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Not complaining, just asking: Is there a reason EA is holding back TS4 info?
SeanieRockz44
Posts: 852 New Member
First of all, this isn't a complaint thread about how bad EA are - I've seen enough of them to last me a lifetime.
I'm just asking, for curiosity - is there any reasons EA would be holding back TS4 info? Any marketing people might be able to shed some light on this. Is there a reason they could potentially be holding back info for another 2 months?
I can't see, from a businessperson's view, how alienating the fanbase is a good idea a few months before the product's release. But who knows what EA has in mind.
I'm just asking, for curiosity - is there any reasons EA would be holding back TS4 info? Any marketing people might be able to shed some light on this. Is there a reason they could potentially be holding back info for another 2 months?
I can't see, from a businessperson's view, how alienating the fanbase is a good idea a few months before the product's release. But who knows what EA has in mind.
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I think it's more likely that the delay is the reason for the silence. TS4 was set to release in early 2014 - March most likely, meaning it would already be out by now - but they delayed it by at least 6 months. After GamesCom last year, I said a number of times that they probably wouldn't start any real marketing until after ITF had come out, at least, and I still believe that to have been their plan, but they were then caught out by a delay before they started, and they were unprepared for it.
Recently, what I've been thinking as a possible expanation is that, when SimGuruRachel told us at the end of the year that there would be news in a few months, she really did mean only a few, not 9, and then they've been focusing entirely on actually making the game, and put off marketing until they had more to show. Eventually they ended up in a situation where they would be better off waiting for a big event like E3 to kick off a marketing blitz.
The delay was due to Titanfall. In the same notes that stated that they were delaying TS4 for Titanfall they stated that the reason they were delaying one for the other was because the TS4 followers weren't going anywhere, which either I misread or nobody picked up on or they don't care. Titanfall's first DLC drop is due in May. So that would be the reason for continued silence on TS4.
Or as you say, it's got that late it's best to do a big marketing blitz after E3.
The way I read that conference call, TS4 wasn't delayed because of Titanfall, Titanfall was more of a justification for the delay. They were still in Pre-Alpha last August, the only thing they had ready to show in their "big reveal" was CAS, and even that was far from finished. I doubt they would ever have been ready for a release in March. I think they had to delay, and they needed something else to put in its place to keep the shareholders happy, which was Titanfall. When they said The Sims will sell at any time of year, I read that as just a reassurement for the shareholders that TS4 will sell just as well in Autumn as it would in March.
Yes, i think that too..but honestly, i still think that they anounced it way too soon.
Do you think it was because of SimCity fiasco so they had to remake the game from scatch since it was suposed to be an online game (But the original anouncement date was already set so EA could not undo it) ?
I think they felt forced to announce it. The whole way this game has been marketed or should I say anti marketed has made me skeptical of the game. First they tell the yibsims they are going to keep them updated through the development of the game and as far as we know they have only been told what was said at sims camp. Then they announce info that causes an uproar with the fan base, like lack of CAST. Then in a blog we are told the next info will be info on genetics and other life stages, then months and months of silence, despite promises from the executive producer that we would get new info right after the new year. It makes you wonder if they haven't gotten as far as they thought in production or are there major problems with it. I just hope we don't have another delay so they can have time to market it, like how the sims 3 was delayed for marketing reasons.
Seeing as how Sims 4 is around half a year away at least (more if they delay again) they could be looking at a shorter window of intense marketing. Though why they would forbid any tidbits of info to the fans is beyond me.
Frankly, I hope they do delay if the rumors are true about the game needing to be rebuilt for offline mode are true. I'd much rather have the game more or less functional at launch months later than "play" a buggy broken incomplete mess on time, a la Simcity. Not to mention any features they'd have to cut to make a promised deadline.
When TS3 was coming out they had all kinds of media about it.
but one thing that is really gonna irk me.... if they put out this base game and it doesn't include some major things... like pets, weather, Cars, lots of building tools and landscaping..... that will just tick me off.
How many times do we have to go through this series and wait until EP 6 before we really start to get the things we want.
They know how to do it, so give us those things in the base game and start coming up with some really original ideas for expansion packs... Please.
All evidence points to that. You must be correct in your assumption.
They are hastily trying to put together a game in record time with the remains of a filed project.
He is doing the oppite of what that quote says. he's ignoring the cost-effective online channels, creating bad rapport and communication noise, killing the springboard for social marketing.
They already confirmed a lot of theses things are out. Which is short-sighted and you are correct. A more fufilling base game would create consumer satisfaction and willingness to pay for EPs. Now, buying the same EP for the fourth time may not entice consumers that much. Seasons had to be in the base game, for instance.
more like absent-minded
My guess is that there's something about it that they know will p*ss fans off and cause yet another PR nightmare, and they're putting it off as long as they can.
Either that or they just don't have a game to show off and TS4 is vaporware.