As some of you know, there are rumors circulating around the web about TS5 being multiplayer for some time already. Nobody really knows though if TS5 is in production; there are only rumors about it being coded with Unreal engine and some other rumors. Here is a recent article that explains more into detail. An internet site called techradar also posted an article about TS5.

But this thread is more about the progression of the Sims series. Is the multiplayer option going to advance the Sims series in any way? Furthermore, will the multiplayer feature break the tradition of TS being a single-player game? Is TS5 going to be more like Second life, with an online store and avatars that resemble you in any way possible? What type of player are EA and Maxis targeting at with their new Sims title?

How will it be implemented? I worry that the multiplayer feature is going to cost us CAST and many other smaller features, Coding the multiplayer aspect of the game might take a drain on resources that could be invested into something else like family gameplay (TS5 should have more lifestages) or open world that is not laggy or buggy.

Is it going to be an option or a mandatory feature? I want it to be an option because the multiplayer feature might cost us many other features. That might not be the case, but I have a feeling like the multiplayer mode is going to be one of its main selling points.

I gave on multiplayer games a long time ago, it's just no fun having to be wary of scammers and account hackers

I will not even consider the game if solely multiplayer. EA has been told over and over the vast majority of its original core base of players, which includes me, totally does not want that. The switch mid stream is part of why we got Sims 4 as we did with no toddlers, unfinished teens, etc. The game was behind and then rushed out to meet a release deadline.

If mp is an option and not mandatory, and there is enough of interest without doing that I may consider. If 5 is IMO dumbed down even more than IMO 4 was to 3, and the target audience now the 10s, no disrespect to 10s LOL, no thanks. And if made to play on a piece of celery rather than even a potato.

I know is not to happen, but I want an upgrade from 3. But odds are that will not happen as I am not the target buyer now.

Modern Maxis are dead in the water. As incompetent as all out. I would be hesitant to purchase anything they put out there in the guise of a TS5. Most of us have already invested so much into TS4, knowing just how bad Maxis are with the stuff they put out. But we persevere, because we know at least what TS4 is, and more to the point, we know how much modders can turn TS4 stuff around. But I would simply not go through the same with a TS5. From the get go, it's the same Maxis who will continually do to a TS5 what they have done to TS4. No, no, no thank you. If it can be avoided from the start with zero investment, then that's where I'll be at in regards to latter day EA Maxis products. Lesson learned.

To be fair to Maxis, I just don't think the modern model works. Of running a game project for x number of years, putting out x number of addon dlcs, from minor kits to major EPs, all while regularly patching once a month for that x number of years the game runs. It is overwhelmingly evident that "monthly maintenance model" - all due to the ease of online access - is as likely to harm the product in the long run as it is in its attempt to keep it in good condition. The ease of online access has done a disservice to the final professionalism that was far more effective over a decade ago when there was no such online service and no "regular patching downloads." The current ideal that "whatever errors we find today we can simply fix in an online patch tomorrow" is a flat-on-its-face-failure, a falsehood. Certainly when in the wrong hands. Maxis' hands. As the unfolding eventuality is, in fact, a staggering mountain of errors that nobody is fixing at all. A staggering amount of errors mostly introduced through the ease of online regular patching. So before I would even think about investing in a new project from Maxis, rather than speculate on what a new iteration might be, I'd much rather hear about VAST improvements in their planned regular online maintenance, and even vaster improvements in the methods and speeds utilized in fixing erros "simply by tomorrow" as the online ideal would originally hope for. Until then, building another golden statue on such clay feet, I have no interest in at all.

In regard to multiplayer changes, it's inevitable. Players do want it. But equally as many do not. Mods are never going away for this game. Half the player base are not interested in a squeaky-clean, child-friendly version of the game, and like using certain mods and CC to make their games more adult. EA Maxis aren't going to throw all these players under a bus. So the inevitable multiplayer aspect will be an optional thing. That's all it ever can be for this franchise. Forcing multiplayer only, means only kids will be interested in the long run, and eventually probably not even kids. CC and mod creation will dry up due to the restrictions and limitations on a theme. It would be the death of the franchise. And I suspect playing in a multiplayer environment - true MMO-fashion - would have to be mod free, no mods or CC allowed. Though like many other games that have multiplayer functionality - though not MMOs - groups form who all have the same mods and CC, so they can all jump in and out of each others game worlds together, getting up to all sorts. Sure, I can see that coming for The Sims. So yeah, definitely an optional multiplayer, non-MMO type thing. Though how that will play out with the "anything can happen at any time" with all these human-controlled sims gathered in one place is quite daunting. Perhaps it will have to be turn-based interactions. Ouch. And you thought the Simulation Lag of TS4 was bad! Wait till you see twenty human-controlled sims each having to wait for their turn before they can do a damn thing over and over.

I would love it if they could do something that was similar to the Simport feature (Sims 3 Showtime) for Sims 5. With that feature you could send one of your Sim performers in to other people's games. You could pick who (amongst your origin friends) were online, and send them an invitation. If they accepted then a copy of your sim would be sent to their game and your sim would be 'away' from your world (so you couldn't play them temporarily). Once your friend received your sim, he would turn up in their game as an NPC, and within a short amount of time put on a performance at a Showtime stage lot in your friend's world. Your friend's sims could go to see the performance. Shortly after, your sim would leave their world and be returned to yours, along with memories and experience of the performance they did. It was a lot of fun and I sent Sim Sample to do some juggling with several online friends and they posted images of these experiences on the forums we frequented. It had limitations, some mods broke the feature, and if you used custom content then of course that wouldn't travel with the sim, so the sim would look different in your friend's game unless they happened to have the same CC installed. But, it was a good use of the online capabilities of the game I thought, and was fun to do whilst being totally controlled by the players.
Something like that, which would add to the game (and sims') experience, which was totally controllable, but which would be unobtrusive and optional, would be great. Imagine being able to send your sim on a holiday to someone else's game, and have them come back with memories and postcards and photographs of that. Would be fun and add to the game I think, but of course it wouldn't work for something like Sims 4, where your average players all have the same worlds. Would be better for Sims 2 or 3 type games where custom worlds are easier to make.

Me and my best friend loved to play together on FreeSO, but it just didn't feel like enough, so I would personally love it

I sincerely hope NOT! I was in SL for a while and all I can say is yikes!



Absolutely!!! That is the only reason they would make more iterations of this game! Complete w/an unfinished game w/poor programming!

ON a side note, I used to play another disk driven game and when the company who owned it wanted to sell to EA, most of the players said "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! EA will just ruin it!"



The primary reason TSO failed was not only the bugs, but that they refused to allow cc until the end. By then, it was too late; most of the people had already left.



I'm w/you on that. There is no way that they'll continue to fix TS4's problems once #5 is out. Wishful thinking on the person's part who started that? Maybe.

I highly doubt that they'll close down TS4 when 5 comes out. At least they've never done that in the past. I'm not a huge fan of TS4 and MUCH prefer #3, but EA would probably still make some money out of #4. I really hate to think of what they'll do w/#5 though! #4 is totally splintered compared to #2 and #3! What used to be included in ONE expansion is now splintered into 3 or 4 expansions, each of them costing! No ty!

I have no problem with multiplayer in some genres - grand strategy, for example - but I have no interest in it in my sims games. If its a prominent aspect, 5 will be a hard no here.

I'm probably a no if it's not at least attempting to either be an up-to-date 2, or an improved 3. I doubt I'm going to be interested, because I don't see the franchise headed in any direction in which I would wish to go.

If Sims 5 will be online-multiplayer-only then it's as good as dead to me. That might sound bit overly dramatic but I enjoy Sims purely alone. What would you even do in online Sims? Have your characters stand/sit together and chat? Watch them loop some same animation over and over again while you grind skills together? Watch them disappear into rabbit hole to earn money for 8 real time hours? I just don't see any appeal in that, I could already do that in Second Life if I wanted to.

Even if I wanted TS5, where I'm living now, my internet connection is so iffy that I probably wouldn't be able to stay online long enough to successfully play it. And I'm definitely not moving just to play something by Maxis/EA with the reputation that they have recently garnered.

Isn't that exactly what you do in single player to get appeal of? It doesn't have to be real hours and players could build together, much like in minecraft if you got a friend that collaborates..

In a way, I have ideas or vision how not mandatory multiplayer could work. But I'll leave that for later.

I posted repeated about this before, but I cannot see a non-online TS5 or any independent CC community, especially following the drama from paid content.

The way I see it if we follow EA's intentions and extrapolate them:
- TS5 will have an online and non-online component.
- Non-online plays similarly to the traditional Sims games
- Online is essentially some sort of social meeting space like Playstation Home and Second Life + the TS4 Galleries.
- You'd bring over a maximum of a household at a time to interact with other players' households in realtime.
- Online will also contain a custom content marketplace, and the only route in which you can install CC, like in Second Life or Roblox.
- This marketplace is monetized, with a share of profits given to creators to ensure they stay on the platform.
- The online component has regular events and minigames that you can play to earn money to buy CC, or you can directly buy CC with real money.
- Modding of the game mechanics will still be done via the traditional route externally if allowed, no mods are allowed in the Online component of the game under bannable consequences.

Sims 5 having an online component like GTA V would be neat, I guess. Not something I see myself playing often. But it'd be a neat thing to try. Going completely online though? Absolutely not. The Sims is not IMVU and it shouldn't try to be. That would be a surefire way to guarantee that I don't buy the game.

And if no ability to do our own worlds again, that will be huge factor in a pass for me. And also if no CASt again. But if placing a bet, I will guess will go even more backwards from the apex days of 2 and 3.

I was watching a Youtube vid a few days back, and a bunch of 5 or so Youtubers, James Turner and Co were playing TS4 with the Multiplayer mod. They were doing a night and day at high school as a bunch of teen sims who live together. Enjoyable, and funny, but therein lies the problem. Funny for all the wrong reasons. Because TS4 is so glitchy, and gameplay in general. - aside from glitches - is just too quirky, even for a bunch of human-controlled sims, it was actually a poor advertisement for multiplayer play. Because, laugh-out-loud funny as it was, you would not want that chaos as the constant. That would be a game-killer for anyone over eight years old. I know it was only TS4 and the Youtubers were having a giggle together anyway regardless, but if it is close to a mirror of what TS5 might officially be as a multiplayer, then no,no, no. Too asinine, too overbearing, too silly. Good for a quick laugh together, bad for long term "serious" game play. After all, the mod they used only opens access to the online multiplayer mechanic Maxis built into TS4, a feature the game almost shipped with nine years ago! So how different could a TS5 version be if it ships with multiplayer features? I don't think it would be that different. So then how different of a game must TS5 be from TS4, so as not to descend into the same asinine chaos during multiplayer play? That's the real question. Not if it will be multiplayer. But how good, or poor will it be in comparison to TS4 as that almost was officially online multiplayer, and actually is unofficially if you use the mod to access it.

If The Sims 5 truly is sporting multiplayer, then I'm going to grab my rifle and put it out of its misery. Multiplayer for The Sims is like modding single-player focused games to bring friends along for memes. It's never meant to be anything done seriously, because you know the game isn't built for it. And here in lies the problem. The Sims was never built for multiplayer, even if you make a sequel with that in mind. It's like Skyrim - multiplayer is hilarious because of glitches and bugs, but the moment you want to start actually playing the game and get yourself immersed, you start hating your friends.

Maxis that we all knew died long ago. They would never have seen The Sims get to the sorry state that it's in today. All I see whenever content is uploaded on the official channels is management meddling by EA leashed by their uncaring shareholders.

Hmmmm, if multi player is an option and not mandatory, that is good. Competition, no thanks vs. other players, but if goals for me to set OK which probably is not. Open world and better CAS. Good. I still would want a CAW. Will have to see how much actually happens to consider more.

Well... no, not for me at least. I play out stories I write in my head and watch it all crumble down due the game's hilariously bad AI then try to incorporate whatever random/awful happened in the storyline and so on. Fun for me but nobody else would enjoy it and I wouldn't enjoy someone inserting their characters in it either. I also use a lot of adult content in my game which is actually another thing that would be autobanned if the game is online multiplayer one. No way EA would allow modding any adult content in the game or even skins with *gasp* nipples in them. I can't even get excited over the idea of building together since I hate building. Decorating's nice sure, but EA would likely make every piece of furniture cost real money or something else crappy to put me off even that. I mean, does somebody seriously think they wouldn't monetize every aspect of it? You want house in the world? That'll be $XX. You want to decorate it? Sure but each piece of furniture costs $XX. Oh you want to change your Sims hair/clothes/shoes/accessories? That'll be $XX! You want to add another sim in the world? $XX thanks! Trying to level up a skill? You can do it faster by paying $X! And so on. I just don't see how any of this could turn out as a nice thing.

I suppose there's still a lot of life left in Sims 4 - IF Maxis/EA fix all the bugs and whatever else wrong AND update all the packs like they did Spa Day. They say they still plan to release more content and stuff - but for all intents and purposes, TS4 ain't going nowhere else, and will simply degenerate in time. And maybe that's the plan - to allow TS4 to continue so low that the true lovers will salivate at grabbing Sims 5. Maybe the plan is to do an Ad/Marketing campaign "update your Sims experience by joining The Sims 5 community!" And thus make another killing. Surely Maxis will abandon Sims 4 once Sims 5 is released because how can they concentrate on both - especially considering how much attention they're giving Sims 4 all by itself right now?! All their attention will have to go to 5.

In the end, it's all fun, games and money anyway.

Well, it seems clear that the Sims by EA as we know it is over. 4 won't be playable if they pile more stuff and bugs and broken content onto a 8 years old game for another year or two and it's certainly not a multiplayer game. At least not how I like to play it.

I wonder if Pearsons comment 'Sims players in the future will likely have their phones on while interacting with the game on PC or console' is just about some companion app for the game on your pc/console. Not the game itself. This exists for certain MMORPG's already. I don't think she meant that TS5 will be a mobile game.
Anyway, this could also mean that there will be an always online world for TS5, for which the companion app can be used to be checked upon when being away from your pc/console. (like with those MMORPG's).
Unless they do something like simport as companion phone app. This would not require an always online world.

Always online world is a bad thing, so I really hope they do this. It would mean no customizing worlds and probably no mods if only official servers are allowed. And the perfect base for EA to monetize through ingame real money store etc.

It will have multiplayer but I would assume there will be a single player mode. As much as EA likes to push this virtual connection of players thing they know a lot of people are just not into that. Also considering how popular x-rated mods have been with 4, there is no way they will make a MMO style online world with the game. They’ll have sim prostitutes roaming around the streets exchanging woohoo for in-game currency. I think the multiplayer will be like animal crossing, a game that sold the equivalent of Sims 4’s 8 years in a year and a half, and be much smaller scale.

Highly doubt there will be a mobile port of the entire game. There logistical hurdles there beyond just developing such a game. Online wouldn’t support cross play. iOS has some of the most stringent policies regarding cross-play compatibility. Fortnite iOS, for example, can’t play with any other platform besides iOS. PUBG has similar compatibility restrictions, although they can at least play with android. A mobile version, at most, would be CAS-mobile or some sort of Pokémon GO type app where you take your sims with you.