The Sims 4 announced

[Syt]

In a shocking move that absolutely surprises no one, Sims 4 will be made.

http://www.ea.com/news/maxis-unveils-the-sims-4

Today we are revealing to our top fans the fact that The Sims™ 4 is coming to PC and Mac in 2014.

The Sims franchise is fueled by the passion and creativity of its millions of fans around the world. Their continued devotion to the franchise ignites the fire of creativity of the team at The Sims Studio, driving them to continually improve and innovate on one of the world's most successful simulation game that has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide.

More information will be revealed later today here on The Beat, so stay tuned

http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/14524/article/the-sims-4-will-have-built-in-modding-tools-offline-play/

Hot on the heels of Will Wright's comments that SimCity's server issues were inexcusable, EA has announced ahead of any speculation that the upcoming game The Sims 4 will be an offline experience without an always-online requirement.

"The Sims franchise is fueled by the passion and creativity of its millions of fans around the world," wrote EA in their announcement of the game. "Their continued devotion to the franchise ignites the fire of creativity of the team at The Sims Studio, driving them to continually improve and innovate on one of the world's most successful simulation game that has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide."

The publisher emphasized that players would experience The Sims 4 as an offline experience.

"The Sims 4 celebrates the heart and soul of the Sims themselves, giving players a deeper connection with the most expressive, surprising and charming Sims ever in this single-player offline experience," said the publisher, which took a lot of heat for forcing SimCity players to log onto the servers just to play what amounts to a single-player game.

That being said, players of The Sims 4 will be able to "effortlessly share their creativity with friends and fans" using the game's new tools, which will invite players to personalize and mod their world. Such features were previously unavailable to fans of the series, who were forced to resort to third-party tools to make the effort of modifying the game.

"The Sims 4 encourages players to personalize their world with new and intuitive tools while offering them the ability to effortlessly share their creativity with friends and fans."

The Sims 4 is set for release on the PC and Mac in 2014.

Guess someone got a bit burned and doesn't dare having the SimCity experience repeated with millions of rabid Sims players.

[garbon]

Wasn't it though that EA still sold SimCity fairly decently?

At any rate, nope not interested in this.

[Syt]

It probably sold decently, and there will no doubt be a certain player base that will stick with the game. However, a big part of the Sims-franchise these days is selling DLC packages (Sims 3 expansions go for $30-$40 more often than not; not t mention the many small content packs) - and if you're unable to retain your players there's little chance of selling those.

[DontSayBanana]

This could backfire.  I'm interested, but gonna have to see what kind of features 4 brings to the table.  3 was honestly enough of a step backward that I've been thinking of dusting off a copy of 2+OFB.

[garbon]

This could backfire.

What could backfire?

[DontSayBanana]

What could backfire?

There are a big camp of Sims players who feel like the feature set peaked with Sims 2.  4's going to have to bring some major game-changers to the table (and I would not consider first-party content creation a game-changer; it's not as if making mods for Sims 3 has a particularly steep learning curve).

[garbon]

Oh by backfire do you simply mean not sell as well as previous titles? I mean next year will be about 5 years from the last Sims installment - so they are on track to come out with another version (unless you think they should just continue to pump out Sims 3 stuff packs).

[DontSayBanana]

Oh by backfire do you simply mean not sell as well as previous titles? I mean next year will be about 5 years from the last Sims installment - so they are on track to come out with another version (unless you think they should just continue to pump out Sims 3 stuff packs).

Honestly, I think if they're going to keep up the hybrid model they've had, they need to shorten the time between installments.  We're talking losing 10 EPs' worth of expanded features; going from Sims 2 to 3 and losing all the expansion features was painful- I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that 3 would have failed if they hadn't gotten World Adventures out when they did.

The trick with 2 was that the expectation of features wasn't really there so much, so Open For Business being the massive "must-have" expansion extended its life cycle by quite a bit.

[Syt]

DSB has a point of losing features by going from an expanded game to a base game.

Still, Sims 3 had a few arguments that differentiated it far enough from Sims 2 to warrant an additional purchase - e.g. city wide story progression/aging (sure, nraas does a much better job at that, but still), seamlessly travelling around town and modelling NPC Sims' actvities ... it added a new layer of immersion to the whole game, together with reasonably improved/evolved graphics (not gonna call it a revolution).

I'm curious what Sims 4 is planned to add to the base game ... and what (if any) otherwise expansion pack gameplay is in from the start. Because, seriously, getting the same old Seasons, University, Nightlife, Pets etc. for the third time (or forth? don't know the Sims 1 expansions) is starting to become a bit grating.

[garbon]

Oh by backfire do you simply mean not sell as well as previous titles? I mean next year will be about 5 years from the last Sims installment - so they are on track to come out with another version (unless you think they should just continue to pump out Sims 3 stuff packs).

Honestly, I think if they're going to keep up the hybrid model they've had, they need to shorten the time between installments.  We're talking losing 10 EPs' worth of expanded features; going from Sims 2 to 3 and losing all the expansion features was painful- I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that 3 would have failed if they hadn't gotten World Adventures out when they did.

The trick with 2 was that the expectation of features wasn't really there so much, so Open For Business being the massive "must-have" expansion extended its life cycle by quite a bit.

Gotcha. However, I wonder if you are looking back in hindsight a bit differently than it was at the time.  Re-checking The Sims wiki, the first Sims had 7 expansion packs - which included many features like pets that did not make into Sims 2 until later expansion packs.  I remember being annoyed around the time of Sims 2 that I was going to have to pay extra for features that I'd already paid extra for in The Sims.

So really what you describe happening between 2 and 3 happened between 1 and 2.  That said, I do agree that 4 will have some extra fatigue in having "been there, done that, so why should I give you more money?"

[Martinus]

My problem with Sims is that the concept of the game (and expansions) sounds cool to me, but then I get very quickly bored with them. So yeah, not sure if I will be getting it this time. The expansion pack fatigue is also a problem (especially as they are priced almost the same as the original game, and often more than other standalone games).

[Grallon]

I've finally run into a thick wall of boredom with DA Inquisition so I dolled out a fair amount of money to try 'The Sims 4 - along with all it's expansions.  I tired the first one but quickly got bored with all the micro management of the little moppets' needs.  With number 4 it's more of the same I must say.  However the builder portion - the 'Lego' aspect I call it - is fantastic.  And Lego really is an apt name - or perhaps ship modeling would be even more accurate.  I *love* the flexibility of the tools provided.  If you add to this the gazillion cosmetic mods available it becomes something so engrossing I literally forget the hour of day.  In fact, I've made a manor house I'm quite pleased with.  Sadly it's unplayable thanks to the utter stupidity of the mannequins programmed by EA\Maxis.  But the act of creation itself...  I find myself discovering I might have an eye for interior decoration!  Some of the rooms I made were quite inspired.  Anyway I'll recommend the 'Lego' aspect of the game any time - just don't bother with the 'Barbie' side of it.



G.