@hermitgirl No offense taken...I'm looking forward to 3 more years.
I was just pointing out that NOTHING is set in stone. EA has shut down game development on games that were very nearly done and had been 5+ years in the works, simply because of plans changing on a large scale. What is in the works doesn't mean "set in stone" as you and some others seem to think.
I will give you this though, it certainly means "Very, very likely"....just not "set in stone", so other than the use of the language "set in stone" or "gauranteed" ...I totally agree with you that it's very unlikely we won't see the 3 more years.
Heck..I honestly would prefer 4 more..or even 5. I'm not ready for a Sims 5.
Folks in this thread that are saying 3 more years is guaranteed because of what has been said need to stop and take a reality check. Companies make plans and then later scrap them and change course ALL the time, so there are definitely no guarantees. This is especially true where EA is concerned, they are (in)famous for sudden changes in direction and the scrapping of in progress development.
I do hope for 3 more years, I really would like to see 3 more years (if not more) of stuff added to TS4....but lets not kid ourselves that it is a sure thing, regardless of what has been said or planned.
The part I highlighted in bold is pretty true. Olympus was converted to TS4 at the drop of a hat. Things have been going around in all kinds of directions ever since!
IMO the lack of stuff packs isn't because they are starting to kill Sims 4. I think it's more that there was a lot of issues with them not being up to expectations. At least most everything I read/watched/heard was that the stuff packs were a lot worse for Sims 4 than what we had come to expect with Sims 2 and 3. I personally feel that the lack of stuff packs is a good thing because they didn't really add much or seem to really follow the same theme that I feel they were supposed to. I mean with Movie Stuff Pack none of the CAS stuff made me think movies. Of course I don't own many of the stuff packs right now because I feel they just don't add much to my game that I can't get with CC.
We know the Sims team has had some internal struggle this year. We know that for sure.
That doesn't have to mean anything in the long run. I highlighted have, because it still could. It could mean the end of the Sims as a whole very easily. But it doesn't have to. There were some conflicts and a few people lost their jobs. Maybe it is EA cutting down costs and slowly opting out of the Sims Franchise all together, maybe it is EA transferring Resources to the Start of the development of a successor game, maybe it really was some internal struggle and people left because of the team dynamic. We don't know.
We know the Sims team has had some internal struggle this year. We know that for sure.
That doesn't have to mean anything in the long run. I highlighted have, because it still could. It could mean the end of the Sims as a whole very easily. But it doesn't have to. There were some conflicts and a few people lost their jobs. Maybe it is EA cutting down costs and slowly opting out of the Sims Franchise all together, maybe it is EA transferring Resources to the Start of the development of a successor game, maybe it really was some internal struggle and people left because of the team dynamic. We don't know.
Do we actually know for sure there were any major conflicts, though? I'm curious for more info on this because, to my knowledge, only two people left, one of whom was the previous community manager.
From the information I saw, the CM left voluntarily, on good terms, and even wrote a farewell to us on the forums. We have seen EA moderators who come and go, do the same. These particular community jobs have nothing to do with development and in no way signifies any big problems in the company, especially when the position is filled again by someone new, which it was. Large companies hire people for specific purposes and postions, and sometimes, if the dynamic isn't working or the employee chooses to move on for whatever reason, things shift a little. Then they settle again.
The second position that I'm aware of was a single developer, who wrote an abrupt farewell on Twitter that hinted that it may not have been an amiable parting. If I remember correctly (and I'm really not sure,) he worked on something like world building or map design or the like. Again, I think. But his departure got the whole community clucking away that "something was wrong", "people were getting fired", "the Apocalypse had finally come", etc. But all it signifies is that there may have been some kind of issue with that one particular individual, which isn't such an unusual thing to happen in a company that has a few hundred people in their offices working on one huge, cohesive project.
If there is more information on any of this, I'm certainly interested in hearing it because I'd really like to know. But I think it should be noted that they have also added to the dev team this year, because I remember the introductions on Twitter by some of the other Sim Gurus. But generally the community doesn’t buzz about things like that so people don't always know.
I really don't think there was much of a struggle at all. In fact, the way they went full force to throw money into marketing, adding an entirely new Game Changer program and then shifting around development so that we got a ton of stuff this year, including a stuff pack, a game pack, two expansion packs, a gardening overhaul, terrain tools, holiday and Caribbean stuff, plus an official announcement of three more years of development at least...points to the exact opposite. They are moving forward and gaining momentum at last.
We know the Sims team has had some internal struggle this year. We know that for sure.
That doesn't have to mean anything in the long run. I highlighted have, because it still could. It could mean the end of the Sims as a whole very easily. But it doesn't have to. There were some conflicts and a few people lost their jobs. Maybe it is EA cutting down costs and slowly opting out of the Sims Franchise all together, maybe it is EA transferring Resources to the Start of the development of a successor game, maybe it really was some internal struggle and people left because of the team dynamic. We don't know.
Do we actually know for sure there were any major conflicts, though? I'm curious for more info on this because, to my knowledge, only two people left, one of whom was the previous community manager.
From the information I saw, the CM left voluntarily, on good terms, and even wrote a farewell to us on the forums. We have seen EA moderators who come and go, do the same. These particular community jobs have nothing to do with development and in no way signifies any big problems in the company, especially when the position is filled again by someone new, which it was. Large companies hire people for specific purposes and postions, and sometimes, if the dynamic isn't working or the employee chooses to move on for whatever reason, things shift a little. Then they settle again.
The second position that I'm aware of was a single developer, who wrote an abrupt farewell on Twitter that hinted that it may not have been an amiable parting. If I remember correctly (and I'm really not sure,) he worked on something like world building or map design or the like. Again, I think. But his departure got the whole community clucking away that "something was wrong", "people were getting fired", "the Apocalypse had finally come", etc. But all it signifies is that there may have been some kind of issue with that one particular individual, which isn't such an unusual thing to happen in a company that has a few hundred people in their offices working on one huge, cohesive project.
If there is more information on any of this, I'm certainly interested in hearing it because I'd really like to know. But I think it should be noted that they have also added to the dev team this year, because I remember the introductions on Twitter by some of the other Sim Gurus. But generally the community doesn’t buzz about things like that so people don't always know.
I really don't think there was much of a struggle at all. In fact, the way they went full force to throw money into marketing, adding an entirely new Game Changer program and then shifting around development so that we got a ton of stuff this year, including a stuff pack, a game pack, two expansion packs, a gardening overhaul, terrain tools, holiday and Caribbean stuff, plus an official announcement of three more years of development at least...points to the exact opposite. They are moving forward and gaining momentum at last.
There was this guy on the Internet claiming to be one of over 30 people who was laid off. He says he disagrees on how the company wants to handle the franchise going forward, claiming that there will be a bunch of mediocre packs in the following years until the cow is milked dry, and then the franchise will be put to rest to be rebooted in a few decades for mobile devices only.
At first, I didn't believe anything. I thought this was just another Troll. There are a lot of people who claim "My Girlfriend works at this gaming company, and she told me about this upcoming game..." just for the clicks.
But the Community Manager left at the same time, there was some talk of her doing stuff her employers disapproved of, and just afterward, they "Switched things up" even moving prominent SimGurus from the stuff pack team to the EP team.
So in that context, it gave this person much credibility. The Jobs that were offered afterward didn't fit, but I brushed it of as the company changing strategy.
With the reputation EA has as a money grabbing, heartless company who doesn't care about quality or gamers, only about maximizing profit, it fit perfectly.
We had two EPs, true, but no SP and no GP in a while, and with two EPs just after each other, it can feel as if development gains momentum if we just look at the latter half of the year. EPs take much longer to make. And get Famous is a pack where content from unfinished, canceled packs easily fits. Also, the game updates broke the game at least twice this year with those game breaking bugs.
The EPs were both in the making before all that happens, and TBH Get Famous feels very "Frankenstein-y" to me.
The true consequences of what happened back then, we will be able to fully experience in the first two quarters of 2019, and we'll see if you are right and we're getting 4 EPs from now on each year.
@Armilus616 Always take anything said by a "former" employee with a grain of salt. Regardless of how accurate what they say may be to them, their bias will still cloud it. It's just how people are wired. By the same token, of course, take what is officially said by a company with a grain of salt.
Reality most often lies in between.
As far as number of folks laid off, etc...it's pretty irrelevant when talking game development. People working in the field are specialists, not generalists, and it takes a 'team' to make things for any game. As development needs shift, it is pretty standard in the industry for folks to get laid off whose main role is no longer needed as much of.
This particularly effects games as they reach a later stage of their development but also would hold true for an ongoing project like the Sims where a shift in focus (such as away from so many SPs...) is going to mean that as many people will no longer be needed for certain roles.
@Armilus616 Always take anything said by a "former" employee with a grain of salt. Regardless of how accurate what they say may be to them, their bias will still cloud it. It's just how people are wired. By the same token, of course, take what is officially said by a company with a grain of salt.
Reality most often lies in between.
As far as number of folks laid off, etc...it's pretty irrelevant when talking game development. People working in the field are specialists, not generalists, and it takes a 'team' to make things for any game. As development needs shift, it is pretty standard in the industry for folks to get laid off whose main role is no longer needed as much of.
This particularly effects games as they reach a later stage of their development but also would hold true for an ongoing project like the Sims where a shift in focus (such as away from so many SPs...) is going to mean that as many people will no longer be needed for certain roles.
True. Fully Agree.
But with that line of thinking, we have absolutely nothing to go by. They could announce Sims 5 tomorrow, keep releasing Packs for 4 for 30 years (not just 3 but 30. This wasn't a typo) or stop with the packs in early 2020 and never do anything Sims related again, and say all sorts of things, even hinting at a multiplayer EP for Sims 3. If no word is to be believed, why does anyone say anything? They could just occasionally drop a trailer a few weeks before a pack comes out, and not communicate with us at all outside of that, and we'd have the exact same amount of information, Get Famous could be the very last Pack to ever be released, or still only one of the first ones.
Me personally, I'd like to think that at least what the Gurus say has some credibility, even though they are required to keep bad news under a rug and make any other news or their very existence as exciting as possible while also keeping any plans for future content ridiculously secret.
I'd also like to think that if a real former employee speaks out about the company, he is at least partially right. But I know there are a lot of pretenders out there.
Going off of what there is from those sources and what I can piece together from my observations and common sense, there were people laid off for one reason or another, which ones that was, we can only speculate, there was some internal struggle at least between individual people, if not between some people who left the company and the company, the layoffs were significant enough to affect the way packs are made and released.
That could mean a lot.
It could mean that EA is abandoning the Sims, it could mean that EA is allocating resources to develop Sims 5 or different Sims games, it could also just mean that some internal conflict resulted in a few people leaving and the Team having to adapt, having some effect in the short run, but will be ultimately meaningless in the long run, it could also mean that the team was optimized and will now work much better, faster and with a better output and we have amazing time ahead of us.
I just don't assume the best case scenario. That way, I'm not constantly disappointed.
Personally, I hope they keep Sims4 around until we have more content than in Sims3. When you consider the store & all the games, that would well be over 4 years. I have no interest in wasting money to scrap Sims4 when it isn't fleshed out at all. They have said for a long time that Sims4 wouldn't be like the others ie no Supernaturals EP; that will all probably be gamepacks or some in with an EP it is closely connected to like the Mermaids were in S3. Since this game is more online than the others that were more disc based, it is easier for them to keep it going longer.
Many wanted S4 and now don't like it and they hope that S5 will be what they want. I didn't want S4. I was perfectly happy with S3, which requires time I don't have to play because I get totally caught up in it. I haven't played S4 or any other Sims game since Aug.12 and I was shocked when I saw that today. 4 1/2 months. Just crazy. I had been a near daily player since S3 World Adventures came out.
I will say there are things in S4 that I'm very happy with. The ease of copying townies to the game, the ease in erasing accessories in CAS, some build and move features, the ease of saving, and the ease of using CAS. I hate hearing any talk of S5 at all. Open worlds is the only improvement worth going on to S5 in my opinion. I think since they have a great thing going with Sims4 and players with computers that aren't gaming computers and can't handle some things. I think S5 should start out with current computers and not to low end computers and that way they could push the boundries of what they can do. I would have to get a new computer to play it, but if it made the game so much better, it would be worth it.
P I think S5 should start out with current computers and not to low end computers and that way they could push the boundries of what they can do. I would have to get a new computer to play it, but if it made the game so much better, it would be worth it.
see i agree with this the Sims 4 is now 7 years old an a new computer from 7 years ago is an old computer now and I assume that a 7 year old computer could easily run an open world without rabbit-holes I mean come on with multi core PC's we could total run a new game.
Uhh..@doogerie TS4 is not 7 years old. It just passed 4 in September.
As far as performance goes, age of the computer is not the only thing that matters. Hardware and GPU on what you buy is far more important.
Unlike a few decades ago, the technology in computers is not advancing at such a rate where performance is increasing practically exponentially every few years...instead, the top end gets just a little bit better, and the lower and mid-price range barely changes. My computer is over 4 years old now and still benchmarks near the top for new games, but I have a friend who just bought a new one last year that is ..well...not very good for gaming at all.
Personally, I hope they keep Sims4 around until we have more content than in Sims3. When you consider the store & all the games, that would well be over 4 years. I have no interest in wasting money to scrap Sims4 when it isn't fleshed out at all. They have said for a long time that Sims4 wouldn't be like the others ie no Supernaturals EP; that will all probably be gamepacks or some in with an EP it is closely connected to like the Mermaids were in S3. Since this game is more online than the others that were more disc based, it is easier for them to keep it going longer.
I cannot see them making content for 3 more years to be honest....Sims 4 has to be nearly finished. There are a few things left that would fill this year and most of 2020 but HOW could they miss the 20th anniversary in September 2020 and NOT launch the Sims 5? That would be a mistake. of course this also leads me to think they're nowhere near half way finished with The Sims 5 so that's why they'd need 3 extra years. With us having to wait months and months for content, this is not something that I'm looking forward to. I miss having stuff packs, they were usually good and they were cheap. I've played every single generation of this game from day one and I've got to say, for the first time I'm getting BORED. That's never happened before. I don't like using CC or Mods because I like sharing stuff on the gallery so unless they make builds available on the gallery for everyone to see that contain CC/mods, it's just gonna be boring.
Check my builds and Sims out on the Gallery, username Lizzychicago!
I cannot see them making content for 3 more years to be honest....Sims 4 has to be nearly finished. There are a few things left that would fill this year and most of 2020 but HOW could they miss the 20th anniversary in September 2020 and NOT launch the Sims 5? That would be a mistake. of course this also leads me to think they're nowhere near half way finished with The Sims 5 so that's why they'd need 3 extra years. With us having to wait months and months for content, this is not something that I'm looking forward to. I miss having stuff packs, they were usually good and they were cheap. I've played every single generation of this game from day one and I've got to say, for the first time I'm getting BORED. That's never happened before. I don't like using CC or Mods because I like sharing stuff on the gallery so unless they make builds available on the gallery for everyone to see that contain CC/mods, it's just gonna be boring.
If there isn't going to be a Sims 5 at that time of the year, then there is a possibility that The Sims Team will drop a huge update to celebrate 20th year of The Sims.
Actually that reminds me, The Sims is turning 19 this Febuary! I am starting to feel old 😅
I cannot see them making content for 3 more years to be honest....Sims 4 has to be nearly finished. There are a few things left that would fill this year and most of 2020 but HOW could they miss the 20th anniversary in September 2020 and NOT launch the Sims 5? That would be a mistake. of course this also leads me to think they're nowhere near half way finished with The Sims 5 so that's why they'd need 3 extra years. With us having to wait months and months for content, this is not something that I'm looking forward to. I miss having stuff packs, they were usually good and they were cheap. I've played every single generation of this game from day one and I've got to say, for the first time I'm getting BORED. That's never happened before. I don't like using CC or Mods because I like sharing stuff on the gallery so unless they make builds available on the gallery for everyone to see that contain CC/mods, it's just gonna be boring.
The 20th anniversary is in February 2020, not September. So we're only about 13 months from the 20th anniversary and TS5 is definitely not launching in 13 months.
We know the Sims team has had some internal struggle this year. We know that for sure.
That doesn't have to mean anything in the long run. I highlighted have, because it still could. It could mean the end of the Sims as a whole very easily. But it doesn't have to. There were some conflicts and a few people lost their jobs. Maybe it is EA cutting down costs and slowly opting out of the Sims Franchise all together, maybe it is EA transferring Resources to the Start of the development of a successor game, maybe it really was some internal struggle and people left because of the team dynamic. We don't know.
Do we actually know for sure there were any major conflicts, though? I'm curious for more info on this because, to my knowledge, only two people left, one of whom was the previous community manager.
From the information I saw, the CM left voluntarily, on good terms, and even wrote a farewell to us on the forums. We have seen EA moderators who come and go, do the same. These particular community jobs have nothing to do with development and in no way signifies any big problems in the company, especially when the position is filled again by someone new, which it was. Large companies hire people for specific purposes and postions, and sometimes, if the dynamic isn't working or the employee chooses to move on for whatever reason, things shift a little. Then they settle again.
The second position that I'm aware of was a single developer, who wrote an abrupt farewell on Twitter that hinted that it may not have been an amiable parting. If I remember correctly (and I'm really not sure,) he worked on something like world building or map design or the like. Again, I think. But his departure got the whole community clucking away that "something was wrong", "people were getting fired", "the Apocalypse had finally come", etc. But all it signifies is that there may have been some kind of issue with that one particular individual, which isn't such an unusual thing to happen in a company that has a few hundred people in their offices working on one huge, cohesive project.
If there is more information on any of this, I'm certainly interested in hearing it because I'd really like to know. But I think it should be noted that they have also added to the dev team this year, because I remember the introductions on Twitter by some of the other Sim Gurus. But generally the community doesn’t buzz about things like that so people don't always know.
I really don't think there was much of a struggle at all. In fact, the way they went full force to throw money into marketing, adding an entirely new Game Changer program and then shifting around development so that we got a ton of stuff this year, including a stuff pack, a game pack, two expansion packs, a gardening overhaul, terrain tools, holiday and Caribbean stuff, plus an official announcement of three more years of development at least...points to the exact opposite. They are moving forward and gaining momentum at last.
There was this guy on the Internet claiming to be one of over 30 people who was laid off. He says he disagrees on how the company wants to handle the franchise going forward, claiming that there will be a bunch of mediocre packs in the following years until the cow is milked dry, and then the franchise will be put to rest to be rebooted in a few decades for mobile devices only.
At first, I didn't believe anything. I thought this was just another Troll. There are a lot of people who claim "My Girlfriend works at this gaming company, and she told me about this upcoming game..." just for the clicks.
But the Community Manager left at the same time, there was some talk of her doing stuff her employers disapproved of, and just afterward, they "Switched things up" even moving prominent SimGurus from the stuff pack team to the EP team.
So in that context, it gave this person much credibility. The Jobs that were offered afterward didn't fit, but I brushed it of as the company changing strategy.
With the reputation EA has as a money grabbing, heartless company who doesn't care about quality or gamers, only about maximizing profit, it fit perfectly.
We had two EPs, true, but no SP and no GP in a while, and with two EPs just after each other, it can feel as if development gains momentum if we just look at the latter half of the year. EPs take much longer to make. And get Famous is a pack where content from unfinished, canceled packs easily fits. Also, the game updates broke the game at least twice this year with those game breaking bugs.
The EPs were both in the making before all that happens, and TBH Get Famous feels very "Frankenstein-y" to me.
The true consequences of what happened back then, we will be able to fully experience in the first two quarters of 2019, and we'll see if you are right and we're getting 4 EPs from now on each year.
I think they decided to take a break from SPs, maybe rethink the strategies, after the bad taste MFP left in people's mouths (which is a shame because if you take out the stuff that requires C&D, it's actually a cute little pack; I like that children can Study Rodent and that counts as their homework for the day which is a nice change from the boring workbook). For those of us who don't want to fall into the CC rabbithole, SPs make a relatively inexpensive way to add content, and with an actual gameplay object (like washers/dryers in Laundry Day or the puppet theater and Voidcritters in Kids Room) they're a better deal than Sims 3 SPs.
As someone who lives in the heart of Silicon Valley (also known as Silly Con Valley to many residents), I've seen layoffs and outright firings of people not doing their jobs, as well as numerous reorganizations that leave people on the outside looking in after being escorted from the building with their personal effects in a cardboard box. I'm not privy to what goes on behind the walls of EA, much less the Maxis division, but there could have been a lot of reasons why those folks were let go. Maybe more of the design work is being contracted out so they didn't need as many designers. Or maybe some of those people weren't performing up to snuff on the development end. And people spouting on Twitter or Facebook or what have you might be just sour grapes. And people leaving voluntarily is definitely A Thing as well -- people get headhunters calling them all the time with better offers from other companies. The daughter of one of my cousins went from Forbes to Facebook to some other company in the space of like 2 years -- partly for new challenges, partly for more money. The fact that so many of the developers have been there since Sims 3, and even Sims 2 in some cases, is actually pretty unusual in the business.
I think we'll see both SPs and GPs make a comeback in 2019 IMHO. Maybe not as many (when it comes to SPs) but there are themes that could lend themselves to the SP format. I'd personally love to see a Teen SP that would flesh out the age stage a bit more and give them more uniqueness rather than feeling like mini-adults. Adults and elders could also use some SP love. As for GPs, witches/magic would be an obvious theme when you look at the success of Vampires; while I'd love to see a full on EP like a modern day Makin' Magic reboot, I could go with a GP treatment. A Romance GP that would add Shower Woohoo in the pre-pack patch, plus improved weddings including veils in the headgear section and the ability to set the Sim's wedding outfit (matching outfits for same-sex couples, for example, or jeans and Boho wear for hippie couples) plus slow dancing would make at least one Sims player happy. Maybe even an inns and hotels GP to do for vacation spots what Dine Out did for restauarants -- the ability to own/run your own establishment and add content to spruce them up a bit. An inn for Brindleton Bay or maybe a luxury hotel up in the Pinnacles of Del Sol Valley would make a nice addition. There are plenty of themes out there.
Check out my Gallery! Origin ID: justme22
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
I cannot see them making content for 3 more years to be honest....Sims 4 has to be nearly finished. There are a few things left that would fill this year and most of 2020 but HOW could they miss the 20th anniversary in September 2020 and NOT launch the Sims 5? That would be a mistake. of course this also leads me to think they're nowhere near half way finished with The Sims 5 so that's why they'd need 3 extra years. With us having to wait months and months for content, this is not something that I'm looking forward to. I miss having stuff packs, they were usually good and they were cheap. I've played every single generation of this game from day one and I've got to say, for the first time I'm getting BORED. That's never happened before. I don't like using CC or Mods because I like sharing stuff on the gallery so unless they make builds available on the gallery for everyone to see that contain CC/mods, it's just gonna be boring.
People can see content with CC on the Gallery by checking the Enable Custom Content checkbox. The mods I use don't impact building unless I accidentally equip the lot with modded content (I use a mod that enables the CL apartment bulletin boards to be placed on any lot, as well as CC that allows me to add insect spawners to lots). Most of the mods I use allow me to play the game my way, like with MCCC I get random marriages/births (sometimes in that order), or I can have my Sim get child support for all the kids she has. As I said above, I think that SPs (and GPs) will make a comeback in 2019, after they've taken some time to evaluate the proposed themes and the process. Maybe we'll even see another Community Stuff Pack project, who knows?
Check out my Gallery! Origin ID: justme22
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
I cannot see them making content for 3 more years to be honest....Sims 4 has to be nearly finished. There are a few things left that would fill this year and most of 2020 but HOW could they miss the 20th anniversary in September 2020 and NOT launch the Sims 5? That would be a mistake. of course this also leads me to think they're nowhere near half way finished with The Sims 5 so that's why they'd need 3 extra years. With us having to wait months and months for content, this is not something that I'm looking forward to. I miss having stuff packs, they were usually good and they were cheap. I've played every single generation of this game from day one and I've got to say, for the first time I'm getting BORED. That's never happened before. I don't like using CC or Mods because I like sharing stuff on the gallery so unless they make builds available on the gallery for everyone to see that contain CC/mods, it's just gonna be boring.
I agree that it could be a missed marketing opportunity but I'm sure they will find a way to mark the milestone. I've been playing since day one as well so I feel you but I'd rather them give us S5 when its ready, I can't go through another experience like S4 again haha.
The reason Sims 3 was so quickly developed was because it ripped off the Sims 2 engine. The reason it lasted 4 years was because it simply couldn't handle more content. It having limited DLC potential was already known by EA and Devs, which is why they were prepping up for Sims 4 even when Sims 3 started hitting the shelves - because they didn't want The Sims franchise to have dry spells. This is why it LOOKS like 'every four years'. It's logic and mathematics.
But Sims 4 has lasted 4 years and is set to last 7 - at least. That's just how easy it is to add content. It's been ported to consoles and they even use its cartoonish style in their mobile games.
Game Devs have a lousy union. If the Sims 4 comes to an end, they've got two options - go to Sims 5 - which will almost certainly be built with a different engine - or look for work elsewhere.
Which is why 'at least three years' really does mean 'at least'. I mean, have you ever heard of a game released AHEAD of schedule?
Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
The reason Sims 3 was so quickly developed was because it ripped off the Sims 2 engine. The reason it lasted 4 years was because it simply couldn't handle more content. It having limited DLC potential was already known by EA and Devs, which is why they were prepping up for Sims 4 even when Sims 3 started hitting the shelves - because they didn't want The Sims franchise to have dry spells. This is why it LOOKS like 'every four years'. It's logic and mathematics.
But Sims 4 has lasted 4 years and is set to last 7 - at least. That's just how easy it is to add content. It's been ported to consoles and they even use its cartoonish style in their mobile games.
Game Devs have a lousy union. If the Sims 4 comes to an end, they've got two options - go to Sims 5 - which will almost certainly be built with a different engine - or look for work elsewhere.
Which is why 'at least three years' really does mean 'at least'. I mean, have you ever heard of a game released AHEAD of schedule?
The Sims 4 was released behind schedule yet was still incomplete and would require at least a decade for it to catch up with TS3.
I am sorry but that is just not good enough for a game in this day and age!
I think it felt slow this year because the release schedule was weird compared to previous years. We did actually have 1 Game pack (JA) 2 Stuff packs (LD and MFPS) and 2 Expansions (S and GF) We also had a chunk of free content including CAS items, skin tones, hairs, glass roofs, revamped gardening, BB items, first person camera and the new career. That's a LOT of free stuff. Since expansions are also much bigger than game or stuff packs the amount of content is comparative to previous years.
It feels odd though because the stuff packs and game packs all came out super close together over Jan, Feb and March then we had nothing until June when we got free stuff and Seasons. I assume the odd release dates may be because of console as they seem to be striving to get the console stuff out quickly so probably need to schedule in order to not have too much at once releasing.
There's still so much they could do to the game. I'm excited to see what's next. I would prefer it to be more evenly spread out though!
Comments
I was just pointing out that NOTHING is set in stone. EA has shut down game development on games that were very nearly done and had been 5+ years in the works, simply because of plans changing on a large scale. What is in the works doesn't mean "set in stone" as you and some others seem to think.
I will give you this though, it certainly means "Very, very likely"....just not "set in stone", so other than the use of the language "set in stone" or "gauranteed" ...I totally agree with you that it's very unlikely we won't see the 3 more years.
Heck..I honestly would prefer 4 more..or even 5. I'm not ready for a Sims 5.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
The part I highlighted in bold is pretty true. Olympus was converted to TS4 at the drop of a hat. Things have been going around in all kinds of directions ever since!
That doesn't have to mean anything in the long run. I highlighted have, because it still could. It could mean the end of the Sims as a whole very easily. But it doesn't have to. There were some conflicts and a few people lost their jobs. Maybe it is EA cutting down costs and slowly opting out of the Sims Franchise all together, maybe it is EA transferring Resources to the Start of the development of a successor game, maybe it really was some internal struggle and people left because of the team dynamic. We don't know.
Do we actually know for sure there were any major conflicts, though? I'm curious for more info on this because, to my knowledge, only two people left, one of whom was the previous community manager.
From the information I saw, the CM left voluntarily, on good terms, and even wrote a farewell to us on the forums. We have seen EA moderators who come and go, do the same. These particular community jobs have nothing to do with development and in no way signifies any big problems in the company, especially when the position is filled again by someone new, which it was. Large companies hire people for specific purposes and postions, and sometimes, if the dynamic isn't working or the employee chooses to move on for whatever reason, things shift a little. Then they settle again.
The second position that I'm aware of was a single developer, who wrote an abrupt farewell on Twitter that hinted that it may not have been an amiable parting. If I remember correctly (and I'm really not sure,) he worked on something like world building or map design or the like. Again, I think. But his departure got the whole community clucking away that "something was wrong", "people were getting fired", "the Apocalypse had finally come", etc. But all it signifies is that there may have been some kind of issue with that one particular individual, which isn't such an unusual thing to happen in a company that has a few hundred people in their offices working on one huge, cohesive project.
If there is more information on any of this, I'm certainly interested in hearing it because I'd really like to know. But I think it should be noted that they have also added to the dev team this year, because I remember the introductions on Twitter by some of the other Sim Gurus. But generally the community doesn’t buzz about things like that so people don't always know.
I really don't think there was much of a struggle at all. In fact, the way they went full force to throw money into marketing, adding an entirely new Game Changer program and then shifting around development so that we got a ton of stuff this year, including a stuff pack, a game pack, two expansion packs, a gardening overhaul, terrain tools, holiday and Caribbean stuff, plus an official announcement of three more years of development at least...points to the exact opposite. They are moving forward and gaining momentum at last.
There was this guy on the Internet claiming to be one of over 30 people who was laid off. He says he disagrees on how the company wants to handle the franchise going forward, claiming that there will be a bunch of mediocre packs in the following years until the cow is milked dry, and then the franchise will be put to rest to be rebooted in a few decades for mobile devices only.
At first, I didn't believe anything. I thought this was just another Troll. There are a lot of people who claim "My Girlfriend works at this gaming company, and she told me about this upcoming game..." just for the clicks.
But the Community Manager left at the same time, there was some talk of her doing stuff her employers disapproved of, and just afterward, they "Switched things up" even moving prominent SimGurus from the stuff pack team to the EP team.
So in that context, it gave this person much credibility. The Jobs that were offered afterward didn't fit, but I brushed it of as the company changing strategy.
With the reputation EA has as a money grabbing, heartless company who doesn't care about quality or gamers, only about maximizing profit, it fit perfectly.
We had two EPs, true, but no SP and no GP in a while, and with two EPs just after each other, it can feel as if development gains momentum if we just look at the latter half of the year. EPs take much longer to make. And get Famous is a pack where content from unfinished, canceled packs easily fits. Also, the game updates broke the game at least twice this year with those game breaking bugs.
The EPs were both in the making before all that happens, and TBH Get Famous feels very "Frankenstein-y" to me.
The true consequences of what happened back then, we will be able to fully experience in the first two quarters of 2019, and we'll see if you are right and we're getting 4 EPs from now on each year.
Reality most often lies in between.
As far as number of folks laid off, etc...it's pretty irrelevant when talking game development. People working in the field are specialists, not generalists, and it takes a 'team' to make things for any game. As development needs shift, it is pretty standard in the industry for folks to get laid off whose main role is no longer needed as much of.
This particularly effects games as they reach a later stage of their development but also would hold true for an ongoing project like the Sims where a shift in focus (such as away from so many SPs...) is going to mean that as many people will no longer be needed for certain roles.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
True. Fully Agree.
But with that line of thinking, we have absolutely nothing to go by. They could announce Sims 5 tomorrow, keep releasing Packs for 4 for 30 years (not just 3 but 30. This wasn't a typo) or stop with the packs in early 2020 and never do anything Sims related again, and say all sorts of things, even hinting at a multiplayer EP for Sims 3. If no word is to be believed, why does anyone say anything? They could just occasionally drop a trailer a few weeks before a pack comes out, and not communicate with us at all outside of that, and we'd have the exact same amount of information, Get Famous could be the very last Pack to ever be released, or still only one of the first ones.
Me personally, I'd like to think that at least what the Gurus say has some credibility, even though they are required to keep bad news under a rug and make any other news or their very existence as exciting as possible while also keeping any plans for future content ridiculously secret.
I'd also like to think that if a real former employee speaks out about the company, he is at least partially right. But I know there are a lot of pretenders out there.
Going off of what there is from those sources and what I can piece together from my observations and common sense, there were people laid off for one reason or another, which ones that was, we can only speculate, there was some internal struggle at least between individual people, if not between some people who left the company and the company, the layoffs were significant enough to affect the way packs are made and released.
That could mean a lot.
It could mean that EA is abandoning the Sims, it could mean that EA is allocating resources to develop Sims 5 or different Sims games, it could also just mean that some internal conflict resulted in a few people leaving and the Team having to adapt, having some effect in the short run, but will be ultimately meaningless in the long run, it could also mean that the team was optimized and will now work much better, faster and with a better output and we have amazing time ahead of us.
I just don't assume the best case scenario. That way, I'm not constantly disappointed.
Many wanted S4 and now don't like it and they hope that S5 will be what they want. I didn't want S4. I was perfectly happy with S3, which requires time I don't have to play because I get totally caught up in it. I haven't played S4 or any other Sims game since Aug.12 and I was shocked when I saw that today. 4 1/2 months. Just crazy. I had been a near daily player since S3 World Adventures came out.
I will say there are things in S4 that I'm very happy with. The ease of copying townies to the game, the ease in erasing accessories in CAS, some build and move features, the ease of saving, and the ease of using CAS. I hate hearing any talk of S5 at all. Open worlds is the only improvement worth going on to S5 in my opinion. I think since they have a great thing going with Sims4 and players with computers that aren't gaming computers and can't handle some things. I think S5 should start out with current computers and not to low end computers and that way they could push the boundries of what they can do. I would have to get a new computer to play it, but if it made the game so much better, it would be worth it.
see i agree with this the Sims 4 is now 7 years old an a new computer from 7 years ago is an old computer now and I assume that a 7 year old computer could easily run an open world without rabbit-holes I mean come on with multi core PC's we could total run a new game.
As far as performance goes, age of the computer is not the only thing that matters. Hardware and GPU on what you buy is far more important.
Unlike a few decades ago, the technology in computers is not advancing at such a rate where performance is increasing practically exponentially every few years...instead, the top end gets just a little bit better, and the lower and mid-price range barely changes. My computer is over 4 years old now and still benchmarks near the top for new games, but I have a friend who just bought a new one last year that is ..well...not very good for gaming at all.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
You might be waiting a while...
They have years of content left. 3 more years of Sims 4 is very plausible.
If there isn't going to be a Sims 5 at that time of the year, then there is a possibility that The Sims Team will drop a huge update to celebrate 20th year of The Sims.
Actually that reminds me, The Sims is turning 19 this Febuary! I am starting to feel old 😅
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/924539/features-that-needs-depth-and-ways-to-improve
The 20th anniversary is in February 2020, not September. So we're only about 13 months from the 20th anniversary and TS5 is definitely not launching in 13 months.
I think they decided to take a break from SPs, maybe rethink the strategies, after the bad taste MFP left in people's mouths (which is a shame because if you take out the stuff that requires C&D, it's actually a cute little pack; I like that children can Study Rodent and that counts as their homework for the day which is a nice change from the boring workbook). For those of us who don't want to fall into the CC rabbithole, SPs make a relatively inexpensive way to add content, and with an actual gameplay object (like washers/dryers in Laundry Day or the puppet theater and Voidcritters in Kids Room) they're a better deal than Sims 3 SPs.
As someone who lives in the heart of Silicon Valley (also known as Silly Con Valley to many residents), I've seen layoffs and outright firings of people not doing their jobs, as well as numerous reorganizations that leave people on the outside looking in after being escorted from the building with their personal effects in a cardboard box. I'm not privy to what goes on behind the walls of EA, much less the Maxis division, but there could have been a lot of reasons why those folks were let go. Maybe more of the design work is being contracted out so they didn't need as many designers. Or maybe some of those people weren't performing up to snuff on the development end. And people spouting on Twitter or Facebook or what have you might be just sour grapes. And people leaving voluntarily is definitely A Thing as well -- people get headhunters calling them all the time with better offers from other companies. The daughter of one of my cousins went from Forbes to Facebook to some other company in the space of like 2 years -- partly for new challenges, partly for more money. The fact that so many of the developers have been there since Sims 3, and even Sims 2 in some cases, is actually pretty unusual in the business.
I think we'll see both SPs and GPs make a comeback in 2019 IMHO. Maybe not as many (when it comes to SPs) but there are themes that could lend themselves to the SP format. I'd personally love to see a Teen SP that would flesh out the age stage a bit more and give them more uniqueness rather than feeling like mini-adults. Adults and elders could also use some SP love. As for GPs, witches/magic would be an obvious theme when you look at the success of Vampires; while I'd love to see a full on EP like a modern day Makin' Magic reboot, I could go with a GP treatment. A Romance GP that would add Shower Woohoo in the pre-pack patch, plus improved weddings including veils in the headgear section and the ability to set the Sim's wedding outfit (matching outfits for same-sex couples, for example, or jeans and Boho wear for hippie couples) plus slow dancing would make at least one Sims player happy.
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
People can see content with CC on the Gallery by checking the Enable Custom Content checkbox. The mods I use don't impact building unless I accidentally equip the lot with modded content (I use a mod that enables the CL apartment bulletin boards to be placed on any lot, as well as CC that allows me to add insect spawners to lots). Most of the mods I use allow me to play the game my way, like with MCCC I get random marriages/births (sometimes in that order), or I can have my Sim get child support for all the kids she has. As I said above, I think that SPs (and GPs) will make a comeback in 2019, after they've taken some time to evaluate the proposed themes and the process. Maybe we'll even see another Community Stuff Pack project, who knows?
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
I agree that it could be a missed marketing opportunity but I'm sure they will find a way to mark the milestone. I've been playing since day one as well so I feel you but I'd rather them give us S5 when its ready, I can't go through another experience like S4 again haha.
But Sims 4 has lasted 4 years and is set to last 7 - at least. That's just how easy it is to add content. It's been ported to consoles and they even use its cartoonish style in their mobile games.
Game Devs have a lousy union. If the Sims 4 comes to an end, they've got two options - go to Sims 5 - which will almost certainly be built with a different engine - or look for work elsewhere.
Which is why 'at least three years' really does mean 'at least'. I mean, have you ever heard of a game released AHEAD of schedule?
The Sims 4 was released behind schedule yet was still incomplete and would require at least a decade for it to catch up with TS3.
I am sorry but that is just not good enough for a game in this day and age!
It feels odd though because the stuff packs and game packs all came out super close together over Jan, Feb and March then we had nothing until June when we got free stuff and Seasons. I assume the odd release dates may be because of console as they seem to be striving to get the console stuff out quickly so probably need to schedule in order to not have too much at once releasing.
There's still so much they could do to the game. I'm excited to see what's next. I would prefer it to be more evenly spread out though!