Erpe didn't like Sims 2 or 3 either because they were too "shallow". I'm struggling to understand the thinking behind defending a publisher that has went down a route that he/she clearly does not enjoy, so much they've already said it's unlikely they will enjoy Sims 5 if it ever comes out! However, all entitled to our own opinion and all that...
Let me get this strait. This person does not like sims 2 , 3 and 4. Only plays sims freeplay but wants to disagree with so many people in this thread for being disappointed with TS4 after paying EA a lot of money for an incomplete game when they promised a complete base game. I would like to know why this person is even posting in this thread. The only reason I can see is they just feel the need to disagree with people for no reason what so ever when they are not interested in any sims pc games
The irony is that I like the Sims Freeplay and I liked TS2 very much in the two years I played it. But everybody else seem to have liked especially TS3 much more than I did.
Even so everybody else but me seem to want EA to stop making big Sims games and only get smaller life simulations in browsers from mainly other companies than EA because this is what is likely to happen if your wish becomes true
Have a nice future without Sims games
Everyone wants EA to stop making big sims games? You keep putting words in others mouths that don't exist. This has to be one of the silliest thing you have stated. This thread is about the lack of content in the game. Maybe your in the wrong tread if you think people want a smaller game.
So why are you fighting so hard to make TS4 into a failure? My problem is that people don't seem to understand how big EA or what type of company EA is. They seem to think that EA is just a small company who only have the Sims games to care about and which they therefore can force to change the game in the direction which they want.
But on the contrary EA is so huge that TS4 doesn't even get much attention from EA's top who only is interested in seeing if the game is worth continuing on all platforms or not. EA's board probably care much more about EA's many sports games than about the Sims games and they probably also care much more about EA's RPG games. So if people stop buying Sims games for the PC platform then it won't even be such a big thing for EA who already see other platforms as more important than the PC.
So if TS4's expansions don't sell very well then I am sure that EA without many considerations about it just will decide that the time for such big Sims games with that many expansions is over and that EA should only make smaller standalone Sims games for all the different platforms.
In other words: You are fighting a battle that you can never win - even though I too would like it more if you had could. But I won't give you a chance because I just can't find that chance no matter how hard I try to see it.
No one's fighting to make it fail, they are just pointing out the obvious.
EA ending its involvement in the Sims franchise is not a bad thing.
EA won't end its involvement in the Sims franchise which belong to EA for good. But if EA can't earn money by using 4 to 5 years on a basegame and then earn the money back by also selling a lot of expansions (which are much cheaper to make) then EA will just make all future Sims games smaller and without expansions. Just as we know from the mobile versions of the Sims 2 and Sims 3 games and also from those games' versions for consoles.
In the Sims 2 forum MaxoidSam (Sam Player) was once asked how long time they had used to make the EP which they had just finished and released. His answer was "3 months". We know that they use about 4 years to make each basegame. So the expansions must give EA much higher profit than the basegames. So it is probably the expansions which earn a lot of the money back which they have used to develop a new basegame.
So if people won't buy all those expansions anymore then I am sure that EA will just decide to at most use a year to make a new Sims game and not to make big expansions at all anymore. EA will thus still find a way to earn a lot of money on the Sims franchise. But is this development what you want to happen in the future???
Again, I fail to see the downside. I'm a big fan of the Sims franchise, but I won't throw good money at a bad (in my opinion) product. Reward failure and expect more of the same. There are other games out there. Better to find another game that suits me, and support it.
I agree which I think that I have also written earlier. But some of the people here seem to still not have read it. So let me just repeat:
I won't buy expansions just to support the continued development of the game because even if I bought a thousand copies it would be extremely unlikely to matter. To have a real chance of doing a difference I would have to buy 100,000 copies and preferably 500,000 copies to make sure to do a difference. But of course I don't have enough money to be able to do such things.
On the other hand I won't encourage people to stop buying the expansions either because that would do more damage than good (even though it would still be unlikely to matter).
I think that's what the franchise needs. I otherwise agree with you.
I've never 'encouraged people not to buy' so I'm not sure where that came from lol. Nowhere did I say that in the article or elsewhere. My approach is for people to make their own minds up.
It isn't about individuals not buying. It's that the team have essentially turned away many players with the design decisions they've made so whole sections of the customer base have had what they love about 'The Sims' removed or diminished significantly. Essentially in the end whether that matters or not is up to EA. I don't care. All I care about is if this game is fun for me and right now it's not. And I feel lied to in order for them to get my money. If they didn't want my money they shouldn't have made promises they couldn't keep and actually should be refunding those of us who they benefitted from by making promises when we bought.
I'm sick atm so I need to catch up soon.
Not sure why you're responding to me: I don't care if people buy this game/don't buy it. My response was to the poster who said we must not discourage people from buying it, because poster fears it will be the end of the Sims franchise. I agree with poster that I don't like the game and won't support it, and that's the extent of my agreement.
I didn't say that. You can discourage people all you want. I just wrote that I don't do that myself because I don't see any good purpose for it and think that the result would just discourage EA to make any more big Sims games if EA (not very likely though) should be in doubt. But other people have to make their own decisions.
I get it, you're not telling anyone to do anything, just expressing your belief on what will be the outcome if people discourage others to buy it. I felt it was reasonable to draw a conclusion that you feel such actions could (if it does anything) negatively impact the Sims franchise, and thus implicitly wished people not to discourage the buying of the product. I do not feel that way. I believe it would be good for the franchise: sometimes the only way to stop a downward spiral is to hit rock bottom, get kicked in the teeth by a senile bag lady, and, three days later, when you are again conscious, take a long show and start the heck over.
I agree on your general point about hitting rock bottom. Just not in this case because I know how EA's board is thinking.
If they were gamers who were likely to look into details of EA's games then you could be right. But instead they are just business men who don't care if they sell games, soap, cars or oil. For them they are all just products which only are interesting as long as they can be sold for a profit. If a product doesn't sell anymore then they just move on to another product.
So if TS4 and its expansions .doesn't sell anymore then they don't start looking deeply into the reasons. No other game has that number of big expansions. So if the expansions don't sell then their obvious conclusion will be that the Sims games should now also be made without such big expansions - just like all the many other games are. But without the expansions it won't be profitable to use 4 whole years making the game either. So the production time should be shortened to be the same as for other PC games.
If it then was likely that another company would make a big life simulation with all the expansions then I would again agree with you. But it isn't because the other companies don't make such big games either. They make mostly RPG games, strategy games and sports games with short production times too. So if they should decide to make a life simulation then it won't likely be a big game either.
So I don't see what you can hope for if TS4 should hit rock bottom?
I don't hope TS4 hits rock bottom, but frankly I do not care if it does. They're not putting out a game that engages me, and I have no reason to think if I continue to support them that they'll start.
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
I don't hope TS4 hits rock bottom, but frankly I do not care if it does. They're not putting out a game that engages me, and I have no reason to think if I continue to support them that they'll start.
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
I find TS4 boring too because it is too much about collecting items and to little about social relations, neighborhood stories, genetics and family trees like TS2 was.
What I would really like was a game in TS2 style but only with higher difficulty degree - especially when it comes to economy because in TS2 you could earn millions of similions without any challenging things at all. That was the reason why I stopped playing TS2 after 2 years.
For me TS3 wasn't really an improvement because the things I liked in TS2 were dumped down and the open world wasn't nearly enough for me to compensate for that.
TS4 is even worse than TS3 when it comes to the things which I mentioned and the challenges about collecting things don't really appeal to me. Therefore I don't believe that I will buy more expansions for TS4 even though I am not sure because they could still release an expansion which cought my interest.
TS5 we don't know anything about yet and it may not even be released. But even so I am quite sure that they will change the game once more and TS5 won't be like TS4. I am not optimistic about those changes. But I still want to see the game even though it probably won't be much of a game for me either.
I don't hope TS4 hits rock bottom, but frankly I do not care if it does. They're not putting out a game that engages me, and I have no reason to think if I continue to support them that they'll start.
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
Wait, wait, wait... Are you telling me this isn't already rock bottom? That's a scary thought, what more could they actually remove from the game before fans consider it "rock bottom"? No, no, nevermind. I don't want to know.
I don't hope TS4 hits rock bottom, but frankly I do not care if it does. They're not putting out a game that engages me, and I have no reason to think if I continue to support them that they'll start.
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
Wait, wait, wait... Are you telling me this isn't already rock bottom? That's a scary thought, what more could they actually remove from the game before fans consider it "rock bottom"? No, no, nevermind. I don't want to know.
Sales numbers aren't rock bottom yet because at least the basegame was the best selling PC game at all in 2014. But the GPs, SPs and EPs could actually still sell worse and worse so that EA might end up canceling the remaining expansions for TS4 - and then maybe also cancel the TS5 basegame. That would be rock bottom!
I just have one question left. How is the utter amount of bashing against Simmers allowed in this thread @SimGuruDrake? I've been offended more than once in this thread and I'm sure others have been as well.
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
I don't hope TS4 hits rock bottom, but frankly I do not care if it does. They're not putting out a game that engages me, and I have no reason to think if I continue to support them that they'll start.
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
Wait, wait, wait... Are you telling me this isn't already rock bottom? That's a scary thought, what more could they actually remove from the game before fans consider it "rock bottom"? No, no, nevermind. I don't want to know.
Sales numbers aren't rock bottom yet because at least the basegame was the best selling PC game at all in 2014. But the GPs, SPs and EPs could actually still sell worse and worse so that EA might end up canceling the remaining expansions for TS4 - and then maybe also cancel the TS5 basegame. That would be rock bottom!
Well, the sales numbers are sketchy as NPD group compiles them by POS and consumer surveys. Origin, Steam, and Apple don't release sales figures, so we have no way of knowing if Sims 4 really was the best selling game (and Sims 3 is number two on that list, ahead of the Diablo DLC which we know sold almost 4 million copies). If Sims 4, according to actual sales numbers, really were the best selling PC game of 2014, that would have been mentioned in the shareholder report. Instead, it was confirmed sales were slow.
I don't hope TS4 hits rock bottom, but frankly I do not care if it does. They're not putting out a game that engages me, and I have no reason to think if I continue to support them that they'll start.
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
Wait, wait, wait... Are you telling me this isn't already rock bottom? That's a scary thought, what more could they actually remove from the game before fans consider it "rock bottom"? No, no, nevermind. I don't want to know.
Sales numbers aren't rock bottom yet because at least the basegame was the best selling PC game at all in 2014. But the GPs, SPs and EPs could actually still sell worse and worse so that EA might end up canceling the remaining expansions for TS4 - and then maybe also cancel the TS5 basegame. That would be rock bottom!
Well, the sales numbers are sketchy as NPD group compiles them by POS and consumer surveys. Origin, Steam, and Apple don't release sales figures, so we have no way of knowing if Sims 4 really was the best selling game (and Sims 3 is number two on that list, ahead of the Diablo DLC which we know sold almost 4 million copies). If Sims 4, according to actual sales numbers, really were the best selling PC game of 2014, that would have been mentioned in the shareholder report. Instead, it was confirmed sales were slow.
My awesome for you:))) But I am sure Erpe will know better in a second or two:))
I don't hope TS4 hits rock bottom, but frankly I do not care if it does. They're not putting out a game that engages me, and I have no reason to think if I continue to support them that they'll start.
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
Wait, wait, wait... Are you telling me this isn't already rock bottom? That's a scary thought, what more could they actually remove from the game before fans consider it "rock bottom"? No, no, nevermind. I don't want to know.
Sales numbers aren't rock bottom yet because at least the basegame was the best selling PC game at all in 2014. But the GPs, SPs and EPs could actually still sell worse and worse so that EA might end up canceling the remaining expansions for TS4 - and then maybe also cancel the TS5 basegame. That would be rock bottom!
Well, the sales numbers are sketchy as NPD group compiles them by POS and consumer surveys. Origin, Steam, and Apple don't release sales figures, so we have no way of knowing if Sims 4 really was the best selling game (and Sims 3 is number two on that list, ahead of the Diablo DLC which we know sold almost 4 million copies). If Sims 4, according to actual sales numbers, really were the best selling PC game of 2014, that would have been mentioned in the shareholder report. Instead, it was confirmed sales were slow.
Couldn't agree with you more! If Sims 4 sales were great, EA would be would be more than happy to broadcast that information! The very fact that they don't give actual sales figures for Sims 4 to me, speaks volumes.
I don't hope TS4 hits rock bottom, but frankly I do not care if it does. They're not putting out a game that engages me, and I have no reason to think if I continue to support them that they'll start.
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
Wait, wait, wait... Are you telling me this isn't already rock bottom? That's a scary thought, what more could they actually remove from the game before fans consider it "rock bottom"? No, no, nevermind. I don't want to know.
Sales numbers aren't rock bottom yet because at least the basegame was the best selling PC game at all in 2014. But the GPs, SPs and EPs could actually still sell worse and worse so that EA might end up canceling the remaining expansions for TS4 - and then maybe also cancel the TS5 basegame. That would be rock bottom!
Well, the sales numbers are sketchy as NPD group compiles them by POS and consumer surveys. Origin, Steam, and Apple don't release sales figures, so we have no way of knowing if Sims 4 really was the best selling game (and Sims 3 is number two on that list, ahead of the Diablo DLC which we know sold almost 4 million copies). If Sims 4, according to actual sales numbers, really were the best selling PC game of 2014, that would have been mentioned in the shareholder report. Instead, it was confirmed sales were slow.
Couldn't agree with you more! If Sims 4 sales were great, EA would be would be more than happy to broadcast that information! The very fact that they don't give actual sales figures for Sims 4 to me, speaks volumes.
No, they don't give actual sales figures even to their games they consider successful. But at the shareholder meetings, they do mention things like DAI being Bioware's best launch to date, how many people are playing their sports games daily, etc. If Sims 4 really were the number 1 selling PC game, that would have been mentioned. But instead, in one of the stockholder reports, it talks about the slow start to Sims 4.
But really, I think it's pretty common sense that Sims 3, number two on the NPD list, didn't sell anywhere near 4 million copies. That would be a massive increase in sales, and that would be mentioned in the stockholder's meeting as well.
I just have one question left. How is the utter amount of bashing against Simmers allowed in this thread @SimGuruDrake? I've been offended more than once in this thread and I'm sure others have been as well.
The gurus have been pmed privately a few times on this thread
I don't hope TS4 hits rock bottom, but frankly I do not care if it does. They're not putting out a game that engages me, and I have no reason to think if I continue to support them that they'll start.
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
Wait, wait, wait... Are you telling me this isn't already rock bottom? That's a scary thought, what more could they actually remove from the game before fans consider it "rock bottom"? No, no, nevermind. I don't want to know.
Sales numbers aren't rock bottom yet because at least the basegame was the best selling PC game at all in 2014. But the GPs, SPs and EPs could actually still sell worse and worse so that EA might end up canceling the remaining expansions for TS4 - and then maybe also cancel the TS5 basegame. That would be rock bottom!
Well, the sales numbers are sketchy as NPD group compiles them by POS and consumer surveys. Origin, Steam, and Apple don't release sales figures, so we have no way of knowing if Sims 4 really was the best selling game (and Sims 3 is number two on that list, ahead of the Diablo DLC which we know sold almost 4 million copies). If Sims 4, according to actual sales numbers, really were the best selling PC game of 2014, that would have been mentioned in the shareholder report. Instead, it was confirmed sales were slow.
We have no better numbers. But obviously the sales numbers didn't beat the sales numbers for TS2 and TS3 and thereby set new records because that EA would have bragged about
I also see no reason why people shouldn't have bought the game in 2014 because it was a new game which people were very curious about. But the sales numbers from 2015 would be much more interesting to know about. How much did they drop?
Is EA really considering to stop making more expansion because the sales numbers are becoming too low?
Is EA even considering to not develop TS5 at all?
I don't hope TS4 hits rock bottom, but frankly I do not care if it does. They're not putting out a game that engages me, and I have no reason to think if I continue to support them that they'll start.
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
Wait, wait, wait... Are you telling me this isn't already rock bottom? That's a scary thought, what more could they actually remove from the game before fans consider it "rock bottom"? No, no, nevermind. I don't want to know.
Sales numbers aren't rock bottom yet because at least the basegame was the best selling PC game at all in 2014. But the GPs, SPs and EPs could actually still sell worse and worse so that EA might end up canceling the remaining expansions for TS4 - and then maybe also cancel the TS5 basegame. That would be rock bottom!
Well, the sales numbers are sketchy as NPD group compiles them by POS and consumer surveys. Origin, Steam, and Apple don't release sales figures, so we have no way of knowing if Sims 4 really was the best selling game (and Sims 3 is number two on that list, ahead of the Diablo DLC which we know sold almost 4 million copies). If Sims 4, according to actual sales numbers, really were the best selling PC game of 2014, that would have been mentioned in the shareholder report. Instead, it was confirmed sales were slow.
We have no better numbers. But obviously the sales numbers didn't beat the sales numbers for TS2 and TS3 and thereby set new records because that EA would have bragged about
I also see no reason why people shouldn't have bought the game in 2014 because it was a new game which people were very curious about. But the sales numbers from 2015 would be much more interesting to know about. How much did they drop?
Is EA really considering to stop making more expansion because the sales numbers are becoming too low?
Is EA even considering to not develop TS5 at all?
Bad data are bad, even if they're the best we have. Since Origin and Steam don't release their sales figures, NPD's data are not accurate and in fact, given things we do know, make no sense. We know what number 3 on the list sold, total sales. We also know that had Sims 3 and 4 outsold the 3.7 million copies Blizzard claims, equalling close to 8 million is sales between the two, the share holders report would have been singing about it. There would have been no mention of low sales at launch, because 4 million copies of any game sold in 3 months is breathtakingly good.
What we know does not support Sims 4 being the best selling game of 2014 nor Sims 3 being the second best selling game in 2014. Maybe for POS, but when you toss in the huge unknown -- online sales -- and try to extrapolate from there, you're going to end up with bad data because you cannot assume that online sales will follow the same patterns as POS.
I just have one question left. How is the utter amount of bashing against Simmers allowed in this thread @SimGuruDrake? I've been offended more than once in this thread and I'm sure others have been as well.
The gurus have been pmed privately a few times on this thread
Scobre... because there are no buttons involved:))) so no action taken:)
There is a button its called ignore . I decided to use it after a few pages back I was told Im punishing myself .
oh ignore involves going to the page of the offender;)) it's a hidden button:)) but I do agree:))) the best option to keep your nerves calm is to ignore the person or just use a sense of humor;)))
I just have one question left. How is the utter amount of bashing against Simmers allowed in this thread @SimGuruDrake? I've been offended more than once in this thread and I'm sure others have been as well.
The gurus have been pmed privately a few times on this thread
Scobre... because there are no buttons involved:))) so no action taken:)
There is a button its called ignore . I decided to use it after a few pages back I was told Im punishing myself .
oh ignore involves going to the page of the offender;)) it's a hidden button:)) but I do agree:))) the best option to keep your nerves calm is to ignore the person or just use a sense of humor;)))
Agreed! I've noticed the person very rarely engages in a productive manner so for the sake of calm, I just skim on by if I see their name pop up. I like constructive conversation, we don't all need to agree but arguing for the sake of it is pointless.
I just have one question left. How is the utter amount of bashing against Simmers allowed in this thread @SimGuruDrake? I've been offended more than once in this thread and I'm sure others have been as well.
The gurus have been pmed privately a few times on this thread
Scobre... because there are no buttons involved:))) so no action taken:)
There is a button its called ignore . I decided to use it after a few pages back I was told Im punishing myself .
oh ignore involves going to the page of the offender;)) it's a hidden button:)) but I do agree:))) the best option to keep your nerves calm is to ignore the person or just use a sense of humor;)))
You actually use the gear wheel net to your user name top right ,account options and chose preferences, to the left you click on ignore and type in who you chose to ignore
@Scobre ignore anyone calling names and don't let them derail the thread. They don't deserve to overrun everyone else having a good discussion and respecting personal boundaries.
I don't hope TS4 hits rock bottom, but frankly I do not care if it does. They're not putting out a game that engages me, and I have no reason to think if I continue to support them that they'll start.
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
Wait, wait, wait... Are you telling me this isn't already rock bottom? That's a scary thought, what more could they actually remove from the game before fans consider it "rock bottom"? No, no, nevermind. I don't want to know.
Sales numbers aren't rock bottom yet because at least the basegame was the best selling PC game at all in 2014. But the GPs, SPs and EPs could actually still sell worse and worse so that EA might end up canceling the remaining expansions for TS4 - and then maybe also cancel the TS5 basegame. That would be rock bottom!
Well, the sales numbers are sketchy as NPD group compiles them by POS and consumer surveys. Origin, Steam, and Apple don't release sales figures, so we have no way of knowing if Sims 4 really was the best selling game (and Sims 3 is number two on that list, ahead of the Diablo DLC which we know sold almost 4 million copies). If Sims 4, according to actual sales numbers, really were the best selling PC game of 2014, that would have been mentioned in the shareholder report. Instead, it was confirmed sales were slow.
We have no better numbers. But obviously the sales numbers didn't beat the sales numbers for TS2 and TS3 and thereby set new records because that EA would have bragged about
I also see no reason why people shouldn't have bought the game in 2014 because it was a new game which people were very curious about. But the sales numbers from 2015 would be much more interesting to know about. How much did they drop?
Is EA really considering to stop making more expansion because the sales numbers are becoming too low?
Is EA even considering to not develop TS5 at all?
Bad data are bad, even if they're the best we have. Since Origin and Steam don't release their sales figures, NPD's data are not accurate and in fact, given things we do know, make no sense. We know what number 3 on the list sold, total sales. We also know that had Sims 3 and 4 outsold the 3.7 million copies Blizzard claims, equalling close to 8 million is sales between the two, the share holders report would have been singing about it. There would have been no mention of low sales at launch, because 4 million copies of any game sold in 3 months is breathtakingly good.
What we know does not support Sims 4 being the best selling game of 2014 nor Sims 3 being the second best selling game in 2014. Maybe for POS, but when you toss in the huge unknown -- online sales -- and try to extrapolate from there, you're going to end up with bad data because you cannot assume that online sales will follow the same patterns as POS.
I don't know where they get their data from. But I do know that several data collection companies in the US know almost everything about us. They also collect those data for a reason which usually is to sell them to other companies.
As a private person it is almost impossible to get information on what they know about you because they know that people would be upset if they knew. They have methods to collect all information about you both from all your internet activities and from your mobile phone and also to math those things and thereby break the anonymity. Danish television has just shown a US TV program about it.
So I believe that any statistic company could buy all this information if they wanted to. I just don't know the prices and if they buy it all the time. But Steam and Origin isn't protected from such data collection because nobody is.
I don't hope TS4 hits rock bottom, but frankly I do not care if it does. They're not putting out a game that engages me, and I have no reason to think if I continue to support them that they'll start.
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
Wait, wait, wait... Are you telling me this isn't already rock bottom? That's a scary thought, what more could they actually remove from the game before fans consider it "rock bottom"? No, no, nevermind. I don't want to know.
Sales numbers aren't rock bottom yet because at least the basegame was the best selling PC game at all in 2014. But the GPs, SPs and EPs could actually still sell worse and worse so that EA might end up canceling the remaining expansions for TS4 - and then maybe also cancel the TS5 basegame. That would be rock bottom!
Well, the sales numbers are sketchy as NPD group compiles them by POS and consumer surveys. Origin, Steam, and Apple don't release sales figures, so we have no way of knowing if Sims 4 really was the best selling game (and Sims 3 is number two on that list, ahead of the Diablo DLC which we know sold almost 4 million copies). If Sims 4, according to actual sales numbers, really were the best selling PC game of 2014, that would have been mentioned in the shareholder report. Instead, it was confirmed sales were slow.
We have no better numbers. But obviously the sales numbers didn't beat the sales numbers for TS2 and TS3 and thereby set new records because that EA would have bragged about
I also see no reason why people shouldn't have bought the game in 2014 because it was a new game which people were very curious about. But the sales numbers from 2015 would be much more interesting to know about. How much did they drop?
Is EA really considering to stop making more expansion because the sales numbers are becoming too low?
Is EA even considering to not develop TS5 at all?
Bad data are bad, even if they're the best we have. Since Origin and Steam don't release their sales figures, NPD's data are not accurate and in fact, given things we do know, make no sense. We know what number 3 on the list sold, total sales. We also know that had Sims 3 and 4 outsold the 3.7 million copies Blizzard claims, equalling close to 8 million is sales between the two, the share holders report would have been singing about it. There would have been no mention of low sales at launch, because 4 million copies of any game sold in 3 months is breathtakingly good.
What we know does not support Sims 4 being the best selling game of 2014 nor Sims 3 being the second best selling game in 2014. Maybe for POS, but when you toss in the huge unknown -- online sales -- and try to extrapolate from there, you're going to end up with bad data because you cannot assume that online sales will follow the same patterns as POS.
I don't know where they get their data from. But I do know that several data collection companies in the US know almost everything about us. They also collect those data for a reason which usually is to sell them to other companies.
As a private person it is almost impossible to get information on what they know about you because they know that people would be upset if they knew. They have methods to collect all information about you both from all your internet activities and from your mobile phone and also to math those things and thereby break the anonymity. Danish television has just shown a US TV program about it.
So I believe that any statistic company could buy all this information if they wanted to. I just don't know the prices and if they buy it all the time. But Steam and Origin isn't protected from such data collection because nobody is.
Origin, Steam, and Apple do not give, sell, or otherwise release their data to the NPD group. And again, with what we DO know, NPD's data makes no sense. There is no way that Sims 3 or Sims 4 outsold the Diablo DLC (Blizzard did release the sales data). If they had, the stock holders report would have been highlighting that instead of talking about slow sales that were beginning to pick up.
Edit: Furthermore, NPD group does not claim to have those data. They get their on-line sales figures from consumer surveys. There's probably some extrapolation going on as well from the POS data. But in this case, it's so obviously off given the EA's shareholder reports and Blizzard's data, it's almost obnoxious that it would be defended.
I just have one question left. How is the utter amount of bashing against Simmers allowed in this thread @SimGuruDrake? I've been offended more than once in this thread and I'm sure others have been as well.
The gurus have been pmed privately a few times on this thread
Scobre... because there are no buttons involved:))) so no action taken:)
There is a button its called ignore . I decided to use it after a few pages back I was told Im punishing myself .
oh ignore involves going to the page of the offender;)) it's a hidden button:)) but I do agree:))) the best option to keep your nerves calm is to ignore the person or just use a sense of humor;)))
You actually use the gear wheel net to your user name top right ,account options and chose preferences, to the left you click on ignore and type in who you chose to ignore
Never ignored anyone:)) Now I know how the whole process is being applied;)) ty ))
@CherbitDip Agree;))) Some people are not able to accept the fact that somebody else has a different point of view.. or they think that they have the monopoly for the truth.. or people who use aggression or passive aggression in a discussion... those are for me a waste of time. There is nothing good coming out of it and we have only one life to live:)) and there are plenty of people with different than ours views to respect and have a good discussions with )))
Erpe didn't like Sims 2 or 3 either because they were too "shallow". I'm struggling to understand the thinking behind defending a publisher that has went down a route that he/she clearly does not enjoy, so much they've already said it's unlikely they will enjoy Sims 5 if it ever comes out! However, all entitled to our own opinion and all that...
Let me get this strait. This person does not like sims 2 , 3 and 4. Only plays sims freeplay but wants to disagree with so many people in this thread for being disappointed with TS4 after paying EA a lot of money for an incomplete game when they promised a complete base game. I would like to know why this person is even posting in this thread. The only reason I can see is they just feel the need to disagree with people for no reason what so ever when they are not interested in any sims pc games
The irony is that I like the Sims Freeplay and I liked TS2 very much in the two years I played it. But everybody else seem to have liked especially TS3 much more than I did.
Even so everybody else but me seem to want EA to stop making big Sims games and only get smaller life simulations in browsers from mainly other companies than EA because this is what is likely to happen if your wish becomes true
Have a nice future without Sims games
Everyone wants EA to stop making big sims games? You keep putting words in others mouths that don't exist. This has to be one of the silliest thing you have stated. This thread is about the lack of content in the game. Maybe your in the wrong tread if you think people want a smaller game.
So why are you fighting so hard to make TS4 into a failure? My problem is that people don't seem to understand how big EA or what type of company EA is. They seem to think that EA is just a small company who only have the Sims games to care about and which they therefore can force to change the game in the direction which they want.
But on the contrary EA is so huge that TS4 doesn't even get much attention from EA's top who only is interested in seeing if the game is worth continuing on all platforms or not. EA's board probably care much more about EA's many sports games than about the Sims games and they probably also care much more about EA's RPG games. So if people stop buying Sims games for the PC platform then it won't even be such a big thing for EA who already see other platforms as more important than the PC.
So if TS4's expansions don't sell very well then I am sure that EA without many considerations about it just will decide that the time for such big Sims games with that many expansions is over and that EA should only make smaller standalone Sims games for all the different platforms.
In other words: You are fighting a battle that you can never win - even though I too would like it more if you had could. But I won't give you a chance because I just can't find that chance no matter how hard I try to see it.
No one's fighting to make it fail, they are just pointing out the obvious.
EA ending its involvement in the Sims franchise is not a bad thing.
EA won't end its involvement in the Sims franchise which belong to EA for good. But if EA can't earn money by using 4 to 5 years on a basegame and then earn the money back by also selling a lot of expansions (which are much cheaper to make) then EA will just make all future Sims games smaller and without expansions. Just as we know from the mobile versions of the Sims 2 and Sims 3 games and also from those games' versions for consoles.
In the Sims 2 forum MaxoidSam (Sam Player) was once asked how long time they had used to make the EP which they had just finished and released. His answer was "3 months". We know that they use about 4 years to make each basegame. So the expansions must give EA much higher profit than the basegames. So it is probably the expansions which earn a lot of the money back which they have used to develop a new basegame.
So if people won't buy all those expansions anymore then I am sure that EA will just decide to at most use a year to make a new Sims game and not to make big expansions at all anymore. EA will thus still find a way to earn a lot of money on the Sims franchise. But is this development what you want to happen in the future???
Again, I fail to see the downside. I'm a big fan of the Sims franchise, but I won't throw good money at a bad (in my opinion) product. Reward failure and expect more of the same. There are other games out there. Better to find another game that suits me, and support it.
I agree which I think that I have also written earlier. But some of the people here seem to still not have read it. So let me just repeat:
I won't buy expansions just to support the continued development of the game because even if I bought a thousand copies it would be extremely unlikely to matter. To have a real chance of doing a difference I would have to buy 100,000 copies and preferably 500,000 copies to make sure to do a difference. But of course I don't have enough money to be able to do such things.
On the other hand I won't encourage people to stop buying the expansions either because that would do more damage than good (even though it would still be unlikely to matter).
I think that's what the franchise needs. I otherwise agree with you.
I've never 'encouraged people not to buy' so I'm not sure where that came from lol. Nowhere did I say that in the article or elsewhere. My approach is for people to make their own minds up.
It isn't about individuals not buying. It's that the team have essentially turned away many players with the design decisions they've made so whole sections of the customer base have had what they love about 'The Sims' removed or diminished significantly. Essentially in the end whether that matters or not is up to EA. I don't care. All I care about is if this game is fun for me and right now it's not. And I feel lied to in order for them to get my money. If they didn't want my money they shouldn't have made promises they couldn't keep and actually should be refunding those of us who they benefitted from by making promises when we bought.
I'm sick atm so I need to catch up soon.
Not sure why you're responding to me: I don't care if people buy this game/don't buy it. My response was to the poster who said we must not discourage people from buying it, because poster fears it will be the end of the Sims franchise. I agree with poster that I don't like the game and won't support it, and that's the extent of my agreement.
I didn't say that. You can discourage people all you want. I just wrote that I don't do that myself because I don't see any good purpose for it and think that the result would just discourage EA to make any more big Sims games if EA (not very likely though) should be in doubt. But other people have to make their own decisions.
I get it, you're not telling anyone to do anything, just expressing your belief on what will be the outcome if people discourage others to buy it. I felt it was reasonable to draw a conclusion that you feel such actions could (if it does anything) negatively impact the Sims franchise, and thus implicitly wished people not to discourage the buying of the product. I do not feel that way. I believe it would be good for the franchise: sometimes the only way to stop a downward spiral is to hit rock bottom, get kicked in the teeth by a senile bag lady, and, three days later, when you are again conscious, take a long show and start the heck over.
I agree on your general point about hitting rock bottom. Just not in this case because I know how EA's board is thinking.
If they were gamers who were likely to look into details of EA's games then you could be right. But instead they are just business men who don't care if they sell games, soap, cars or oil. For them they are all just products which only are interesting as long as they can be sold for a profit. If a product doesn't sell anymore then they just move on to another product.
So if TS4 and its expansions .doesn't sell anymore then they don't start looking deeply into the reasons. No other game has that number of big expansions. So if the expansions don't sell then their obvious conclusion will be that the Sims games should now also be made without such big expansions - just like all the many other games are. But without the expansions it won't be profitable to use 4 whole years making the game either. So the production time should be shortened to be the same as for other PC games.
If it then was likely that another company would make a big life simulation with all the expansions then I would again agree with you. But it isn't because the other companies don't make such big games either. They make mostly RPG games, strategy games and sports games with short production times too. So if they should decide to make a life simulation then it won't likely be a big game either.
So I don't see what you can hope for if TS4 should hit rock bottom?
It either dies, or they decide to improve it. Either of those alternatives beats 'more of the same'.
Comments
The Cowboy and the Mermaid
If they were gamers who were likely to look into details of EA's games then you could be right. But instead they are just business men who don't care if they sell games, soap, cars or oil. For them they are all just products which only are interesting as long as they can be sold for a profit. If a product doesn't sell anymore then they just move on to another product.
So if TS4 and its expansions .doesn't sell anymore then they don't start looking deeply into the reasons. No other game has that number of big expansions. So if the expansions don't sell then their obvious conclusion will be that the Sims games should now also be made without such big expansions - just like all the many other games are. But without the expansions it won't be profitable to use 4 whole years making the game either. So the production time should be shortened to be the same as for other PC games.
If it then was likely that another company would make a big life simulation with all the expansions then I would again agree with you. But it isn't because the other companies don't make such big games either. They make mostly RPG games, strategy games and sports games with short production times too. So if they should decide to make a life simulation then it won't likely be a big game either.
So I don't see what you can hope for if TS4 should hit rock bottom?
My money will go elsewhere. Fortunately, I play many genres. But even so, I'd rather play TS3 than play TS4 if TS4 bores me.
What I would really like was a game in TS2 style but only with higher difficulty degree - especially when it comes to economy because in TS2 you could earn millions of similions without any challenging things at all. That was the reason why I stopped playing TS2 after 2 years.
For me TS3 wasn't really an improvement because the things I liked in TS2 were dumped down and the open world wasn't nearly enough for me to compensate for that.
TS4 is even worse than TS3 when it comes to the things which I mentioned and the challenges about collecting things don't really appeal to me. Therefore I don't believe that I will buy more expansions for TS4 even though I am not sure because they could still release an expansion which cought my interest.
TS5 we don't know anything about yet and it may not even be released. But even so I am quite sure that they will change the game once more and TS5 won't be like TS4. I am not optimistic about those changes. But I still want to see the game even though it probably won't be much of a game for me either.
Wait, wait, wait... Are you telling me this isn't already rock bottom?
Origin ID : kateteaa Twitter: MunchPumpkins
Sims 3 wishlist: http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=teaa5
Sims 4 origin wishlist: https://www.origin.com/gbr/en-us/view-wishlist/7a1SQrtJtdHoNce4KS_ZTg--
Well, the sales numbers are sketchy as NPD group compiles them by POS and consumer surveys. Origin, Steam, and Apple don't release sales figures, so we have no way of knowing if Sims 4 really was the best selling game (and Sims 3 is number two on that list, ahead of the Diablo DLC which we know sold almost 4 million copies). If Sims 4, according to actual sales numbers, really were the best selling PC game of 2014, that would have been mentioned in the shareholder report. Instead, it was confirmed sales were slow.
My awesome for you:))) But I am sure Erpe will know better in a second or two:))
Origin ID : kateteaa Twitter: MunchPumpkins
Sims 3 wishlist: http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=teaa5
Sims 4 origin wishlist: https://www.origin.com/gbr/en-us/view-wishlist/7a1SQrtJtdHoNce4KS_ZTg--
Couldn't agree with you more! If Sims 4 sales were great, EA would be would be more than happy to broadcast that information! The very fact that they don't give actual sales figures for Sims 4 to me, speaks volumes.
Oh my god this was the best answer ever. And so true.
No, they don't give actual sales figures even to their games they consider successful. But at the shareholder meetings, they do mention things like DAI being Bioware's best launch to date, how many people are playing their sports games daily, etc. If Sims 4 really were the number 1 selling PC game, that would have been mentioned. But instead, in one of the stockholder reports, it talks about the slow start to Sims 4.
But really, I think it's pretty common sense that Sims 3, number two on the NPD list, didn't sell anywhere near 4 million copies. That would be a massive increase in sales, and that would be mentioned in the stockholder's meeting as well.
The gurus have been pmed privately a few times on this thread
Hopefully they see the problem this time
There is a button its called ignore . I decided to use it after a few pages back I was told Im punishing myself .
I also see no reason why people shouldn't have bought the game in 2014 because it was a new game which people were very curious about. But the sales numbers from 2015 would be much more interesting to know about. How much did they drop?
Is EA really considering to stop making more expansion because the sales numbers are becoming too low?
Is EA even considering to not develop TS5 at all?
Bad data are bad, even if they're the best we have. Since Origin and Steam don't release their sales figures, NPD's data are not accurate and in fact, given things we do know, make no sense. We know what number 3 on the list sold, total sales. We also know that had Sims 3 and 4 outsold the 3.7 million copies Blizzard claims, equalling close to 8 million is sales between the two, the share holders report would have been singing about it. There would have been no mention of low sales at launch, because 4 million copies of any game sold in 3 months is breathtakingly good.
What we know does not support Sims 4 being the best selling game of 2014 nor Sims 3 being the second best selling game in 2014. Maybe for POS, but when you toss in the huge unknown -- online sales -- and try to extrapolate from there, you're going to end up with bad data because you cannot assume that online sales will follow the same patterns as POS.
oh ignore involves going to the page of the offender;)) it's a hidden button:)) but I do agree:))) the best option to keep your nerves calm is to ignore the person or just use a sense of humor;)))
Origin ID : kateteaa Twitter: MunchPumpkins
Sims 3 wishlist: http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=teaa5
Sims 4 origin wishlist: https://www.origin.com/gbr/en-us/view-wishlist/7a1SQrtJtdHoNce4KS_ZTg--
Agreed! I've noticed the person very rarely engages in a productive manner so for the sake of calm, I just skim on by if I see their name pop up. I like constructive conversation, we don't all need to agree but arguing for the sake of it is pointless.
You actually use the gear wheel net to your user name top right ,account options and chose preferences, to the left you click on ignore and type in who you chose to ignore
Same applies to everyone
https://twitter.com/sparkfairy1
As a private person it is almost impossible to get information on what they know about you because they know that people would be upset if they knew. They have methods to collect all information about you both from all your internet activities and from your mobile phone and also to math those things and thereby break the anonymity. Danish television has just shown a US TV program about it.
So I believe that any statistic company could buy all this information if they wanted to. I just don't know the prices and if they buy it all the time. But Steam and Origin isn't protected from such data collection because nobody is.
Origin, Steam, and Apple do not give, sell, or otherwise release their data to the NPD group. And again, with what we DO know, NPD's data makes no sense. There is no way that Sims 3 or Sims 4 outsold the Diablo DLC (Blizzard did release the sales data). If they had, the stock holders report would have been highlighting that instead of talking about slow sales that were beginning to pick up.
Edit: Furthermore, NPD group does not claim to have those data. They get their on-line sales figures from consumer surveys. There's probably some extrapolation going on as well from the POS data. But in this case, it's so obviously off given the EA's shareholder reports and Blizzard's data, it's almost obnoxious that it would be defended.
Never ignored anyone:)) Now I know how the whole process is being applied;)) ty
@CherbitDip Agree;))) Some people are not able to accept the fact that somebody else has a different point of view.. or they think that they have the monopoly for the truth.. or people who use aggression or passive aggression in a discussion... those are for me a waste of time. There is nothing good coming out of it and we have only one life to live:)) and there are plenty of people with different than ours views to respect and have a good discussions with
Origin ID : kateteaa Twitter: MunchPumpkins
Sims 3 wishlist: http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=teaa5
Sims 4 origin wishlist: https://www.origin.com/gbr/en-us/view-wishlist/7a1SQrtJtdHoNce4KS_ZTg--
It either dies, or they decide to improve it. Either of those alternatives beats 'more of the same'.