They didn't listen with SimCity 2013 and there is a great competitor in City Skylines.
Yup. They actually thought no one else can do better. What a surprise Colossal Order threw their way! It can happen again with The Sims series if too.
I read in PC gamer an article on the money EA/Maxis lost with the discontinued SimCity series and Paradox gained with City Skylines and it was in the millions too also EA/Maxis threw away some other programs away along with the potential to make millions like the Ultima series which for me I loved it when it was not under EA thumb.
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It’s really hard to say. On the whole I do find every pack disappointing compared to TS3 packs which had so much more and IL is no exception - there’s so much less to do than in IP. Having said that, I just can’t go back to playing TS3 - I’ve tried but the graphics just look awful to me now. I do have to say that my favourite TS4 expansion pack is either IL or GTW. IL is up there for me because of the beautiful world and the mermaids. I won’t lie, I have had a lot of fun with IL but, as with all TS4 expansion packs, I would have liked much more. It’s one of the best of a subpar bunch for me.
If this poll was made right after it's release, I'd probably say yes. I wasn't impressed, but IL has grown on me after playing for a while, and I'm appreciating it more now. It is of course too bad that the diving is just a rabbit hole, and the mermaids are meh, but all in all I enjoy it, and I love the possibility to live off-the-grid (although some things don't make any sense), and taking odd jobs.
I'm disappointed that 8 of the 14 lots in IL have build restrictions: no terrain editing, no in-ground pools, no basements, and no floor tile placement without a foundation. The stilted foundations that came with IL are buggy- they allow light to shine through them and don't play well with curved decks.
Huh. That's a new one.
I assume you hate apartments, too?
Disappointment would be a more appropriate way to describe my feelings. While it would have been great to be able to create apartments somewhere other than San Myshuno, my disappointment was specifically with elevators. I definitely feel there was a missed opportunity to expand build mode when they decided to lock the elevators to San Myshuno (plus there's no elevator woohoo). As it is we only have one type of stairs available to build with; making the elevators fully functional and available in b/b could have opened the door for some really interesting builds, don't you think?
Speaking as a builder (and I'm only speaking on my behalf), it's disappointing to not have all of the developer provided build tools and functional objects available for all of the worlds in the game. For me- If those aren't available in a new expansion pack, it's not really expanding my game.
Overall, no it didn't disappoint me. I would have liked more colorful and tropical decorations but I am happy with the pack overall. The world is beautiful I love the new added gameplay. I follow my Sims around as they go around on the waterskis and love looking at the pretty water and fish swimming underneath. It's relaxing.
They didn't listen with SimCity 2013 and there is a great competitor in City Skylines.
Yup. They actually thought no one else can do better. What a surprise Colossal Order threw their way! It can happen again with The Sims series if too.
I read in PC gamer an article on the money EA/Maxis lost with the discontinued SimCity series and Paradox gained with City Skylines and it was in the millions too also EA/Maxis threw away some other programs away along with the potential to make millions like the Ultima series which for me I loved it when it was not under EA thumb.
EA is rather ruthless with the game studios it acquires. I don't think they even play the games they publish - it is all about numbers and profits to them. So they have very little idea of the type of gameplayers that certain genres tend to have. LIke for city building and life simulation games, it generally draws single-player types for those genres. I don't mean that a single mode player will only ever play single player type games. A person who tends to play city building and life simulation games in single mode can also desire to play shooters in multiplayer or co-op modes too. It's just that they prefer to play city building/life simulations in single mode only.
EA doesn't seem to get this as they are always trying to make those genres go online and multiplayer because of the "potential" of larger profits such a setup would make. They can't accept that those genres are just not conducive to multiplayer/online mode. On the other hand, Colossal Order fully understood the type of player that the city building genre drew and created a city building game that completely fulfilled everything the city building player wanted. This is why Cities: Skylines is so successful and continues to do well.
And now EA's The Sims series is in serious jeopardy. It looks like they haven't learned their lesson from what went wrong with SimCity and the loss of potential profits from ignoring or not paying attention to what city building gamers wanted. EAxis is NOT listening to its simmers AT ALL, creating a larger void with each disappointing pack they release. I'm pretty sure someone out there sees an opportunity to seize market share in the life simulation genre and EA will lose out again.
I would have felt sorry earlier, but since EAxis continues to ignore the real simmers who buy their The Sims games and packs at exorbitant prices, I just don't care anymore. Let them continue to cater to their game changing sycophants who don't even buy their junk. I welcome any new competition that actually listens to us and make a sim game that has everything we've been asking for at good prices.
Is there any evidence that Sims 4 isn’t selling well? I thought it had been selling well for awhile now and their announcement of a starter screen and character revamp yesterday (in honour of the 5 year anniversary) implies they expect it to last for a few more years.
Is there any evidence that Sims 4 isn’t selling well? I thought it had been selling well for awhile now and their announcement of a starter screen and character revamp yesterday (in honour of the 5 year anniversary) implies they expect it to last for a few more years.
Yes. They gave away the base game for free. That's pretty desperate. They never did that with any of the other iterations during their own runs.
Yes, let EA continue with putting out their awful packs for TS4 for more years to come. The competition is only too happy as that gives them more time to come out with a better sim game before TS5 is released.
First, it doesn't feel like an expansion pack. It feels like a game pack.
Second, I love sending my sims on vacation to tropical destinations and while living in paradise is fine and all, they should at least designed in buying vacation properties instead of us having to use workarounds or mods.
Third, we should be able to go with our scuba diving sims to see the ocean depths, even if we get a loading screen like any other lot.
And, and I could go on, but I must get out and about in the real world right now.
Is there any evidence that Sims 4 isn’t selling well? I thought it had been selling well for awhile now and their announcement of a starter screen and character revamp yesterday (in honour of the 5 year anniversary) implies they expect it to last for a few more years.
Yes. They gave away the base game for free. That's pretty desperate. They never did that with any of the other iterations during their own runs.
Yes, let EA continue with putting out their awful packs for TS4 for more years to come. The competition is only too happy as that gives them more time to come out with a better sim game before TS5 is released.
That doesn’t strike me as desperate, just a promotion. There have often been sales, even deep ones, of sims content in the past. I bought most of my TS2 packs in cheaper bundles or in sale bins, and nearly all of my TS3 store content (with the exception of the worlds) on sale, as well as a few of the packs.
I suspect there is probably a team already working on TS5, but development takes a long time. There is probably at least 3 years, and more likely 4-5, of additional content to be rolled out before TS5 is released. That suits me just fine since I like the game and really enjoy playing it. I’m really looking forward to Realm of Magic, for instance. For your sake, I hope you find a game you like better to play.
Is there any evidence that Sims 4 isn’t selling well? I thought it had been selling well for awhile now and their announcement of a starter screen and character revamp yesterday (in honour of the 5 year anniversary) implies they expect it to last for a few more years.
Yes. They gave away the base game for free. That's pretty desperate. They never did that with any of the other iterations during their own runs.
Yes, let EA continue with putting out their awful packs for TS4 for more years to come. The competition is only too happy as that gives them more time to come out with a better sim game before TS5 is released.
That doesn’t strike me as desperate, just a promotion. There have often been sales, even deep ones, of sims content in the past. I bought most of my TS2 packs in cheaper bundles or in sale bins, and nearly all of my TS3 store content (with the exception of the worlds) on sale, as well as a few of the packs.
I suspect there is probably a team already working on TS5, but development takes a long time. There is probably at least 3 years, and more likely 4-5, of additional content to be rolled out before TS5 is released. That suits me just fine since I like the game and really enjoy playing it. I’m really looking forward to Realm of Magic, for instance. For your sake, I hope you find a game you like better to play.
Of course it won't strike you as desperate, but it is. Because it was EA itself, not the resellers giving it away for free which they hope would increase pack purchases. That's really desperate. All the TS2 stuff you bought on sale were by resellers, EA already received their profits from selling it to the resellers themselves. The TS3 store content have always had sales though. EA does give some items for free at the Sims 3 Store when you register the packs with them but they don't give away the other items sold for points. They can be bought on sale, but it still meant you paid for them. They won't ever be free at all. Why should they give them away for free? That stuff sells well enough.
This whole failure of TS4 has created a huge void for another competitor(s) to come in. I'm actually fine with TS5 coming out whenever now because I'm pretty sure the competition will have a better one coming out before that.
Oh my gosh, No, this is the first time that I am really enjoying the Sims 4, I have tried to like it, but not until this Pack, I can say that I love it. I can't get enough of Island Living. Even the things I didn't care much about has turned around and they do not bother me. I am now starting my A-Z Generation on this Island. It is so beautiful and different. love the trash idea, boating, fishing, My sims do not work in careers, so that is not a problem. I put in a library and a Gym. My Sims are living in the house by the volcano, love that part to. In fact I set all property to the volcano trait. Earthquake wow. I have been so wanting to like the Sims 4 and it seems this pack did it.
Didn't disappoint me at all.
I'm positive I've already gotten more play time out of this tropical world than in the past games because my sims are living there, immersed and enjoying beach and water activities as part of their daily lives. I do have some sims "vacation" there for a few days that live in other worlds by either visiting other households or using a general or community lot with tents ect.
Otherwise other aspects of the pack have made their way into my more global gameplay already. Clothing, hair, build/buy is top notch. Oh yes and the world is of course gorgeous. Still haven't experienced much of it. It'll happen when it happens.
Is there any evidence that Sims 4 isn’t selling well? I thought it had been selling well for awhile now and their announcement of a starter screen and character revamp yesterday (in honour of the 5 year anniversary) implies they expect it to last for a few more years.
Yes. They gave away the base game for free. That's pretty desperate. They never did that with any of the other iterations during their own runs.
Yes, let EA continue with putting out their awful packs for TS4 for more years to come. The competition is only too happy as that gives them more time to come out with a better sim game before TS5 is released.
That doesn’t strike me as desperate, just a promotion. There have often been sales, even deep ones, of sims content in the past. I bought most of my TS2 packs in cheaper bundles or in sale bins, and nearly all of my TS3 store content (with the exception of the worlds) on sale, as well as a few of the packs.
I suspect there is probably a team already working on TS5, but development takes a long time. There is probably at least 3 years, and more likely 4-5, of additional content to be rolled out before TS5 is released. That suits me just fine since I like the game and really enjoy playing it. I’m really looking forward to Realm of Magic, for instance. For your sake, I hope you find a game you like better to play.
Of course it won't strike you as desperate, but it is. Because it was EA itself, not the resellers giving it away for free which they hope would increase pack purchases. That's really desperate. All the TS2 stuff you bought on sale were by resellers, EA already received their profits from selling it to the resellers themselves. The TS3 store content have always had sales though. EA does give some items for free at the Sims 3 Store when you register the packs with them but they don't give away the other items sold for points. They can be bought on sale, but it still meant you paid for them. They won't ever be free at all. Why should they give them away for free? That stuff sells well enough.
This whole failure of TS4 has created a huge void for another competitor(s) to come in. I'm actually fine with TS5 coming out whenever now because I'm pretty sure the competition will have a better one coming out before that.
What makes me think sales aren't as good as they could be is because they used to have right on the front page how many simmers were playing at that moment. It's no longer there that I can see. I'll look again and correct this if I'm wrong.
According to steam, right now 5k people are playing Sims 3. Given that steam is probably the least popular platform for Sims 3, that can be extrapolated to be a lot of players. If Sims 4 still had the 15-20k people playing at one time, you'd think that they would have kept that information out there.
Edit: Ooops, forgot to put in why I'm disappointed with Island Living. First off, it's a beautiful world, with beautiful BB and CAS items. But man, it gets old very quickly. Mermaids are lame. More rabbit holes have been added. I like the conservationist career, especially the initiatives, but it's super repetitive. OTG is more annoying than anything else and that was a feature I was really looking forward to.
Mermaids need to atleast have some ability skill that you can level up! Honestly, that was my most disappointing aspect of the expansion. It needed more creativity and uniqueness.
Better magical "underwater" looks in CAS that makes them more unique and more "mermaid-ish"
Better interactions. The creatures in this EP just felt... incomplete..
I would be perfectly happy if it had been a GP. However, considering that it is an expansion pack... Eh. I paid more money than it was worth in comparison to other packs honestly. As stated, there are way too many rabbit holes.. And the swimming is just like swimming in a larger pool. It's boring, quite frankly. There isn't a lot of special things given to the mermaids... Even the vampires have more gameplay than the mermaids do. The mermaids have to be hydrated.. But they don't even have to go into the ocean for that. They could basically just live full time on land without repercussion. There's nothing exciting about them tbh. And why can't toddlers and children be mermaids? Missed cuteness opportunity. Most everything is super world exclusive. Having the careers that come from Sulani are difficult to maintain if you don't live there. The aspirations are hard to fulfill without living there.
Don't get me wrong... Sulani is gorgeous, it has some of the best CAS options and building on the water is a lot of fun imo, but I think it should have been a GP and not an EP. Unless they were to get more extensive with the mermaids and water and make it something that could be played multi-world... Seems like a bit of a rip-off. I enjoyed it for a couple days.. But I'm kinda over it.
Is there any evidence that Sims 4 isn’t selling well? I thought it had been selling well for awhile now and their announcement of a starter screen and character revamp yesterday (in honour of the 5 year anniversary) implies they expect it to last for a few more years.
Yes. They gave away the base game for free. That's pretty desperate. They never did that with any of the other iterations during their own runs.
Yes, let EA continue with putting out their awful packs for TS4 for more years to come. The competition is only too happy as that gives them more time to come out with a better sim game before TS5 is released.
That doesn’t strike me as desperate, just a promotion. There have often been sales, even deep ones, of sims content in the past. I bought most of my TS2 packs in cheaper bundles or in sale bins, and nearly all of my TS3 store content (with the exception of the worlds) on sale, as well as a few of the packs.
I suspect there is probably a team already working on TS5, but development takes a long time. There is probably at least 3 years, and more likely 4-5, of additional content to be rolled out before TS5 is released. That suits me just fine since I like the game and really enjoy playing it. I’m really looking forward to Realm of Magic, for instance. For your sake, I hope you find a game you like better to play.
Of course it won't strike you as desperate, but it is. Because it was EA itself, not the resellers giving it away for free which they hope would increase pack purchases. That's really desperate. All the TS2 stuff you bought on sale were by resellers, EA already received their profits from selling it to the resellers themselves. The TS3 store content have always had sales though. EA does give some items for free at the Sims 3 Store when you register the packs with them but they don't give away the other items sold for points. They can be bought on sale, but it still meant you paid for them. They won't ever be free at all. Why should they give them away for free? That stuff sells well enough.
This whole failure of TS4 has created a huge void for another competitor(s) to come in. I'm actually fine with TS5 coming out whenever now because I'm pretty sure the competition will have a better one coming out before that.
What makes me think sales aren't as good as they could be is because they used to have right on the front page how many simmers were playing at that moment. It's no longer there that I can see. I'll look again and correct this if I'm wrong.
According to steam, right now 5k people are playing Sims 3. Given that steam is probably the least popular platform for Sims 3, that can be extrapolated to be a lot of players. If Sims 4 still had the 15-20k people playing at one time, you'd think that they would have kept that information out there.
Edit: Ooops, forgot to put in why I'm disappointed with Island Living. First off, it's a beautiful world, with beautiful BB and CAS items. But man, it gets old very quickly. Mermaids are lame. More rabbit holes have been added. I like the conservationist career, especially the initiatives, but it's super repetitive. OTG is more annoying than anything else and that was a feature I was really looking forward to.
Ok, I was trying not to get to technical about this and to hijack the thread with boring stats but I think it is a stretch to call TS4 a failure in a financial sense. An article in pcgamesinsider from February of this year suggested that TS4 is the most successful of all the games in the franchise, in fact. A Q3 report early this year apparently said that TS4 had continued to gain millions of players year over year (4.8 million new players just in 2018) and that its various packs had been downloaded over 30 million times.
I don’t really care how successful it is so long as it continues. I played all the versions of the Sims with great enjoyment and still occasionally return to TS2 and TS3 when I am feeling nostalgic. I think it is likely that EA views TS4 as a cash cow for other less successful games and that they will likely milk it for as long as they can. This is probably why in the latest Maxis Monthly the gurus said that they were committed to the game and that it has lots of life left in it yet: because it’s popular.
Is there any evidence that Sims 4 isn’t selling well? I thought it had been selling well for awhile now and their announcement of a starter screen and character revamp yesterday (in honour of the 5 year anniversary) implies they expect it to last for a few more years.
Yes. They gave away the base game for free. That's pretty desperate. They never did that with any of the other iterations during their own runs.
Yes, let EA continue with putting out their awful packs for TS4 for more years to come. The competition is only too happy as that gives them more time to come out with a better sim game before TS5 is released.
That doesn’t strike me as desperate, just a promotion. There have often been sales, even deep ones, of sims content in the past. I bought most of my TS2 packs in cheaper bundles or in sale bins, and nearly all of my TS3 store content (with the exception of the worlds) on sale, as well as a few of the packs.
I suspect there is probably a team already working on TS5, but development takes a long time. There is probably at least 3 years, and more likely 4-5, of additional content to be rolled out before TS5 is released. That suits me just fine since I like the game and really enjoy playing it. I’m really looking forward to Realm of Magic, for instance. For your sake, I hope you find a game you like better to play.
Of course it won't strike you as desperate, but it is. Because it was EA itself, not the resellers giving it away for free which they hope would increase pack purchases. That's really desperate. All the TS2 stuff you bought on sale were by resellers, EA already received their profits from selling it to the resellers themselves. The TS3 store content have always had sales though. EA does give some items for free at the Sims 3 Store when you register the packs with them but they don't give away the other items sold for points. They can be bought on sale, but it still meant you paid for them. They won't ever be free at all. Why should they give them away for free? That stuff sells well enough.
This whole failure of TS4 has created a huge void for another competitor(s) to come in. I'm actually fine with TS5 coming out whenever now because I'm pretty sure the competition will have a better one coming out before that.
What makes me think sales aren't as good as they could be is because they used to have right on the front page how many simmers were playing at that moment. It's no longer there that I can see. I'll look again and correct this if I'm wrong.
According to steam, right now 5k people are playing Sims 3. Given that steam is probably the least popular platform for Sims 3, that can be extrapolated to be a lot of players. If Sims 4 still had the 15-20k people playing at one time, you'd think that they would have kept that information out there.
Edit: Ooops, forgot to put in why I'm disappointed with Island Living. First off, it's a beautiful world, with beautiful BB and CAS items. But man, it gets old very quickly. Mermaids are lame. More rabbit holes have been added. I like the conservationist career, especially the initiatives, but it's super repetitive. OTG is more annoying than anything else and that was a feature I was really looking forward to.
Ok, I was trying not to get to technical about this and to hijack the thread with boring stats but I think it is a stretch to call TS4 a failure in a financial sense. An article in pcgamesinsider from February of this year suggested that TS4 is the most successful of all the games in the franchise, in fact. A Q3 report early this year apparently said that TS4 had continued to gain millions of players year over year (4.8 million new players just in 2018) and that its various packs had been downloaded over 30 million times.
I don’t really care how successful it is so long as it continues. I played all the versions of the Sims with great enjoyment and still occasionally return to TS2 and TS3 when I am feeling nostalgic. I think it is likely that EA views TS4 as a cash cow for other less successful games and that they will likely milk it for as long as they can. This is probably why in the latest Maxis Monthly the gurus said that they were committed to the game and that it has lots of life left in it yet: because it’s popular.
Did I say it was a financial failure? I just find it weird that they quit broadcasting how many people were on line as they used to which makes me think there are fewer people on line at any given time. The only information pcgamesinsider would have is information EA chooses to give them, fwiw. I think the game is doing fine, but I think it's not doing as well as they'd like which is why they gave the game away and now have it deeply discounted again. And yes, Sims 4 is a cash cow, as is Sims 3 and they're obviously paying for some of the seriously costly mistakes that have come out of EA lately. However, Sims 4 being a cash cow doesn't mean it's doing as well as projected.
EA is in a bit of trouble right now with their optics and the whole "surprise mechanics" debacle. But I suppose that is a discussion for another board.
And to stay on topic, another thing that disappoints me about Island Living is there still are not real group activities. I want water skiing, boating together, families working on sandcastles together, parents playing with their toddlers in the ocean. These are not ridiculous requests.
I definitely think Island Paradise from Sims 3 was a better “vacation” type expansion pack for me but I don’t hate Island Living at all, I find it pretty fun. The only thing I wanted was a full lifeguard career that lets your sim actually save lives out on the beach like it was in Island Paradise? I also wanted more activities that involved the locals because it looks like there weren’t many activities on land compared to ocean activities? My sim is on the path to being a Marine Biologist so I haven’t seen much yet so my opinion on it may change.
I definitely think Island Paradise from Sims 3 was a better “vacation” type expansion pack for me but I don’t hate Island Living at all, I find it pretty fun. The only thing I wanted was a full lifeguard career that lets your sim actually save lives out on the beach like it was in Island Paradise? I also wanted more activities that involved the locals because it looks like there weren’t many activities on land compared to ocean activities? My sim is on the path to being a Marine Biologist so I haven’t seen much yet so my opinion on it may change.
Is there any evidence that Sims 4 isn’t selling well? I thought it had been selling well for awhile now and their announcement of a starter screen and character revamp yesterday (in honour of the 5 year anniversary) implies they expect it to last for a few more years.
Yes. They gave away the base game for free. That's pretty desperate. They never did that with any of the other iterations during their own runs.
Yes, let EA continue with putting out their awful packs for TS4 for more years to come. The competition is only too happy as that gives them more time to come out with a better sim game before TS5 is released.
That doesn’t strike me as desperate, just a promotion. There have often been sales, even deep ones, of sims content in the past. I bought most of my TS2 packs in cheaper bundles or in sale bins, and nearly all of my TS3 store content (with the exception of the worlds) on sale, as well as a few of the packs.
I suspect there is probably a team already working on TS5, but development takes a long time. There is probably at least 3 years, and more likely 4-5, of additional content to be rolled out before TS5 is released. That suits me just fine since I like the game and really enjoy playing it. I’m really looking forward to Realm of Magic, for instance. For your sake, I hope you find a game you like better to play.
Of course it won't strike you as desperate, but it is. Because it was EA itself, not the resellers giving it away for free which they hope would increase pack purchases. That's really desperate. All the TS2 stuff you bought on sale were by resellers, EA already received their profits from selling it to the resellers themselves. The TS3 store content have always had sales though. EA does give some items for free at the Sims 3 Store when you register the packs with them but they don't give away the other items sold for points. They can be bought on sale, but it still meant you paid for them. They won't ever be free at all. Why should they give them away for free? That stuff sells well enough.
This whole failure of TS4 has created a huge void for another competitor(s) to come in. I'm actually fine with TS5 coming out whenever now because I'm pretty sure the competition will have a better one coming out before that.
What makes me think sales aren't as good as they could be is because they used to have right on the front page how many simmers were playing at that moment. It's no longer there that I can see. I'll look again and correct this if I'm wrong.
According to steam, right now 5k people are playing Sims 3. Given that steam is probably the least popular platform for Sims 3, that can be extrapolated to be a lot of players. If Sims 4 still had the 15-20k people playing at one time, you'd think that they would have kept that information out there.
Edit: Ooops, forgot to put in why I'm disappointed with Island Living. First off, it's a beautiful world, with beautiful BB and CAS items. But man, it gets old very quickly. Mermaids are lame. More rabbit holes have been added. I like the conservationist career, especially the initiatives, but it's super repetitive. OTG is more annoying than anything else and that was a feature I was really looking forward to.
Ok, I was trying not to get to technical about this and to hijack the thread with boring stats but I think it is a stretch to call TS4 a failure in a financial sense. An article in pcgamesinsider from February of this year suggested that TS4 is the most successful of all the games in the franchise, in fact. A Q3 report early this year apparently said that TS4 had continued to gain millions of players year over year (4.8 million new players just in 2018) and that its various packs had been downloaded over 30 million times.
I don’t really care how successful it is so long as it continues. I played all the versions of the Sims with great enjoyment and still occasionally return to TS2 and TS3 when I am feeling nostalgic. I think it is likely that EA views TS4 as a cash cow for other less successful games and that they will likely milk it for as long as they can. This is probably why in the latest Maxis Monthly the gurus said that they were committed to the game and that it has lots of life left in it yet: because it’s popular.
Did I say it was a financial failure? I just find it weird that they quit broadcasting how many people were on line as they used to which makes me think there are fewer people on line at any given time. The only information pcgamesinsider would have is information EA chooses to give them, fwiw. I think the game is doing fine, but I think it's not doing as well as they'd like which is why they gave the game away and now have it deeply discounted again. And yes, Sims 4 is a cash cow, as is Sims 3 and they're obviously paying for some of the seriously costly mistakes that have come out of EA lately. However, Sims 4 being a cash cow doesn't mean it's doing as well as projected.
EA is in a bit of trouble right now with their optics and the whole "surprise mechanics" debacle. But I suppose that is a discussion for another board.
And to stay on topic, another thing that disappoints me about Island Living is there still are not real group activities. I want water skiing, boating together, families working on sandcastles together, parents playing with their toddlers in the ocean. These are not ridiculous requests.
Sorry if I misread what you said but I interpreted your comment that “sales aren’t as good as they could be” as a comment on the financial well-being of the game. And others have definitely used the word “failure” about the game in this thread, but perhaps they didn’t mean it in a literal sense.
As for the article, it was written by a respected reporter who is also a game developer and seemed to be based as far as possible on public information. Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 reports (as you may know) are periodic public (quarterly) reports on which companies base the paying of dividends. As a publicly traded company, EA should not be in the habit of lying to their stockholders, I hope.
I have been playing mostly off the grid and have been pleasantly surprised by how much this improves family play. Previously I was giving my sim families expensive TVs, stereos and computers and turning them all into electronics addicts, lol. My Sulani families who don’t have TVs and stereos do build sandcastles together a lot (I am constantly finding them playing on the beach to fill their fun) and also seem to spontaneously tell each other more stories and jokes. I have also caught them singing to themselves more often. I haven’t tried out the game tables yet because my poor sims can’t afford them. I agree that they should add multi-sim boats, but that probably won’t happen until they develop the mechanics for cars.
Comments
I read in PC gamer an article on the money EA/Maxis lost with the discontinued SimCity series and Paradox gained with City Skylines and it was in the millions too also EA/Maxis threw away some other programs away along with the potential to make millions like the Ultima series which for me I loved it when it was not under EA thumb.
So my answer is yes and also no.
Vlad The Dad: A 100 Baby Challenge, Vlad as ‘matriarch’ *COMPLETE*
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Disappointment would be a more appropriate way to describe my feelings. While it would have been great to be able to create apartments somewhere other than San Myshuno, my disappointment was specifically with elevators. I definitely feel there was a missed opportunity to expand build mode when they decided to lock the elevators to San Myshuno (plus there's no elevator woohoo). As it is we only have one type of stairs available to build with; making the elevators fully functional and available in b/b could have opened the door for some really interesting builds, don't you think?
Speaking as a builder (and I'm only speaking on my behalf), it's disappointing to not have all of the developer provided build tools and functional objects available for all of the worlds in the game. For me- If those aren't available in a new expansion pack, it's not really expanding my game.
EA is rather ruthless with the game studios it acquires. I don't think they even play the games they publish - it is all about numbers and profits to them. So they have very little idea of the type of gameplayers that certain genres tend to have. LIke for city building and life simulation games, it generally draws single-player types for those genres. I don't mean that a single mode player will only ever play single player type games. A person who tends to play city building and life simulation games in single mode can also desire to play shooters in multiplayer or co-op modes too. It's just that they prefer to play city building/life simulations in single mode only.
EA doesn't seem to get this as they are always trying to make those genres go online and multiplayer because of the "potential" of larger profits such a setup would make. They can't accept that those genres are just not conducive to multiplayer/online mode. On the other hand, Colossal Order fully understood the type of player that the city building genre drew and created a city building game that completely fulfilled everything the city building player wanted. This is why Cities: Skylines is so successful and continues to do well.
And now EA's The Sims series is in serious jeopardy. It looks like they haven't learned their lesson from what went wrong with SimCity and the loss of potential profits from ignoring or not paying attention to what city building gamers wanted. EAxis is NOT listening to its simmers AT ALL, creating a larger void with each disappointing pack they release. I'm pretty sure someone out there sees an opportunity to seize market share in the life simulation genre and EA will lose out again.
I would have felt sorry earlier, but since EAxis continues to ignore the real simmers who buy their The Sims games and packs at exorbitant prices, I just don't care anymore. Let them continue to cater to their game changing sycophants who don't even buy their junk. I welcome any new competition that actually listens to us and make a sim game that has everything we've been asking for at good prices.
Yes. They gave away the base game for free. That's pretty desperate. They never did that with any of the other iterations during their own runs.
Yes, let EA continue with putting out their awful packs for TS4 for more years to come. The competition is only too happy as that gives them more time to come out with a better sim game before TS5 is released.
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Second, I love sending my sims on vacation to tropical destinations and while living in paradise is fine and all, they should at least designed in buying vacation properties instead of us having to use workarounds or mods.
Third, we should be able to go with our scuba diving sims to see the ocean depths, even if we get a loading screen like any other lot.
And, and I could go on, but I must get out and about in the real world right now.
That doesn’t strike me as desperate, just a promotion. There have often been sales, even deep ones, of sims content in the past. I bought most of my TS2 packs in cheaper bundles or in sale bins, and nearly all of my TS3 store content (with the exception of the worlds) on sale, as well as a few of the packs.
I suspect there is probably a team already working on TS5, but development takes a long time. There is probably at least 3 years, and more likely 4-5, of additional content to be rolled out before TS5 is released. That suits me just fine since I like the game and really enjoy playing it. I’m really looking forward to Realm of Magic, for instance. For your sake, I hope you find a game you like better to play.
Of course it won't strike you as desperate, but it is. Because it was EA itself, not the resellers giving it away for free which they hope would increase pack purchases. That's really desperate. All the TS2 stuff you bought on sale were by resellers, EA already received their profits from selling it to the resellers themselves. The TS3 store content have always had sales though. EA does give some items for free at the Sims 3 Store when you register the packs with them but they don't give away the other items sold for points. They can be bought on sale, but it still meant you paid for them. They won't ever be free at all. Why should they give them away for free? That stuff sells well enough.
This whole failure of TS4 has created a huge void for another competitor(s) to come in. I'm actually fine with TS5 coming out whenever now because I'm pretty sure the competition will have a better one coming out before that.
I'm positive I've already gotten more play time out of this tropical world than in the past games because my sims are living there, immersed and enjoying beach and water activities as part of their daily lives. I do have some sims "vacation" there for a few days that live in other worlds by either visiting other households or using a general or community lot with tents ect.
Otherwise other aspects of the pack have made their way into my more global gameplay already. Clothing, hair, build/buy is top notch. Oh yes and the world is of course gorgeous. Still haven't experienced much of it. It'll happen when it happens.
What makes me think sales aren't as good as they could be is because they used to have right on the front page how many simmers were playing at that moment. It's no longer there that I can see. I'll look again and correct this if I'm wrong.
According to steam, right now 5k people are playing Sims 3. Given that steam is probably the least popular platform for Sims 3, that can be extrapolated to be a lot of players. If Sims 4 still had the 15-20k people playing at one time, you'd think that they would have kept that information out there.
Edit: Ooops, forgot to put in why I'm disappointed with Island Living. First off, it's a beautiful world, with beautiful BB and CAS items. But man, it gets old very quickly. Mermaids are lame. More rabbit holes have been added. I like the conservationist career, especially the initiatives, but it's super repetitive. OTG is more annoying than anything else and that was a feature I was really looking forward to.
Mermaids need to atleast have some ability skill that you can level up! Honestly, that was my most disappointing aspect of the expansion. It needed more creativity and uniqueness.
Better magical "underwater" looks in CAS that makes them more unique and more "mermaid-ish"
Better interactions. The creatures in this EP just felt... incomplete..
There is so much that could have been done.
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Don't get me wrong... Sulani is gorgeous, it has some of the best CAS options and building on the water is a lot of fun imo, but I think it should have been a GP and not an EP. Unless they were to get more extensive with the mermaids and water and make it something that could be played multi-world... Seems like a bit of a rip-off. I enjoyed it for a couple days.. But I'm kinda over it.
Ok, I was trying not to get to technical about this and to hijack the thread with boring stats but I think it is a stretch to call TS4 a failure in a financial sense. An article in pcgamesinsider from February of this year suggested that TS4 is the most successful of all the games in the franchise, in fact. A Q3 report early this year apparently said that TS4 had continued to gain millions of players year over year (4.8 million new players just in 2018) and that its various packs had been downloaded over 30 million times.
I don’t really care how successful it is so long as it continues. I played all the versions of the Sims with great enjoyment and still occasionally return to TS2 and TS3 when I am feeling nostalgic. I think it is likely that EA views TS4 as a cash cow for other less successful games and that they will likely milk it for as long as they can. This is probably why in the latest Maxis Monthly the gurus said that they were committed to the game and that it has lots of life left in it yet: because it’s popular.
Did I say it was a financial failure? I just find it weird that they quit broadcasting how many people were on line as they used to which makes me think there are fewer people on line at any given time. The only information pcgamesinsider would have is information EA chooses to give them, fwiw. I think the game is doing fine, but I think it's not doing as well as they'd like which is why they gave the game away and now have it deeply discounted again. And yes, Sims 4 is a cash cow, as is Sims 3 and they're obviously paying for some of the seriously costly mistakes that have come out of EA lately. However, Sims 4 being a cash cow doesn't mean it's doing as well as projected.
EA is in a bit of trouble right now with their optics and the whole "surprise mechanics" debacle. But I suppose that is a discussion for another board.
And to stay on topic, another thing that disappoints me about Island Living is there still are not real group activities. I want water skiing, boating together, families working on sandcastles together, parents playing with their toddlers in the ocean. These are not ridiculous requests.
Sorry if I misread what you said but I interpreted your comment that “sales aren’t as good as they could be” as a comment on the financial well-being of the game. And others have definitely used the word “failure” about the game in this thread, but perhaps they didn’t mean it in a literal sense.
As for the article, it was written by a respected reporter who is also a game developer and seemed to be based as far as possible on public information. Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 reports (as you may know) are periodic public (quarterly) reports on which companies base the paying of dividends. As a publicly traded company, EA should not be in the habit of lying to their stockholders, I hope.
I have been playing mostly off the grid and have been pleasantly surprised by how much this improves family play. Previously I was giving my sim families expensive TVs, stereos and computers and turning them all into electronics addicts, lol. My Sulani families who don’t have TVs and stereos do build sandcastles together a lot (I am constantly finding them playing on the beach to fill their fun) and also seem to spontaneously tell each other more stories and jokes. I have also caught them singing to themselves more often. I haven’t tried out the game tables yet because my poor sims can’t afford them. I agree that they should add multi-sim boats, but that probably won’t happen until they develop the mechanics for cars.