with the game.

- GTAV has a ridiculous huge world with a very elaborate single player story and loads of side missions. When you compare it to GTA IV, they actually improved on this point.
- Skyrim's world is ridiculously huge and offers a lot of replayability. Add creation kit to that and I would almost compare it to Minecraft in how moddable it is. The way Skyrim differs from Oblivion is more like TS2 to TS3. Some things improved, some things got worse, but most is moving sideways.
- City Skylines did not have a predecessor to improve upon and the base game was also a lot cheaper (about half? ) then TS4.
- Not familiar with Assetto Corsa, but from what I just read it is a racing simulation game. Not a sandbox game like the others you mentioned. And also not a next in the line of a franchise.

You seem to miss the key point here. TS4 will obviously be compared to TS3 and TS2. TS3 and TS2 set some expectations. If you call the new game TS4 , but cut main features from the base game, then already existing fans will be disappointed. You can see this coming from a mile away. This is where EA marketing so obviously failed. No one falls for 'you should not compare TS4 to TS3', because that makes no sense at all. The history of other existing franchises with their sequels shows that very clearly. It is the one of the dumbest excuses you can make to counter failed expectations. Another one would be 'we cut this feature for performance reasons' for a sequel that releases, like what, 10 years later? What happens with the average computer performance in that period?

I agree with you. Those are all excuses. If you make a series, people are going to compare. It happens everywhere, not just in games. Books, music, movies, etc. So it happens with numerous things. If people compare, it shouldn't come as such a surprise.

What kinda bugs me is that there isn't a single comparison where they said: "You know what, you guys are kinda right." Or: "I see your point of view." I would have much more respect for them if they downright said: "Look guys, this was supposed to be a multi-player game and it didn't work. That's why the sims don't have as much depth and we're stuck with an engine that can't give them more depth."
Instead they do the opposite. So there are excuses, miscommunication and a huge divide in the community. To top that off they re-skin assets and release a cash-grab mobile game. And while we know they can make great sims games, because they've done so in the past, we've lost trust and wonder if they're even interested in making a great game again.

sims 4 has been a shit show, but ditching it with tons of loose ends and missing content would just be salt on the wound for those who play it. not that them continuing to release upcharged and sub-par content is ideal either, buuuut....

Sorry but buying the game and all its packs is free choice. Either you do that hoping in vain things will get better (that’s your own call) or you do it because you like playing the game, in which case buying will provide fun. Where’s the wound, where’s the salt? I don’t feel sorry for anyone investing in Sims 4, regardless whether the game ends tomorrow or in ten years time. This should not be an argument to continue developing.

Why not.... they did it with SimsCity 2013. EA single handedly destroyed the entire franchise of SimsCity, threw it away and made no effort to fix it. Believe me.... if they stopped making anything else for TS4.... it would be abrupt and without apology. That is just how EA rolls. If you aren't buying anything for the game, and if you are even the tiniest bit critical of the game... then they don't give a shit about you or us anyway. they have plenty of other franchises at their disposal that they can loot box and recolor to their heart's content. This is why they are the most Hated gaming company. They are sitting on a gold mine and have no idea really what to do with it or how to manage it.

You could add every feature a Sims game has ever had to TS4, and the shitty engine would still make it not worth my time and money.

''Well, we're only 4 expansions in...'' because you take forever to make one idiots!!!

Sorry, I just had to