Hey all, I know many of you in the community have been hungry for an update. I want to offer the extent of what I can say currently, to help put some of you at ease in this quieter period of time.
I think the last official news you’ve seen about what’s on the horizon was regarding EA Play in June, where the next Sims 4 experience will be on-hand and playable. It’s important to reaffirm that this still holds true. Members of the Sims 4 Console and Sims Mobile teams have already confirmed that they’ll be attending… let me add to that and say that yes, members of The Sims 4 PC team will be at EA Play as well (sorry, that doesn’t include me this year!) Rest assured that The Sims on PC is doing very well, continues to be a top priority within Maxis, and it isn’t going anywhere.
So… you might be wondering why I’m sharing this, and why now? Murmurs of the SimGurus on the PC team being quieter than normal haven’t fallen on deaf ears. Those of you active in online Sims’ communities likely know that SimGuruDrake, our former PC community manager, chose to leave and pursue other opportunities recently. As game developers, we’re given a ton of freedom to go out and discuss many aspects of our jobs and The Sims from our personal point of view. Because of that, it’s important that we have someone in our CM role to help look out for us devs, and moderate tough discussions. They’re also on the frontline of sharing official statements from the studio. In light of that, us SimGurus on the PC team have been asked to exercise additional careful judgment in what we say until that CM role is filled.
Yesterday, we had a studio wide meeting (nothing unusual, just something we do every few months so our studio leadership has a chance to speak with us all as a group.) Being someone that tries to stay active and involved with this Sims community, I raised a question about how we haven’t been as forthcoming recently without a CM to mediate public discussions, and how that’s resulted in general unrest amongst you. What was expressed to me was that, while we aren’t going to discuss or refute rumors and speculation point for point (which I’d really suggest approaching with a healthy dose of skepticism), it’s totally fine to reiterate publicly shared info that yes, The Sims 4 continues to be a genuine success, and there’s plenty to look forward to on the PC in the future.
So, that’s what I’m here doing… This isn’t intended to be me speaking on behalf of the studio, it’s just sharing my perspective on how things currently stand. I don’t assume to speak collectively for the group, but I know many of us who volunteer to be SimGurus want to reach out when we see your concerns. Hopefully you’ll understand if this post doesn’t lead to me answering a bunch of topical questions; it wouldn’t be appropriate for someone in my role to do so. Here’s looking forward to us hiring a CM for this PC community so that everyone gets comfy chatting again!
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Comments
I think there’s a lot of people who jump to doom and gloom, as people for whatever reason associate silence as =the end.
But I think a quick look at what’s selling the most on Origin, EA would be crazy to get rid of The Sims 4. And I hope this will stop the negative outlook spreading, so it’s awesome that you’ve put in the time!
I’m excited for what’s to come, and sometimes a little “break” here and there is good. I think it the purpose of the dev team was to spit out content over proper development (which takes time) it would lead to more disappointment.
I’ve been really happy with The Sims 4, but would hate to see the level of quality we got with The Sims 3 store (and pricing!) just to throw content out. I’d much rather you guys take your time.
The only feedback I can give, it possible, is to set expectations early. We got no quarterly teaser this quarter, but we still don’t know if that means something is coming or not.
Maybe tell us, rather than let everyone assume that there’s something you CAN’T tell us, because people always assume the worst
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thank you
This hits the nail on the head. I know I've wanted to reach out to help reassure the community that things are going well, but I haven't had the time to figure out the right way to express it. Thank you, Graham, for figuring out how to say all this the right way!
Really hope whatever is shown at EA Play for The Sims on PC is going to be worth the wait, but I am disappointed we are back to the point of waiting in the dark for whatever comes next for such an extended amount of time.
Thank you for stopping by to give us an update, Us Simmers really appreciate you.
When I saw @SimGuruGraham I was happy, It was like a family member came by to wish us all well in our hour of silence.
We do need Gurus that we are familiar with as a community.
(Some words from me)
I feel it's more going on here than just, just wanting news of the Sims 4 game. It's an obvious unrest, that's a lot deeper. I know that a lot of the Guru's were very close to the simmers, some would talk to them often sometimes even more than they did their families.
The Simmers I feel are feeling the loss of many of their Sims 4 family of creators and of Our Guru's. It's like all of a sudden your family poofs, and you get very little information. Its hard on us simmers. even when we get news even if Its just what we always wanted it to be I mean our New experience.
We will still feel the loss of our Guru's for some time. It takes time to get over a loss of a family member, a close friend even a Pet, or a friend you have knows and worked with for years, I had a friend in a world, well this person was everyone's friend, always worked hard there as well as I did all of us was about the same level of employment in the world. well one of us got sick and just died so fast. Time did stop if nowhere but in our hearts.
We had to stop and morn our lost, Understand we are just having normal reacting to our loss.
Our silence is not just about no news of our favorite game Sims 4 PC, Our hearts have stopped to mourn the loss of Our CM, our Guru's every one of them that has poofed moved on.
We are mostly adults here and understand EA is working hard on so many games as well as Sims 4 big surprise.
I am sure everything is going according to plan. We know surprises are always good news.
We are slowly but surely accepting the fact that we must wait for our surprise.
Who said EA doesn't have a sense of humor
The "Gurus being fired and/or moved to Mobile" news recently had left me worried about the future of the franchise, and when you look at sales figures compared to, say, FIFA and Madden, it's easy to foresee EA not viewing The Sims on PC as a priority (not when there's plenty of whales to catch in the mobile market).
It's good to know that support for TS4 will continue for the time being, and that EA does consider TS4 a success.
THANK YOU! So appreciate the update. and to add YAY! Glad to hear all of it. Hope we get a CM soon!!!
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