I think it's important to keep in mind that we now live in an era where some of these parents played TS when they were younger as well, so they are familiar with the product. It's not necessarily a case of the kids introducing their parents to the game when they want to buy it.
TS4 is now 4 yrs old and has got 25 packs. It seems like TS4 still will get new packs even after TS5 (maybe under a different name) is released. But likely not more packs per year. So if TS4 still get packs for 4 more years it will likely be fewer than 25 more packs anyway.
After the release of TS5 (likely as an online multiplayer game) it is difficult to guess for how many years EA still will release packs for TS4. But I don’t think that TS4 packs will sell very well after 4 more years anyway. So I think that maybe 4-5 more years with TS4 packs being released is optimistic enough anyway.
Hey Erpe, no disrespect, and I like how optimistic you are, but why do you keep assuming TS5 is just around the corner? I mean, the gurus have said they plan to keep pushing content for 'years'. Why would they continue releasing content for TS4 once a new Sims game surfaced? That's unheard of. Unless you work with Maxis and know more than what the rest of us know, I just don't see TS5 popping up any time soon, or even a Sims 5 at all. Why have 2 teams working on Sims 4 content while having 2 or 3 other teams working on an entirely different game?
I think that I already have answered that. But let me just do it once more:
1. EA has always had different teams working on the Sims games since TS1 was released in 2000. One of those teams has always been working on the next basegame while the other teams were working on packs for the current game.
2. I think that the next big Sims game (TS5) will be an online multiplayer game of some kind. EA already considered that for TS4 but postponed the idea after the problems with SimCity. But EA still wants all its game to become online game services instead of still being traditional offline games because this seems to be the way for all the game companies to earn more money from their games. (People also thought that EA had given up on the weather when it was disabled in the Sims 2 basegame. But giving up isn’t EA’s style at all!)
3. If I am right that TS5 will become an online multiplayer game then EA knows that packs still can sell to TS4 simmers too because most of those simmers won’t just switch to TS5 anyway. Also MMO games usually have a much longer life than offline game usually have. So EA doesn’t need to start developing TS6 for several years and can thus use the TS6 devs to instead still develop packs for TS4 instead.
I get that you're throwing postivity into the atmosphere with a Sims 5 game, that the gurus have yet to confirm other than saying that they are no where near being finished with TS4 (not exact words). And I highly doubt it would be an online game. Not everyone has access to playing online, many prefer not playing online, so they wouldn't create a game where the entire basis of the game was to be played online. Leave the online play to MMOs and MMORPGs, and the app games. TS4 was originally going to be an online game, Olympus, but they scratched that, got rid of the online feature, and kept it as it is now with the only online feature being the Gallery.
I expect TS5 to be an online game and especially if EA still will make packs “for years to come” like Grant said. The reason why EA always has released a new basegame after 5 years has never been the current simmers and EA of course knows that more than half of those simmers won’t move on to the next basegame anyway when they already have all the packs for the old game. But 13 yrs olds can’t start with an old game that already has about 30 packs or more. Just imagine them now asking their parents to buy TS4 for them and the parents asking: “But doesn’t TS4 has a huge number of packs too? Can you really enjoy TS4 without all those packs?” What should the 13 yrs old answer? (The parents will likely ask the 13 yrs old to just continue to play the Sims Mobile instead until EA releases a new Sims game if the answer is that the huge number of packs are something that the 13 yrs old wishes too!)
But until the gurus actually make a statement as: "Hey guys, we are working on TS5 but we can't release any info as to when it will be released"
The gurus can’t say that because they have all signed a contract that forbids them to say anything about unannounced games. Therefore the only thing we know is that EA’s top just talked about big expectations about a yet unannounced game in a recent financial report. But we don’t even know if that game will be a Sims game.
My expectations have never changed because I have for years expected TS5 to be announced in the middle of 2018 and released in the second half of 2020. The new information about TS4 still getting new content for years to come only makes the release date a little more uncertain. But I still expect TS5 to be released in the second half of 2019 or in the beginning of 2020.
If Ts5 is going to be multiplayer, would it really be called Ts5? I would expect it to be a standalone game rather than the next installment of the Sims.
TS4 is now 4 yrs old and has got 25 packs. It seems like TS4 still will get new packs even after TS5 (maybe under a different name) is released. But likely not more packs per year. So if TS4 still get packs for 4 more years it will likely be fewer than 25 more packs anyway.
After the release of TS5 (likely as an online multiplayer game) it is difficult to guess for how many years EA still will release packs for TS4. But I don’t think that TS4 packs will sell very well after 4 more years anyway. So I think that maybe 4-5 more years with TS4 packs being released is optimistic enough anyway.
Hey Erpe, no disrespect, and I like how optimistic you are, but why do you keep assuming TS5 is just around the corner? I mean, the gurus have said they plan to keep pushing content for 'years'. Why would they continue releasing content for TS4 once a new Sims game surfaced? That's unheard of. Unless you work with Maxis and know more than what the rest of us know, I just don't see TS5 popping up any time soon, or even a Sims 5 at all. Why have 2 teams working on Sims 4 content while having 2 or 3 other teams working on an entirely different game?
I think that I already have answered that. But let me just do it once more:
1. EA has always had different teams working on the Sims games since TS1 was released in 2000. One of those teams has always been working on the next basegame while the other teams were working on packs for the current game.
2. I think that the next big Sims game (TS5) will be an online multiplayer game of some kind. EA already considered that for TS4 but postponed the idea after the problems with SimCity. But EA still wants all its game to become online game services instead of still being traditional offline games because this seems to be the way for all the game companies to earn more money from their games. (People also thought that EA had given up on the weather when it was disabled in the Sims 2 basegame. But giving up isn’t EA’s style at all!)
3. If I am right that TS5 will become an online multiplayer game then EA knows that packs still can sell to TS4 simmers too because most of those simmers won’t just switch to TS5 anyway. Also MMO games usually have a much longer life than offline game usually have. So EA doesn’t need to start developing TS6 for several years and can thus use the TS6 devs to instead still develop packs for TS4 instead.
I get that you're throwing postivity into the atmosphere with a Sims 5 game, that the gurus have yet to confirm other than saying that they are no where near being finished with TS4 (not exact words). And I highly doubt it would be an online game. Not everyone has access to playing online, many prefer not playing online, so they wouldn't create a game where the entire basis of the game was to be played online. Leave the online play to MMOs and MMORPGs, and the app games. TS4 was originally going to be an online game, Olympus, but they scratched that, got rid of the online feature, and kept it as it is now with the only online feature being the Gallery.
I expect TS5 to be an online game and especially if EA still will make packs “for years to come” like Grant said. The reason why EA always has released a new basegame after 5 years has never been the current simmers and EA of course knows that more than half of those simmers won’t move on to the next basegame anyway when they already have all the packs for the old game. But 13 yrs olds can’t start with an old game that already has about 30 packs or more. Just imagine them now asking their parents to buy TS4 for them and the parents asking: “But doesn’t TS4 has a huge number of packs too? Can you really enjoy TS4 without all those packs?” What should the 13 yrs old answer? (The parents will likely ask the 13 yrs old to just continue to play the Sims Mobile instead until EA releases a new Sims game if the answer is that the huge number of packs are something that the 13 yrs old wishes too!)
But until the gurus actually make a statement as: "Hey guys, we are working on TS5 but we can't release any info as to when it will be released"
The gurus can’t say that because they have all signed a contract that forbids them to say anything about unannounced games. Therefore the only thing we know is that EA’s top just talked about big expectations about a yet unannounced game in a recent financial report. But we don’t even know if that game will be a Sims game.
My expectations have never changed because I have for years expected TS5 to be announced in the middle of 2018 and released in the second half of 2020. The new information about TS4 still getting new content for years to come only makes the release date a little more uncertain. But I still expect TS5 to be released in the second half of 2019 or in the beginning of 2020.
If Ts5 is going to be multiplayer, would it really be called Ts5? I would expect it to be a standalone game rather than the next installment of the Sims.
I am not at all sure that it will be called TS5! But I am quite sure that it will replace TS5 anyway. It likely won’t be free like the mobile games and it will get paid content (packs) too. But maybe the packs will be fewer and /or different.
But guessing doesn’t really bring us further now. The interesting thing is if the game will be announced this month and maybe even in just a few hours
I think it's important to keep in mind that we now live in an era where some of these parents played TS when they were younger as well, so they are familiar with the product. It's not necessarily a case of the kids introducing their parents to the game when they want to buy it.
Most kids still become interested in the game by seeing it elsewhere and have parents who never played the game themselves. So the huge majority of such parents only know very little about the Sims games anyway.
Remember that the game usually only sell about 6 million copies to a population which is about 7.5 billion worldwide. I also remember some of my young students tell me that they didn’t know anybody else who played Sims games except themselves. So most people have never tried a Sims game on a PC.
I expect TS5 to be an online game and especially if EA still will make packs “for years to come” like Grant said. The reason why EA always has released a new basegame after 5 years has never been the current simmers and EA of course knows that more than half of those simmers won’t move on to the next basegame anyway when they already have all the packs for the old game. But 13 yrs olds can’t start with an old game that already has about 30 packs or more. Just imagine them now asking their parents to buy TS4 for them and the parents asking: “But doesn’t TS4 has a huge number of packs too? Can you really enjoy TS4 without all those packs?” What should the 13 yrs old answer? (The parents will likely ask the 13 yrs old to just continue to play the Sims Mobile instead until EA releases a new Sims game if the answer is that the huge number of packs are something that the 13 yrs old wishes too!)
I don't really understand why you think having a lot of DLC available would stop people from buying. I grew up just playing TS1 and TS2 without any other packs. I ended up buying TS3 when it was near the end of its 5 years and therefore had a ton of DLC available. I didn't remotely think anything of it because I was just planning on playing the basegame. Someone new to the sims won't be thinking they need all the packs, they will be thinking that they just need the basegame and can then pick and choose the odd DLC as they want it. As for the 13 year old in your scenario, they would insist to their parents that they don't need all of those packs because they're not stupid and know that they're more likely to get what they want that way. I also don't see why the parent would mind, most parents would only buy something like that for Birthdays and Christmases, doesn't matter if the basegame is new and there are only a few packs released a year or there are a ton of packs and the child picks the one they want most each time. To be honest, I would rather the latter because then I know the child actually wants it. Also a lot of young people will end up watching people playing on YouTube first, in which case the more DLC there is, the more fun the game will look and the more they will want it. The only thing that I could see causing problems in terms of putting off young people, is if the game starts to look outdated, which is why I think they chose the style that they did with TS4. But the amount of DLC? I just don't see that being a problem.
No, the new young simmers won’t see it as a problem. But their parents will! Parents always try to look forward and predict what will happen later and they will easily be able to see that their 13 yrs old later most likely will want the 30-50 already released packs and all later released packs too! Then they will calculate how much this will cost and then strongly advice their 13 yrs old to look on other games instead until EA maybe will release a new Sims game which will be better to start with!
Simmers here just forget that such young new simmers don’t have the needed money to pay for their games themselves. They need their parents to pay and parents don’t want to use hundreds of dollars on a game for their kid. This is IMO also the reason why SPs sell much better than EPs even though everybody in the forum seem to prefer EPs over SPs.
But the parents would know that when a new game releases, they will bring out DLC that the child will want anyway. Doesn't matter whether the DLC is already released when they buy the basegame or not, it's still the exact same situation. Sure the parent can inform the child that they won't be buying all of the DLC for them but that doesn't mean they can't still get the basegame and the odd pack as gifts if that's what the child wants. Also children get money for their Birthdays, Christmases and many get pocket money so they do have money to buy the game themselves. I suspect the type of parent who would be put off by the amount of DLC that comes with the sims, would be the parent that just never buys them any version of the game because they know it's just a cycle that repeats.
I agree. But why do you think that EA divides this game in a basegame, a lot of SPs, a lot of GPs and a lot of EPs? Why not just put it all into the basegame and sell it for the total price of maybe something like $800?
The reason of course is that then almost nobody would buy the game! People don’t add up the prices of the basegame and all future packs when they buy the basegame (even if they actually plan to buy (almost) everything). They just take into consideration that they only have to buy the cheap basegame and a couple of packs the first year. Then they see buying more packs next year just as an alternative to buying other games instead. Parents think in the same way. They only consider the price of the already released basegame and packs when their kid asks for permission to buy the game. Then if the kid still is interested next year they will consider what the kid can get then.
But the problem is that if 30 packs already have been released then the parents know that the kid won’t wait a whole year before asking for permission to get more packs. Most likely the kid will ask for new packs al ost every week until the kid has it all. But then the parents want to stop this before it even starts.
Adult casual gamers likely think in about the same way if they now consider to buy the Sims 4 basegame because they know that it will cost them a fortune to get all the released packs. So they will prefer to wait and see if EA won’t release TS5 soon so they instead can buy the packs for this game already when the packs are released.
Just compare this with the difference between buying a new car for cash (where you pay everything immediately) and instead just pay a little when you get the car and then divide the rest of the price over 72 months. People usually strongly prefer to only pay a little at the time
That just sounds like poor parenting if kids think they can keep asking for games every week. You just explain to the child that games are expensive and that they can ask for them on Birthdays and Christmas but that's it. Then it doesn't matter how many DLC packs are out, the child can only have x amount a year. Plus any they buy with their own money of course.
I think it's important to keep in mind that we now live in an era where some of these parents played TS when they were younger as well, so they are familiar with the product. It's not necessarily a case of the kids introducing their parents to the game when they want to buy it.
Most kids still become interested in the game by seeing it elsewhere and have parents who never played the game themselves. So the huge majority of such parents only know very little about the Sims games anyway.
Remember that the game usually only sell about 6 million copies to a population which is about 7.5 billion worldwide. I also remember some of my young students tell me that they didn’t know anybody else who played Sims games except themselves. So most people have never tried a Sims game on a PC.
That's crazy that they didn't know anybody that played the sims, I'm in my 20's and I don't think I've ever met someone in my age range who has never played the sims. It just seems to be something that everyone's done at some point.
I think it's important to keep in mind that we now live in an era where some of these parents played TS when they were younger as well, so they are familiar with the product. It's not necessarily a case of the kids introducing their parents to the game when they want to buy it.
Most kids still become interested in the game by seeing it elsewhere and have parents who never played the game themselves. So the huge majority of such parents only know very little about the Sims games anyway.
Remember that the game usually only sell about 6 million copies to a population which is about 7.5 billion worldwide. I also remember some of my young students tell me that they didn’t know anybody else who played Sims games except themselves. So most people have never tried a Sims game on a PC.
Pardon, who are you speaking for? The Sims is the best selling PC franchise of all-time, and has been around for nearly 20 years. It’s been referenced, parodied, and sampled in all sorts of things in that time frame as well so frankly I don’t know where these parents you mention are living - under a rock? I have never met someone who has no idea what The Sims is, regardless of whether they play it or not, it’s far from an unknown. Please don’t make vast generalizations that you can’t actually back up.
I think it's important to keep in mind that we now live in an era where some of these parents played TS when they were younger as well, so they are familiar with the product. It's not necessarily a case of the kids introducing their parents to the game when they want to buy it.
Most kids still become interested in the game by seeing it elsewhere and have parents who never played the game themselves. So the huge majority of such parents only know very little about the Sims games anyway.
Remember that the game usually only sell about 6 million copies to a population which is about 7.5 billion worldwide. I also remember some of my young students tell me that they didn’t know anybody else who played Sims games except themselves. So most people have never tried a Sims game on a PC.
Pardon, who are you speaking for? The Sims is the best selling PC franchise of all-time, and has been around for nearly 20 years. It’s been referenced, parodied, and sampled in all sorts of things in that time frame as well so frankly I don’t know where these parents you mention are living - under a rock? I have never met someone who has no idea what The Sims is, regardless of whether they play it or not, it’s far from an unknown. Please don’t make vast generalizations that you can’t actually back up.
I agree that everybody “knows” what the Sims is because they have seen some advertising about it and maybe even seen somebody play it for a couple of minutes. Even hardcore action gamers can tell you that it is a “boring dollhouse game for girls”
But does this mean that they really know what a Sims game is even though they never have owned a Sims game or tried it for more than maybe at most two minutes? I don’t think so!
Don't forget even if Maxis stop making EP or GP, they can still release a ton of Stuff Packs, there are so many objects and outfits to add to the game.
I think within the next 5-10 years they'll have University, Witches, a tropical destination, a farm pack, a few other random stuff packs and game packs, one last EP and then announce Sims 5
I honestly think that TS4 has, at the very least, 5 years left. Even if they have started on TS5, which lets be reasonable, will take YEARS before it's anywhere near ready to be released, they will be rolling out packs for a long while, especially since they have so many more ideas via surveys and have pretty much fully integrated the fans with polls and such. It's not going anywhere any time soon and I'm super fine with that. I'm ready for some completely NEW content!
they have said they have years left so i think they are just getting started who knows this might be the last sims game they just might keep upgrading and updating it like Microsoft does with Windows 10
I was conflicted about my answer because If we believe the recent info some (allegedly) ex-gurus released on reddit, Sims 5 is not a thing. The development of next generation usually starts shortly after a new game releases and according to those people they've never started working on a 5, and by the time they were leaving, it was still not in the works.
I'm actually inclined to believe that, sadly.
So while I selected under 25 I'm sort of leaning towards between 25 and 50.
I think that we are going to have less quantity of packs, but that doesnt necessarily means less content. We are probable receive less SPs for now on, more GP/EP and more free content too. Maybe 2 EPs each year, and 2 GPs too, not sure about SPs... But, lets see... There is no way of predicting it, they are changing many things inside the studio, so...
If 6 years are left, then 42 packs should be released.
If 10 years are left, then 70 packs should be released.
A total of 98 packs would mean 56 SP, 28 GP and 14 EP.
I think the gurus are talking about 3 yers this means we will get quite a few new packs but not more then 25 to me it feels like content for the sims 4 is starting to wind down if we take 3 years as gospel we can assume that the Sims 5 is so where in development ATM....ofcouse I could be wrong and they are just going to be releasing bigger Game & Stuff packs & bigger EP’s of a higher quality I think we can expect witches,University& farming in the next 3 years as EP’s possibly an island GP and a sports GP to boot the Sims 5 announcement will be at the end of next year probably. I don’t think they will make the same mistake that they made with the sims 4 EG: not mentioning the omission of open worlds the lack of pools no toddlers all theses things that we expected at release. The first EP of sims 5 should be Sesons.
I think it's important to keep in mind that we now live in an era where some of these parents played TS when they were younger as well, so they are familiar with the product. It's not necessarily a case of the kids introducing their parents to the game when they want to buy it.
Most kids still become interested in the game by seeing it elsewhere and have parents who never played the game themselves. So the huge majority of such parents only know very little about the Sims games anyway.
Remember that the game usually only sell about 6 million copies to a population which is about 7.5 billion worldwide. I also remember some of my young students tell me that they didn’t know anybody else who played Sims games except themselves. So most people have never tried a Sims game on a PC.
Pardon, who are you speaking for? The Sims is the best selling PC franchise of all-time, and has been around for nearly 20 years. It’s been referenced, parodied, and sampled in all sorts of things in that time frame as well so frankly I don’t know where these parents you mention are living - under a rock? I have never met someone who has no idea what The Sims is, regardless of whether they play it or not, it’s far from an unknown. Please don’t make vast generalizations that you can’t actually back up.
None of my family or friends had ever heard of The Sims. I think it depends on where you live. There are millions who never game. It may be the best selling pc game ever, which is true, but I can ask all my neighbors and I would bet big money they have no idea what it is. But the kids next door know what Candy Crush is and Angry Birds.
On topic, I doubt very much you see 25 packs in the next three years, or someone needs to start grinding. Stuff packs could easily count way past that amount but I think they just said they are going a different direction. Maybe multi player will be added.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
Comments
If Ts5 is going to be multiplayer, would it really be called Ts5? I would expect it to be a standalone game rather than the next installment of the Sims.
But guessing doesn’t really bring us further now. The interesting thing is if the game will be announced this month and maybe even in just a few hours
Remember that the game usually only sell about 6 million copies to a population which is about 7.5 billion worldwide. I also remember some of my young students tell me that they didn’t know anybody else who played Sims games except themselves. So most people have never tried a Sims game on a PC.
That just sounds like poor parenting if kids think they can keep asking for games every week. You just explain to the child that games are expensive and that they can ask for them on Birthdays and Christmas but that's it. Then it doesn't matter how many DLC packs are out, the child can only have x amount a year. Plus any they buy with their own money of course.
That's crazy that they didn't know anybody that played the sims, I'm in my 20's and I don't think I've ever met someone in my age range who has never played the sims. It just seems to be something that everyone's done at some point.
That alone would put it at a hefty fifty one - seems like a lot to me. x3
Pardon, who are you speaking for? The Sims is the best selling PC franchise of all-time, and has been around for nearly 20 years. It’s been referenced, parodied, and sampled in all sorts of things in that time frame as well so frankly I don’t know where these parents you mention are living - under a rock? I have never met someone who has no idea what The Sims is, regardless of whether they play it or not, it’s far from an unknown. Please don’t make vast generalizations that you can’t actually back up.
But does this mean that they really know what a Sims game is even though they never have owned a Sims game or tried it for more than maybe at most two minutes? I don’t think so!
The Sims 4 Ideas Corner
- 👕 [CAS] Male content | 💰 §1 Million Lifestyle | ♂️ Man lifestyle for The Sims | ♻️ Content from The Sims
- 🔨 [Build/Buy Mode] Ideas | 📱 Ideas from The Sims FreePlay | ✈️ Vacation : Gameplay update | 🥦 New meals
The Sims 4 General DiscussionIt came with a lot I downloaded! If you really want it, I can hunt it down for you.
4-8 GPS
10-15 SPS
So somewhere between 16-26
I'm actually inclined to believe that, sadly.
So while I selected under 25 I'm sort of leaning towards between 25 and 50.
That could mean in 4 years just we saw a small part of what they've planned.
The Sims 4 Ideas Corner
- 👕 [CAS] Male content | 💰 §1 Million Lifestyle | ♂️ Man lifestyle for The Sims | ♻️ Content from The Sims
- 🔨 [Build/Buy Mode] Ideas | 📱 Ideas from The Sims FreePlay | ✈️ Vacation : Gameplay update | 🥦 New meals
The Sims 4 General Discussionthey have been hinting at big and great things for the sims 4 since launch
most of the time it seemed to be quite the opposite.
I think the gurus are talking about 3 yers this means we will get quite a few new packs but not more then 25 to me it feels like content for the sims 4 is starting to wind down if we take 3 years as gospel we can assume that the Sims 5 is so where in development ATM....ofcouse I could be wrong and they are just going to be releasing bigger Game & Stuff packs & bigger EP’s of a higher quality I think we can expect witches,University& farming in the next 3 years as EP’s possibly an island GP and a sports GP to boot the Sims 5 announcement will be at the end of next year probably. I don’t think they will make the same mistake that they made with the sims 4 EG: not mentioning the omission of open worlds the lack of pools no toddlers all theses things that we expected at release. The first EP of sims 5 should be Sesons.
None of my family or friends had ever heard of The Sims. I think it depends on where you live. There are millions who never game. It may be the best selling pc game ever, which is true, but I can ask all my neighbors and I would bet big money they have no idea what it is. But the kids next door know what Candy Crush is and Angry Birds.
On topic, I doubt very much you see 25 packs in the next three years, or someone needs to start grinding. Stuff packs could easily count way past that amount but I think they just said they are going a different direction. Maybe multi player will be added.