Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
Remarks from EA's COO
lyra
Posts: 420 Member
I just found this article on Honeywell regarding TS4:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-07-01-eas-moore
Some highlights:
Thoughts on this?
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-07-01-eas-moore
Some highlights:
: When it comes to adding new IP to that, do you have to be perhaps..pickier than maybe other people, because you do want to have a game that has the potential to build that sort of legacy?
Peter Moore: When you look at new IP, it's got to be IP that can't be watered-down; it's got to be something you can build upon. Sims is probably one of the best examples of that, where not only does the game grow over the years, the game you ship and then the expansion packs. You think about everything you do and it's four or five years later which is a little bit of a challenge then when you ship a new one, because Sims 3 players going "Wait a second."
"When you look at new IP, it's got to be IP that can't be watered-down; it's got to be something you can build upon"
Q: "Where's everything in Sims 4?"
Peter Moore: "I got all this stuff," and they forget, "well it's taken me years, to accumulate this." Then you ship Sims 4 - now we just did the expansion pack and everything's starting to feel good about Sims 4 now - but it takes a long time to do that and we always totally underestimate that when we ship a Sims game. You forget what most people now are living with.
Q: Vampires, dogs ...
Peter Moore: Everything! They're on their fifth relationship! The Sims players...They're a hard-core bunch, a very hard-core bunch.
Toddlers and swimming pools! Think of that and all the furore that was.
New IP is a little bit of a challenge because you've got to build it and the gamer has to have patience that the first one is kind of putting a stake in the ground. Mass Effect, the first one was exclusive on Xbox 360 and then it grows and then that opening video is the sum of three previous Mass Effects and when N7 comes on there and the little tingle goes up your spine. That doesn't come overnight. That takes decades, and we've learned that.
Thoughts on this?
6
Comments
Mass Effect, the first one that was temporarily XBOX exclusive he mentions - wasn't EA's game at all.
EA bought Bioware afterwards.
For sakes of that series, and I'm fan, I just hope ME4 which is will be released next year, won't be a mediocre sequel like they did with Sims 4.
I prefered ME1 over the second one but it wasn't bad, going to play the third one ina few hours I hope it's good
He's right. Ever since I stopped playing it, I've been feeling just fine. As someone who begrudgingly was going buy everything this game had to offer (I hate that EPs and SPs come with less), I'm very happy with the amount of money I've saved.
Toddlers and family-focused play came 4 or 5 years after TS1, right? So is he saying that we'll just need to wait for TS5 before we get our generational play back? OK, fine I'll wait--with my purse closed.
I think he's oblivious, and it just shows why TS4 still has tons of issues and problems -- the people behind it don't know what they're doing.
Peter Moore: Everything! They’re on their fifth relationship! The Sims players…They’re a hard-core bunch, a very hard-core bunch.
He doesn't even know that this is the fourth version.. He doesn't know anything about us.
The Essence
How To Lose Your Ugliness in Ten Generations
maybe he means Medieval, no idea
yes, the more i depart from TS4 the better it feels - pure self preservation
& yes, they have no idea what sims is about
I'm worried he counts Olympus as a game and that is the "mystery 5th".
"Q: Is that a case of you talking to the studios about what they want to do and trusting them to know how much time they need, or does it come from you?
Peter Moore: It's actually from the studio. The studio will come, we sit down, we have what we call 'key franchise reviews', we have three, four year views of what our portfolio will be. We then sit down with the studio heads and say "Okay, what do you need?"
I know everybody thinks companies like us say "you must deliver the game!" That's not how it happens. The big bad EA forces the game out before...That's not what happens. The studios are in control, they know what their milestones are. If a studio says "Look, we just need the time," they need the time.
We've done that with golf, just recently, certainly did it with Battlefield Hardline last year. Nine times out of ten it's always for the benefit of the player. It's also for the benefit of the franchise, look at Battlefield Hardline. If we had forced it to come out in October and it was a bad experience, that's two strikes on that franchise because we were still reeling a little bit from Battlefield 4, which now is rock-solid and everybody's loving it.
A company like ourselves, that invests billions of dollars every year in building up the games, bringing the games to market, you've got to have a long-term plan. Those plans always change. I could sit here off the top of my head and tell you what's going to ship in FY 18, right now, as regards to the plan. Then I'd sit here in FY 18 and say, "Well now that didn't quite work out the way it is." That's just the way our industry is, but you have to have the discipline to say that if a game isn't going to make it, or if we have to give a game a year off if it's an annual game, that you just fill in with other stuff and make it all happen. That's who we are."
I hate being referred to as the Sims players.
"Um...who? Oh yes, the Sims players! How much did we earn from them again?"
"Toddlers? What? Oh yes, toddlers! Nah we need to work on designing the DJ booth first for Party Life EP! Stick a plumbob on it and bam...we're richer!"
I'm going to puke.
Sims 1
Sims Online
Sims 2
Sims 3
Sims 4
There are also the "My Sims" series.
Oh yeah. I forgot about Sims online. Mainly because I never touched it.
I especially love this "They are only used to expansions.. that's why they want toddlers and base game items!"-argument. I'm sure this guy doesn't even know what he's talking about, but Rachel Franklin knew when she used the same point in the Kotaku-interview.
The Essence
How To Lose Your Ugliness in Ten Generations
The Essence
How To Lose Your Ugliness in Ten Generations
He talked about the original series. My Sims and Medieval don't count to that. Sims Online is also not a part of that or this game would be called Sims 5. He just didn't know enough about the sims or didn't care enough to remember it's called Sims 4.
There's no reason to defend that by making up things that could count as the fifth thing.
The Essence
How To Lose Your Ugliness in Ten Generations
I do feel just fine as I stopped playing the game. The only remorse I have is that I bought the game along with the other things. But I can say that about the past year with the exception of 1 or 2 games.
The I got all this stuff comment is null when you compare it to one single game that isn't even complete yet and I can vouch for it and the gameplay. Not only I can vouch for it, but so can the Steam players that play it. 1 month and they hit 1 million copies sold ( remember the game is not finished and not expected to be finished until next year). It has stayed in Steams # 1 top selling list since it dropped a month ago..
I got all this cool stuff in a base game not even complete. I have a development team that actually listens to their customers/players. I don't have to wait years to enjoy actual gameplay in a game or be nickeled and dimed to death for tiny DLC.. This game so caters to its player base, I can host my own server with my rules.. you know.. I really do rule in this game.. no gimmick.. real open world sandbox..no gimmicks..
I could go on, but I was just lurking and found what he said amusing.. so I replied (bored to tears waiting for the hubby to get home to play our game..lol).
It's the fourth iteration of the series, (insert favorite insult here). And it's not just toddlers and pools. What made the series successful: generational gameplay, failure states, and the open-ended sandbox environment that gave the player complete creative freedom to control their Sims' lives.
What about this game that you don't realize is the *fourth* iteration of The Sims franchise gives us those elements? We take our Sim to work as a policeman, scientist, or doctor, and we have to have them do all the tasks on the upper left hand side of the screen or they don't get paid. We take our Sims out on a date and we literally have to do everything on the task lists in order to have a successful date. Same thing with parties. Where, in all that hold-your-hand-and-lead-you-around gameplay is the sandbox element? In short, whose idea was it for us to have a linear game-driven gameplay with absolutely no risk of failure?
You got a lot of complaints from the teeny-boppers who whined that the TS2 and the TS3 editions of this game were too hard, and so you decided to cater to them instead of the relatively sophisticated fanbase that your company has developed through 15 years of consistent support and gameplay. It's a shame that you don't "get it" and you persist on not "getting it"....and you're blaming the studio for the failure? Seriously?
Guess what...as we like to say here in the Lone Star state...That dawg don't hunt.
"We Don't Care If You LIKE The Game, Just As Long As You BUY The Game!"
I Disapprove (Naturally)
I Took The Pledge!
I agree. Had they stuck to the original design formula of The Sims (a challenging sandbox, strategy, and in-depth life sim), and then added actual major, new feature(s) to the franchise, I think people would more than likely have looked over the losses.
As it stands, they had the basics set by TS1 done completely wrong, could not replicate the level of detail and complexity from TS2, and have completely disregarded the ONLY TWO major new features that TS3 had brought to the franchise -- open world and CASt.
You reap what you sow.
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand basket?!
This! I am tempted to make an account there so I can explain this to him. This 'hard core Sims player' is upset because the Base has less in it than any Base game to date. It is NOT about "stuff" and EPs, it's about having my creative sandbox back that allowed me to play the way I want to play!
I stopped playing too, and have no plans to purchase additional content because as far as I can see, none of it is going to change this into a life sim game that I actually want to play. And with people like him in charge, I sadly feel pretty confident in saying that.
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand basket?!