I don't care about anything else they announced today but ewww they're selling custom content as Creator Kits.

While I'm sure the content will be MUCH better, that's not the idea or appeal of customer content. I don't agree with independent expression being passed off corporate merchandise.

Also, "Continued Support" of the Sims 4 screams to me where going to slowly be spoon fed slop for the next few years, and I'm honestly ready to get off the roller coaster. I'm over gimmicks and tricks. It has not been an enjoyable 10 years. It started off BAD and it's currently BAD.

At times, I was fed up with The Sims 3 as well, but at least we got content when we bought something, even if the content was lackluster. Lovestruck was void of anything noteworthy and was a series of rehashed additions.

We're still waiting for a spiral staircase and pool tables, it's wild... and if EA thinks I'm going to continue to fund them selling patches as DLC, I cannot. My Wedding Stories, Get Together, and Lovestruck were basically patches. It's sad.

Continued support? The game barely runs as it is! And they're selling mods? I don't want multiplayer in my sims game! It's like they took a list of what everyone said they would hate and implemented it. EA seriously needs competition in the life sim department. I hope InZoi and Paralives work out. If you need me, I'll be in The Sims 2 section.

It feels like they're grasping at straws. I feel they believe the content people want is too expensive to produce, so they're holding on to it at the every last second to release while trying to bleed as much from fans as possible.

Top Picks For Content:
- Graveyards
- Funerals
- Fairies
- Bands
- Table Engagements

2/5 of these appear to be on the horizon but are not confirmed. They missed the bus on table engagements several times, which players have begged for since The Sims 3. Players communicate what they want, and they just ignore them. Very weird behavior.

Ok so now the rumours are confirmed, there will be no Sims 5 and Project René is something different then. Maybe a casual mobile game? They continue to make content for Sims 4.

These are bad news in my opinion and I thought, well maybe they listen to their players and add something like a world map editor for the sims 4 so that we can make our own world maps, but NO, they add Multiplayer instead. Something the community doesn't want. I hate EA. They make something that is bad even more worse.

I guess Maxis decided to give Flash the chipmunk some competition. Before somebody sez that this is alpha footage; I know. That doesn't make this better. They've been doing this stuff for 25 years next year. They've reduced birds to blue and white pixel blobs.

The Sims 5 is NOT coming... (BIG Project Renee news)

https://youtu.be/YvuEo1vkv7E?feature=shared&t=451

Corporate speech at its finest!

Basically, there will be expansion after expansion after expansion which means more money!

Also, they will now lure your favourite cc creators so that you cannot get free stuff anymore because all the profit will go to EA (some to the said creators)!

Kit's are a cheap way to make money due to their low barrier to entry. What better way to produce them than to hire people who they don't have to give benefits to. They'll make less, but they also cost less to make.

They give them limits, ensure the projects means said limits, and it done by the deadline. It's basically independent contactors with a pre-set fanbase to market to. People are inclined to support their favorite creators. Even if a creator gets an 80% cut of the proceeds, the creator did 95% of the work. I would love to read the contracts on these because they have to sell in perpetuity.

I'd argue EA may creator promotional content for kits and throw up a blog post on social media, but EA is still coming out better on these financially.

Edit: Also, they have an “exciting” patch coming tomorrow. I assume there’s free content in it. There was no reason to release it on a Wednesday, so I’m assuming they didn’t want to overshadow the big announcements from today, as well as the upcoming mit releases. I assume it’s big update of some sort.

It is interesting how they are now 'concerned' about the time and energy people have put into this game. They haven't seemed too worried over 10 years about all the saves that have been destroyed by bugs such as Father Winter's beard which left the game unplayable. It got fixed eventually, but as usual, it took a lot of chair rattling before anything was done.

The whole article was corporate, boiler plate nonsense. This game has had nothing but issues since release. Unless they plan on rebuilding the whole thing from the ground up, I don't see their plan going well. Since they are going to be paying cc creators to make kits, I don't see them rebuilding... much.

They're looking for ways to cut corners and for cheap labor as Matrix pointed out. Yibs and others are not paid EA employees. Yibs get their money via views on YouTube and Twitch. I'm sure if they work on builds or work on kits like the one Plumbella did, they get a cut of sales, but they're not entitled to health care benefits, a 401K with some type of EA match, ect...

Lasciate ogni speranza ...

Yet another video on the same subject from Satch. At the end he went bonkers. I totally understand.

Plumbella and the like were given an upfront payment for their contributions but treated like a consultant.

The only commission she’d get if if they used her creator code. Great PR for them but not a great deal as there are no royalties.

It’s not like I had any faith in them to make The Sims 5 good or anything…but this is basically the worst news I could’ve expected. No real successor to The Sims 4 and “Project Renee” is basically just EA’s umpteenth attempt at recreating Second Life (because their first several attempts went oh so well).

The Sims 4’s problems are bone-deep thanks to Project Olympus. No further amount of half-assed DLC is going to change that. If that game is the hill they want to die on, then I’m off to Paralives (and maybe inZOI once I can afford a computer that can run it…). Because I can’t do this anymore, I’m over it. I’ve been waiting out the shit storm for 10 years hoping that it’d eventually end and we’d be given a new successor with a more stable foundation that addressed the majority of Sims 4 criticisms, but I guess it’s not happening (not from EA, anyway). If they want to alienate their core audience to chase after the iPad generation, they can go ahead. I still have the first 3 Sims games that I can keep replaying, and I’ve been a Patron supporter of Paralives for awhile now. Ultimately they need me WAY more than I need them, and I can’t imagine this decision will fare well for them in the long run. The Sims 4 is so unstable as it is, I don’t see it being able to handle another 5+ years of DLC. But that’s for me to know and EA to find out

I saw where someone said they read that blog post as an open admission to killing off Sims through all of the corporate speak. I can't stop thinking about it and I couldn't agree more. There will be no more base games. Only more TS4 terribleness and cash grab spin-offs as the entire series goes the way of the dodo bird.

So sad what they've done to what was once one of my favorite game series. Can't say it's a shocker though...

Indeed. Not really a surprise. This is EA, they've been killing off and ruining franchises since their inception. It seems often that EA's corporate rule is "Buy, Monetize, Destroy".

Honestly, I AM shocked.

10 years of good sales and profits on the Sims 4, and now we have better computer technology and development tools than ever before. Yet they can't pull together a team to make something that can rival what Maxis did almost 20 years ago? This has to be sheer incompetence and mismanagement to extreme levels. There is no excuse for this outcome for the Sims. None at all. They have utterly failed their community which took them decades to build up. A community who stuck around after every disappointment, and who were still willing to stick around and wait and give Sims 5 a chance. And now they give us this cop-out corporate speak? I'm lost for words.

It’s always weird watching game studio corporate overlords make decisions. Usually, they goal is to chandelier a trend a profit.

The issue with that is that games take 2 or more years to make. The trends they chase inevitably die off. I would argue that games as a service are not popular, it’s just what’s available. Considering we’re in a recession (or any overall global financial downturn), the best way to produce content that appeal to a wider audience is to small shorter, replayable, highly marketed mid-budget experiences. It gives consumers value for money.

The Sims could be that game, but there’s no investment in it. Technology is as good as it has been for years, and to watch them develop products that are borderline in functional half the time is so weird.

Now, we’re supposed to expect The 4 to be their flagship title? Coming off the heels of patch-a-gedon? To introduce a new pack type when we have seen a “game pack” in what is now about 2 years?

With the Sims 3, I feel there was a bit of a chase for money. They put out whether and expected it to sell. Nothing needed to work together. Quantity over quality. I’ll never forget that backless shower on the store that works like a normal shower…

With The Sims 4, I feel like there is just no care or concern for the player or their own standards. Supply and demand are virtually non-existent for Maxis. Cars would completely shake up the community. They had a decade for figure out cars when neighborhoods were much smaller. Players are begging for fairies, and yet… we get Life and Death. I couldn’t even tell you what that was about based on the name.

I hear this news and think about how we should be on or approaching The Sims 6, and I’m just tired. Hopefully, the patch will include something players have asked for for a while.

That’s why I keep saying stop buying EA’s crap. They don’t give a ahit as long you buy TS4 content. We’re pretty much a life vessel. Packs are broken, game packs are finished, kits have replaced stuff pack, an expansion packs… well, they’re aren’t gonna be any better or ruined like For Rent. Packs are only used here to decorate houses at this point, when really - you can do that with CC or wait till EA decides to hand them free.

EA is pretty much showing the white surrending flag to inZoi and even potential successor Paralives. They already gave up anf disappointed us more beyond measurement units. Once TS4 dies, the fandom will not forgive them!

I've seen so many people saying they're glad TS5 is not coming and they want more stuff for TS4 There's no hope for this series with fans like this...

They want Sims 4 to be better. They must not have played The Sims 2 or 3. The Sims 4 foundation was awful from the start.

So awful, in fact, we’re still waiting for features that were in the Sims 2/3 base game. Even alternative version of things were already have that should be quick cash grabs but don’t exist.

For example - We have a football, but not base ball.

We have a jungle gym, but not playground equipment that stems from it (like a slide).

We have toilets and no urinals.

We have businesses but serve service businesses. Not even grocery shopping, but they're content with that being delivery or a cart.

It’s exhausting.

In order for this post to make sense, watch the video by Satch first if you do not know about the thing Maxis is now calling a "Sims Hub"

Another HUGE Sims leak (you won't believe it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynQ1TWzKl2o

Without getting too deep into the weeds, Andrew Wilson has been yapping about making EA's "big" IPs into these large, social things for at least a couple of years. I think in the article regarding TS4 that was posted by Vanity the word universe was used.

All that yapping he has been doing is now coming to fruition. It isn't just sims that is going to swept into a heap under a single rug. I'm posting this other thing to make a point.






https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ea-ex...through-to-2027

Here comes AI; another thing Andrew Wilson has been yapping about. This means job losses, possibly more studio closures, ect... These are things that excite Wall Street overlords. They want all the money. Without humans to deal with, the fatter their wallets. AI doesn't care about grocery money, making sure their doctors visits are covered and so on.

What does Andrew Wilson know about the sims community? Absolutely nothing. Everybody that buys stuff for TS4 or even TS3, players are just sales numbers. He has no clue what makes the sims community churn. All he sees is "80 [TS4] million players" ( based on what, nobody will ever know) and sales charts.

This plan has been in works for a long time. For those that stay on top of the sub-level news regarding EA and such, this isn't new news. Maxis is jumping on the bandwagon with Project No-No, this other thing called Sims Stories and a movie. Most people that don't play sims don't understand why people play sims regardless of the version. Andrew Wilson is expecting this movie to be a blockbuster. Are human actors going to walk around T-posing or will the whole movie be CGI?

Job loss at the expense of AI in the labor market will only result in a significant loss of revenue long term because consumers will have no money purchase things with.

When do the rich stop hoarding money and put it back into circulation?