I feel neutral. They must have done market research and determined that this would be most appealing to their target audience, who is apparently teenage girls who do not yet play The Sims. It doesn't really seem drastically different to me from their old branding.
It’s ugly. I really don’t like it 🙁 it won’t fit the rest of the boxes I have at home…. ((((( why they’re doing it?? it’s ok to change some stuff here and there but not EVERYTHING!!
You know what I like most about it? They wouldn't have done this if this iteration isn't going to be around for a long while. Makes me grin so very wide.
I do like the new sims, with things that have been added with patches there is better hair and variety to show off.
yes I agree I think the upgrade is cool, I love that new plumbob I was most happy when they said they will still be around for a long long time I love expanding my game. And like any girl, new stuff is most awesome
If a game is good, it won't need rebranding or having it's covers changed. Look at The Sims 1, The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. Their gameplay is amazing and never had to be rebranded or have their covers changed to draw new people to them.
But this is The Sims 4 so.... I guess what this means is that they aren't going to fix the stuff that's wrong with it and just try to sell it to poor unsuspecting innocents, a.k.a. young kids, pre-teen and under. It might as well, because I've always believed this iteration was more fitting for that demographic.
It would be nice if EAxis would release TS5 anyway for us grownups/veterans next year or in 2021, while they're still adding packs to TS4: Pre-Teen Edition.
I love it! I do admit it is very Gen Z, hence most likely why i like it so much, buuuuut it suits me. Maybe a dark mode option/colour blind option for those who need/desperately hate it, but I love it. It can stay!
it is very gen z??? as a gen z i feel offended lmao... this thing stepped right out of the 90s
I'm Gen Z, and the younger characters, the bright colours and more strong graphics appeal to me a LOT! 90's and 80's everything is making a comeback, and this is wicked. I adore it.
I'm also a veteran Sims player, having played Hot Date as a kid on my aunt's computer, but maaaan this new update makes me want to play again after getting bored. I know I'm in the target market for the Sims 4, so if I like it, surely other people my age (22) and younger will love it too, which is what the marketing team would want.
I hate to break it to you but you aren’t the target market for the sims 4. The target is teenage girls. According to both former community managers.
I don’t really have much outrage for the new brand, I think it looks child like but the new main screen doesn’t bother me. Will have to see if the loading screen does.
I'm closer in age to it than say, my aunt who used to play 15years ago and stopped playing after the Sims 1 ended. I'm only a couple years out of being a teen. And being youngER, i do still think I fit in closely enough to the target that if the aim of the redesign was to appeal to young women, I think they've probably done their job. This screen design would also definitely appeal more to my younger sisters, who range from 11-14, and it would also work better for kids at their school, who are starting to play the Sims for the first time. The bright colours, more modern design and sims taking pictures of stuff the same way they do?
It works. They want to see themselves, and the fact the Sims on the cover are younger, wearing more modern and less dorky clothing, and are engaging with each other AND the player (the one with the DSLR camera taking a picture of the player), I think contributes to why the changes were made.
As a female Gen Z a little younger than yourself I have to say, if this redesign was meant to target young women, they didn’t do a very good job imo. I agree with others here when they say it looks...loud. And cluttered. And very 90s, but not the part people want to bring back lol. Personally, I find it less polished than before, and the move away from the minimalist, clean design that’s so “in” right now is confusing to me.
It’s kinda funny how my sister fits their target market to a T and she can’t stand it 😆. I don’t even know if you and I are included given its so gosh darn narrow nowadays.
As for the new cover art, the removal of any elders or even adults from the render is telling to say the least. The team’s focus seems to be centered on “insta attractive” young adults and “trendy” clothing (looking at you Moschino SP) and “aesthetics”. It’s like they forgot The Sims is a LIFE SIMULATOR that is supposed to cover all stages of life, not just one part that’s very small in the grand scheme of things.
This apparent pivot to solely gear things toward tweens/teens and very young young adults concerns me. Chances are it will alienate a fair amount of their current player base and relying on the younger market alone doesn’t seem very sound, especially when they even miss the mark on appealing to them (us? idk) at times.
I think it's interesting how this simple color and design change has made people so angry, it seems oddly disproportionate to me.
I agree with most that the old style was fine the way it was, and I personally wouldn't have changed it. But I also don't hate the new style. It's really not that big a deal in the end, and the game itself will still play the same as the old (I know some will be disappointed by this, lol).
A middle "I am neutral about the redesign" option would have been nice to include as I believe the majority of players (from another survey I saw) fall here.
I love it! I do admit it is very Gen Z, hence most likely why i like it so much, buuuuut it suits me. Maybe a dark mode option/colour blind option for those who need/desperately hate it, but I love it. It can stay!
it is very gen z??? as a gen z i feel offended lmao... this thing stepped right out of the 90s
I'm Gen Z, and the younger characters, the bright colours and more strong graphics appeal to me a LOT! 90's and 80's everything is making a comeback, and this is wicked. I adore it.
I'm also a veteran Sims player, having played Hot Date as a kid on my aunt's computer, but maaaan this new update makes me want to play again after getting bored. I know I'm in the target market for the Sims 4, so if I like it, surely other people my age (22) and younger will love it too, which is what the marketing team would want.
I lived the 80s and 90s, I should be thrilled then, filled with nostalgia. Hm, nope, it still looks like it’s targeting 6 year olds (which indeed is younger than 22 so I can’t say you’re wrong about that).
How does that work by the way? Being bored but wanting to play just because white became blue? Or am I misinterpreting what you mean? Must be. I can’t imagine that’s what you mean. But anyway, you are not their target group just because you happen to like a retro art style. Nobody who already owns the game and the packs so far is their target group. Their target group is the next generation. People who were too young in 2014 to play Sims 4 but who are old enough now to assure that the game will still sell the next couple of years. And for those smiling in anticipation of what they still have in store the next couple of years, I admire your optimism.
I think it's interesting how this simple color and design change has made people so angry, it seems oddly disproportionate to me.
I think it's because it's not just about "color and design" -- it's that "Of all the things in the game that need fixing, THIS is where you spent time and resources???"
I think it's interesting how this simple color and design change has made people so angry, it seems oddly disproportionate to me.
I think it's because it's not just about "color and design" -- it's that "Of all the things in the game that need fixing, THIS is where you spent time and resources???"
I'm thinking that the marketing team has a different team and budget separate from those working on the game, so I doubt we're losing out on much as a result of the new look.
I get chronic migraines and I legitimately have never had a problem with any game giving them to me. But as soon as I saw the new menu it instantly gave me a migraine. Something about the bright blue and green contrasting together, I just can't look at it without getting a headache. I really really hope there's an option to use the old white one, it wasn't the nicest on my eyes but it at least didn't give me a headache as soon as I looked at it. I would prefer if they just gave us a dark mode instead. And I really don't want to have to mod the game in order to not get headaches from playing it, I don't want to be stuck not being able to play the game until a mod is updated.
A major mistake for more reasons than I care to list. As has been poseted elsewhere, why fix something that isn't broken? Regardless of who footed the bill, the resources consumed would have been better invested in game fixing.
Like I already said in a similar thread, I don't mind having one colour for EP's but it should be a recognizable colour, clearly set apart from the colors used by game packs. I also like the color background to make it even easier to recognise the type of pack.
The new icons all look to much alike and lack individual character.
The loading screen is just awful to watch. My hyper 4 year old might like it but I get a headache from it. What is wrong with quiet relaxing backgrounds?
In the age of digital downloads, I won't fuss about box art. Although the old ones looked better than the new ones. The icons matter more than the box art to me.
idk I like that its colorful and the blue in loading screen is back
(white just always felt so not sims to me having played sims for ages as it always was blue)
but also I do feel like they didn't think this design through especially with game covers
its kind of too flat and the tone of blue does not really work with the overall game aesthetics
also if they wanted to color code packs they really should have given gps and eps completely different colors
it is way too similar which makes it look like ''oops wrong color''
overall I like that they are changing from the white because i really hate white theme too
but I think they didn't make very good design choices
and especially should give loading screen some pattern or fade or something so it be bit less flat
maybe make it more similar color to cas screen too ? so it just flows bit better? idk
I like the new cover art for the box and the front page. Though I'm pretty 'meh' with the box design for the packs.
The loading screen is so simple it's rather boring in a way. Maybe a bit of a shade darker with something like the faded plumbob's in the background like the other one I feel would be better.
Even if I hated it, can't say I'd outrage over it. Think the only thing I'm not too keen on is the new plumbob it reminds me of pane glass art of sorts.
I love it! I do admit it is very Gen Z, hence most likely why i like it so much, buuuuut it suits me. Maybe a dark mode option/colour blind option for those who need/desperately hate it, but I love it. It can stay!
it is very gen z??? as a gen z i feel offended lmao... this thing stepped right out of the 90s
I'm Gen Z, and the younger characters, the bright colours and more strong graphics appeal to me a LOT! 90's and 80's everything is making a comeback, and this is wicked. I adore it.
I'm also a veteran Sims player, having played Hot Date as a kid on my aunt's computer, but maaaan this new update makes me want to play again after getting bored. I know I'm in the target market for the Sims 4, so if I like it, surely other people my age (22) and younger will love it too, which is what the marketing team would want.
I hate to break it to you but you aren’t the target market for the sims 4. The target is teenage girls. According to both former community managers.
I don’t really have much outrage for the new brand, I think it looks child like but the new main screen doesn’t bother me. Will have to see if the loading screen does.
Hate to break it to you too, but the target market being towards teenage girls has been a thing since the Sims 1 days. I don't get why it is such an insult, when it is like common knowledge since then. Article from the Sims Online: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131215/the_sims_online_evolution_a_case_.php
"Marketing. It's no secret that The Sims franchise, in general, is skewed female -- 52% of its players are female. That hasn't changed with TSO. We are very proud of this fact, since it is not a common attribute of today's games. When we first marketed this product, teenage girls who knew about The Sims were our number one fans. It was assumed that we would have a large teenage audience for TSO, and indeed most of our initial players (through beta and into public launch) were girls and women under age 25. To collect data about our audience the marketing team sent out free trial offers and surveys to people on The Sims email lists."
EA has stats on these things, so getting mad at the CMs over this is complete and utter nonsense and gets dramatized with fandom sites like it is a new thing or something when it isn't. Then again the young age of those fandom sites shows that many teenage girls have been apart of them while older sites like MTS have an older community with a wider range of a target audience of Simmers apart of it. I mean Simmers share their game data and with the Sims 4 being online connection with patches, the Sims team has all the data to back up those stats. Just because that is the target market doesn't mean that Sims shouldn't just have content for female adults however and wish it was a cycle that would finally break, but sadly been a thing since the Sims 1 days too. Male Sims and non-adult Sims have always gotten the short end of the stick.
Also have heard many young kids starting the Sims at a young age and honestly I think the Sims 4 is targeted towards an E for Everyone crowd rather than a teenage audience. Out of all the Sims games, it is the most child friendly version of the series.
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A major mistake for more reasons than I care to list. As has been poseted elsewhere, why fix something that isn't broken? Regardless of who footed the bill, the resources consumed would have been better invested in game fixing.
So, you think the marketing/PR team is responsible for bug fixes? These small design changes were not made by the same people who actually work on the game itself.
Personally, I pretty much don't really care. It feels a bit like the major W10 updates when they make something look a bit different, something I don't even notice a few weeks later. It's not like I'd spend a lot of time on the intro screen.
They forgot to think about people with eye problems when they had the idea of those ugly bright blue colors. I'm not a fan of this and I hope that someone will come up with a mod to revert this!
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yes I agree
But this is The Sims 4 so.... I guess what this means is that they aren't going to fix the stuff that's wrong with it and just try to sell it to poor unsuspecting innocents, a.k.a. young kids, pre-teen and under. It might as well, because I've always believed this iteration was more fitting for that demographic.
It would be nice if EAxis would release TS5 anyway for us grownups/veterans next year or in 2021, while they're still adding packs to TS4: Pre-Teen Edition.
As a female Gen Z a little younger than yourself I have to say, if this redesign was meant to target young women, they didn’t do a very good job imo. I agree with others here when they say it looks...loud. And cluttered. And very 90s, but not the part people want to bring back lol. Personally, I find it less polished than before, and the move away from the minimalist, clean design that’s so “in” right now is confusing to me.
It’s kinda funny how my sister fits their target market to a T and she can’t stand it 😆. I don’t even know if you and I are included given its so gosh darn narrow nowadays.
As for the new cover art, the removal of any elders or even adults from the render is telling to say the least. The team’s focus seems to be centered on “insta attractive” young adults and “trendy” clothing (looking at you Moschino SP) and “aesthetics”. It’s like they forgot The Sims is a LIFE SIMULATOR that is supposed to cover all stages of life, not just one part that’s very small in the grand scheme of things.
This apparent pivot to solely gear things toward tweens/teens and very young young adults concerns me. Chances are it will alienate a fair amount of their current player base and relying on the younger market alone doesn’t seem very sound, especially when they even miss the mark on appealing to them (us? idk) at times.
I agree with most that the old style was fine the way it was, and I personally wouldn't have changed it. But I also don't hate the new style. It's really not that big a deal in the end, and the game itself will still play the same as the old (I know some will be disappointed by this, lol).
A middle "I am neutral about the redesign" option would have been nice to include as I believe the majority of players (from another survey I saw) fall here.
How does that work by the way? Being bored but wanting to play just because white became blue? Or am I misinterpreting what you mean? Must be. I can’t imagine that’s what you mean. But anyway, you are not their target group just because you happen to like a retro art style. Nobody who already owns the game and the packs so far is their target group. Their target group is the next generation. People who were too young in 2014 to play Sims 4 but who are old enough now to assure that the game will still sell the next couple of years. And for those smiling in anticipation of what they still have in store the next couple of years, I admire your optimism.
I think it's because it's not just about "color and design" -- it's that "Of all the things in the game that need fixing, THIS is where you spent time and resources???"
I'm thinking that the marketing team has a different team and budget separate from those working on the game, so I doubt we're losing out on much as a result of the new look.
The new icons all look to much alike and lack individual character.
The loading screen is just awful to watch. My hyper 4 year old might like it but I get a headache from it. What is wrong with quiet relaxing backgrounds?
In the age of digital downloads, I won't fuss about box art. Although the old ones looked better than the new ones. The icons matter more than the box art to me.
(white just always felt so not sims to me having played sims for ages as it always was blue)
but also I do feel like they didn't think this design through especially with game covers
its kind of too flat and the tone of blue does not really work with the overall game aesthetics
also if they wanted to color code packs they really should have given gps and eps completely different colors
it is way too similar which makes it look like ''oops wrong color''
overall I like that they are changing from the white because i really hate white theme too
but I think they didn't make very good design choices
and especially should give loading screen some pattern or fade or something so it be bit less flat
maybe make it more similar color to cas screen too ? so it just flows bit better? idk
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The loading screen is so simple it's rather boring in a way. Maybe a bit of a shade darker with something like the faded plumbob's in the background like the other one I feel would be better.
Even if I hated it, can't say I'd outrage over it. Think the only thing I'm not too keen on is the new plumbob it reminds me of pane glass art of sorts.
If EA doesn't turn around and do this they are out of their minds.
I love it.
The layout is fine. It's those horrible colors.
I would like to see this instead.
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131215/the_sims_online_evolution_a_case_.php
"Marketing. It's no secret that The Sims franchise, in general, is skewed female -- 52% of its players are female. That hasn't changed with TSO. We are very proud of this fact, since it is not a common attribute of today's games. When we first marketed this product, teenage girls who knew about The Sims were our number one fans. It was assumed that we would have a large teenage audience for TSO, and indeed most of our initial players (through beta and into public launch) were girls and women under age 25. To collect data about our audience the marketing team sent out free trial offers and surveys to people on The Sims email lists."
EA has stats on these things, so getting mad at the CMs over this is complete and utter nonsense and gets dramatized with fandom sites like it is a new thing or something when it isn't. Then again the young age of those fandom sites shows that many teenage girls have been apart of them while older sites like MTS have an older community with a wider range of a target audience of Simmers apart of it. I mean Simmers share their game data and with the Sims 4 being online connection with patches, the Sims team has all the data to back up those stats. Just because that is the target market doesn't mean that Sims shouldn't just have content for female adults however and wish it was a cycle that would finally break, but sadly been a thing since the Sims 1 days too. Male Sims and non-adult Sims have always gotten the short end of the stick.
Also have heard many young kids starting the Sims at a young age and honestly I think the Sims 4 is targeted towards an E for Everyone crowd rather than a teenage audience. Out of all the Sims games, it is the most child friendly version of the series.
So, you think the marketing/PR team is responsible for bug fixes? These small design changes were not made by the same people who actually work on the game itself.
Personally, I pretty much don't really care. It feels a bit like the major W10 updates when they make something look a bit different, something I don't even notice a few weeks later. It's not like I'd spend a lot of time on the intro screen.
I also like wandering the hills.
To my eyes, this image looks like children's books lying on an old fashioned blue bed spread. I don't like it at all.