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I think Gamepacks will be limited to Refreshes now

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    MasonGamerMasonGamer Posts: 8,851 Member
    With how things are, after Cottage Living, I feel like the creativity is just waning. To me, I thought Kits were just an experimental thing, I never thought they'd be anything of substance. Pack refreshers, I liked the idea because things have changed. As long as it updates for the better.
    Realm of Magic:

    My Mood:

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    chickenowchickenow Posts: 458 Member
    Hmmmm....Game Packs are supposed to keep to a more specific activity ie Camping, Dining so it makes sense to focus on Game Packs as I guess it's easier to spot where can be refreshed and expanded ie with Spa Day making money from Spa Activities and nails were major obvious winners.

    That said there are some EPs in dire need for an update Island Living being the worst offender!
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    logionlogion Posts: 4,739 Member
    edited December 2021
    Peppers wrote: »
    Is it even confirmed that we continue to get refreshes? I remember two live streams ago when this question was asked, all they replied was that they saw that people really enjoyed the Spa Day refresh and although they want to be transparent, they will keep it a secret for now if there will be more refreshes. Spa Day could have just been an experiment to see if the increased sales are worth a pack refresh. Now I don't think they mentioned refreshes in the last stream, maybe I missed something.

    In an old survey from SimGuruFrost they had a list where you could pick three packs that you would like for them to refresh. So I always assumed that they would do three refreshes. But maybe you are right, maybe they just picked one of the most voted packs and they are not sure if they will do any more. They tend to be honest with us so maybe they are not even sure themselves right now.

    If it is as you said, and they are waiting to see if refreshes increased sales, then that doesn't seem promising for future refreshes because they should have seen their sales numbers from that refresh by now.
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    PeppersPeppers Posts: 86 Member
    @logion Yes, they should know by now whether the refresh increased sales or not. And this is why I assume they have been quiet about refreshes ever since the first one came out. I could be wrong of course and I am actually hoping that I am wrong because I would really like to see some more refreshes of existing packs in the future.

    By any chance do you remember the outcome of the survey you mentioned?
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    logionlogion Posts: 4,739 Member
    edited December 2021
    Peppers wrote: »
    @logion Yes, they should know by now whether the refresh increased sales or not. And this is why I assume they have been quiet about refreshes ever since the first one came out. I could be wrong of course and I am actually hoping that I am wrong because I would really like to see some more refreshes of existing packs in the future.

    By any chance do you remember the outcome of the survey you mentioned?

    @Peppers As far as I know, they never shared the outcome of that survey.

    Here is a picture of the survey options.

    Capture.png

    I think you may be right because if you ask me... refreshes sounds like something that would be very popular with the community, but might not increase sales that much.
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    PeppersPeppers Posts: 86 Member
    @logion Thanks for sharing the survey. It would be very interesting to know the results. Well, let's hope there will be some more refreshes in the future. Maybe it is like you said and they are just unsure themselves at the moment, which is also very possible.
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    catloverplayercatloverplayer Posts: 93,464 Member
    fae_brass wrote: »
    Simguru Ninja's Twitter banner is of Granite Falls so maybe OR is the next pack update.......

    That would be sweet. I want an OR Refresh anyway.
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    83bienchen83bienchen Posts: 2,589 Member
    edited December 2021
    Maybe they also want to wait and observe sales results for a little longer, especially before everyone got their X-Mas gifts. Also, I think they might not be starting to work on another pack refresh before they see the results. Also I'm pretty sure it will take them at least 3 months of work on a pack refresh, possibly even longer as they will probably use people that are currently free to work on something, I doubt they have a special pack refresh team.

    I still wonder how Spa Day got that many votes.
    Now now EA, don't be stinking up our lovely lavender bath with your shopping fart. - My TS4 mods - Gallery ID: 83bienchen
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    BlueR0seBlueR0se Posts: 1,601 Member
    edited December 2021
    Edit: Omitted cause I didn't read something correctly.
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    Randwick78Randwick78 Posts: 3 New Member
    Refreshes rather than Game Packs is not necessarily something that I would hate as there are a lot of Game Packs that could use some polish. Realm of Magic could have some magic for kids, the light rpg elements of Cottage Living would mesh well with the theme as well. Parenthood is a good pack, but I'd love to see some more work on it to give kids and teens more to do. More could be done with with Outdoor Retreat. Making over Strangerville to give you more to do there after the mystery is done, because it is a really nice world.

    But then I'd equally be happy with new gameplay added based on other themes as well as long as the systems are well thought out and mesh with the rest of the game.
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    ncisGibbs02ncisGibbs02 Posts: 2,025 Member
    edited December 2021
    83bienchen wrote: »
    Maybe they also want to wait and observe sales results for a little longer, especially before everyone got their X-Mas gifts. Also, I think they might not be starting to work on another pack refresh before they see the results. Also I'm pretty sure it will take them at least 3 months of work on a pack refresh, possibly even longer as they will probably use people that are currently free to work on something, I doubt they have a special pack refresh team.

    I still wonder how Spa Day got that many votes.

    I agree that they wouldn’t have a special refresh team.
    Maybe it’s the game pack team and rather than make a new concept they’re asked to tweak an existing pack? 🤔🤷🏼‍♂️.

    The game pack least to get a refresh I think is StrangerVille. I can’t see how they’d add the to the mystery or tweak things.
    At the moment my Sims can’t harvest bizarre fruit from the plants and I have to buy it at Erwin’s stall 🤦🏼‍♂️.
    Now alternating between Sims 2,3 and 4! 😊☕️🌞
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    EllupelluelluEllupelluellu Posts: 7,082 Member
    OR and DO need a refresh badly, so I would not mind.
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    Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
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    Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
    My Story:Villa Catarina
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    LeGardePourpreLeGardePourpre Posts: 15,354 Member
    edited December 2021
    Why nobody trust Maxis ?

    They said no new "refresh" update is planned.
    They said The Sims 4 is here for years, probably 15 years after the launch.

    Refresh only shouldn't happen, more Game Packs will be released.

    Many games under development are postponed due to COVID-19, maybe Maxis is slowed down too.
    Post edited by LeGardePourpre on
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    catloverplayercatloverplayer Posts: 93,464 Member
    Why nobody trust Maxis ?

    They said no new "refresh" update is planned.
    They said The Sims 4 is here for years, probably 15 years after the launch.

    Refresh only shouldn't happen, more Game Packs will be released.

    Many games under development are postponed due to COVID-19, maybe Maxis is slowed down too.

    I haven't seen Maxis say there wouldn't be anymore refreshes.
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    LeGardePourpreLeGardePourpre Posts: 15,354 Member
    edited December 2021
    @catloverplayer

    Of course they can decide to do it again but it will take several months to develop this update and it won't be released in 2022.

    Note : It took 3 months to added 1 window from the promo image of Industrial Loft Kit.
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    LeGardePourpreLeGardePourpre Posts: 15,354 Member
    edited December 2021
    In term of money, free update is not profitable.

    They need money to develop TS5, a ton of kits won't be enough for the next 7 years.
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    VeeDubVeeDub Posts: 1,862 Member
    In term of money, free update is not profitable.

    They need money to develop TS5, a ton of kits won't be enough for the next 7 years.

    But free updates do foster at least some amount of "goodwill" which is sometimes worth more than money and can often boost profits in turn. Maybe not so much as brand new shiny things, but it's still nothing to dismiss out of hand as a fairly common business practice.
    FYI: Just because you can see my signature, don't assume that I can see yours.
    Because I can't; I keep all sigs turned off. ;)
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    logionlogion Posts: 4,739 Member
    edited December 2021
    VeeDub wrote: »
    In term of money, free update is not profitable.

    They need money to develop TS5, a ton of kits won't be enough for the next 7 years.

    But free updates do foster at least some amount of "goodwill" which is sometimes worth more than money and can often boost profits in turn. Maybe not so much as brand new shiny things, but it's still nothing to dismiss out of hand as a fairly common business practice.

    Yeah, that's the positive side with refreshes. I think refreshes are popular with the community and will increase player activity, make people go back and play the pack again and try out new things. And that's potential new sales when they are releasing new packs. But I'm having a hard time seeing how refreshes will increase sales for some people because:

    1. I don't think the people who never bought the pack when it was released will be interested in buying it now because of a refresh. They were most likely not interested in the pack to begin with.
    2. I don't really see how a refresh will make someone new who have never heard of the pack more interested either because they will probably not understand what is new and what was old. Unless they like something specific from the refresh, but then the chance is pretty high that they had already bought the pack anyway because they were probably already interested in it.
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    VeeDubVeeDub Posts: 1,862 Member
    logion wrote: »
    VeeDub wrote: »
    In term of money, free update is not profitable.

    They need money to develop TS5, a ton of kits won't be enough for the next 7 years.

    But free updates do foster at least some amount of "goodwill" which is sometimes worth more than money and can often boost profits in turn. Maybe not so much as brand new shiny things, but it's still nothing to dismiss out of hand as a fairly common business practice.

    Yeah, that's the positive side with refreshes. I think refreshes are popular with the community and will increase player activity, make people go back and play the pack again and try out new things. And that's potential new sales when they are releasing new packs. But I'm having a hard time seeing how refreshes will increase sales for some people because:

    1. I don't think the people who never bought the pack when it was released will be interested in buying it now because of a refresh. They were most likely not interested in the pack to begin with.
    2. I don't really see how a refresh will make someone new who have never heard of the pack more interested either because they will probably not understand what is new and what was old. Unless they like something specific from the refresh, but then the chance is pretty high that they had already bought the pack anyway because they were probably already interested in it.

    You make good points, but I didn't necessarily mean that free updates would translate directly to increased sales of existing packs, though in some cases that might happen. I was more referring to the general idea of goodwill that companies like to build up for long-term profits, as in more potential overall sales for all the products they offer. But thinking with more focus on the current product (Sims 4, that is), I can think of a few packs that I might decide to go ahead and buy if they get refreshed in ways that I could like. I'm sure I'm not the only one; not everyone buys immediately/soon after release everything that they might buy, after all. I certainly don't. Some things need time to percolate. :sunglasses:
    FYI: Just because you can see my signature, don't assume that I can see yours.
    Because I can't; I keep all sigs turned off. ;)
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    logionlogion Posts: 4,739 Member
    edited December 2021
    VeeDub wrote: »
    logion wrote: »
    VeeDub wrote: »
    In term of money, free update is not profitable.

    They need money to develop TS5, a ton of kits won't be enough for the next 7 years.

    But free updates do foster at least some amount of "goodwill" which is sometimes worth more than money and can often boost profits in turn. Maybe not so much as brand new shiny things, but it's still nothing to dismiss out of hand as a fairly common business practice.

    Yeah, that's the positive side with refreshes. I think refreshes are popular with the community and will increase player activity, make people go back and play the pack again and try out new things. And that's potential new sales when they are releasing new packs. But I'm having a hard time seeing how refreshes will increase sales for some people because:

    1. I don't think the people who never bought the pack when it was released will be interested in buying it now because of a refresh. They were most likely not interested in the pack to begin with.
    2. I don't really see how a refresh will make someone new who have never heard of the pack more interested either because they will probably not understand what is new and what was old. Unless they like something specific from the refresh, but then the chance is pretty high that they had already bought the pack anyway because they were probably already interested in it.

    You make good points, but I didn't necessarily mean that free updates would translate directly to increased sales of existing packs, though in some cases that might happen. I was more referring to the general idea of goodwill that companies like to build up for long-term profits, as in more potential overall sales for all the products they offer. But thinking with more focus on the current product (Sims 4, that is), I can think of a few packs that I might decide to go ahead and buy if they get refreshed in ways that I could like. I'm sure I'm not the only one; not everyone buys immediately/soon after release everything that they might buy, after all. I certainly don't. Some things need time to percolate. :sunglasses:

    That is true. Maxis earned some goodwill with their refresh, we will see if they will do more refreshes, people do seem to like them but I would probably not want it instead of packs.
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    LeGardePourpreLeGardePourpre Posts: 15,354 Member
    edited December 2021
    The current strategy is more "aggressive" as Andrew Wilson said to the investors.

    The Kits are probably the highest priority now.
    Keep in mind EA is the company which gets money with Ultimate Team and loot boxes.
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    catloverplayercatloverplayer Posts: 93,464 Member
    The problem I have with kits is there is no gameplay.
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    Lbphart3Lbphart3 Posts: 59 Member
    I have a feeling that,Thats what they'll probably do sadly we got over 9 kits this year,And only one EP,one,GP ,and one SP...I'm looking forward to 2022 :).
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    MeowchaFrappeMeowchaFrappe Posts: 840 Member
    I honestly hope you're wrong. We are still missing far too many occults for me to possibly ever be able to be okay with gamepacks being limited to refreshes.

    The only way I would be okay with this is if we get an entire expansion pack adding the occult lifespans we're missing as well as expands the ones we already have, or the refreshes add in the missing occults. Otherwise, I will be extremely dissapointed.

    That being said, I'm also hoping beyond hope we get a new occult in 2022, especially since we were supposed to get one in 2021 judging by the past patterns. I will be absolutely livid if we have to wait out another whole year before getting any occult content.
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    FamilyFarmerFamilyFarmer Posts: 40 Member
    Didn't the Sims team add in code for up to 20 game packs recently implying there would be more?
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