EA: "If The Sims 4 Isn't Successful, There Won't be a Sims 5"

[spartandude]

If they aren't profitable then hopefully a smaller and more specialized company can buy it for pennies on the dollar and make it into a success.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Why would EA sell it? If they cant make any money from it they will make damn sure no one else can and probably shut down any successful fan project which makes a better game.


Publisher selling off a franchise they plan to never use again and make fans happy while making a little bit of money by doing a decision that makes sense? What kind of beautiful world do you live in?

 

[FalloutJack]

If they aren't profitable then hopefully a smaller and more specialized company can buy it for pennies on the dollar and make it into a success.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Why would EA sell it? If they cant make any money from it they will make damn sure no one else can and probably shut down any successful fan project which makes a better game.


Publisher selling off a franchise they plan to never use again and make fans happy while making a little bit of money by doing a decision that makes sense? What kind of beautiful world do you live in?

This one. Stranger things have happened. Gonna have to tag you for that post, though. We're bein' civil here.

 

[aelreth]

If they aren't profitable then hopefully a smaller and more specialized company can buy it for pennies on the dollar and make it into a success.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Why would EA sell it? If they cant make any money from it they will make damn sure no one else can and probably shut down any successful fan project which makes a better game.


Publisher selling off a franchise they plan to never use again and make fans happy while making a little bit of money by doing a decision that makes sense? What kind of beautiful world do you live in?

They would sell it because they need money to please shareholders or to pay their debts. They will only hold onto the asset if they think they can get a better deal.

Eventually it is their hand that will become weak.

 

[Someone Depressing]

I have mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, it feels like EA is blaming us for the potential death of its darling child - then again, it's more than happy to get rid of it if it isn't successful. It's like, "Buy our piece of shit or you won't get another piece of shit!"

On the other hand, a piece of shit is still a piece of shit, and it's better than nothing, but this might be a good thing. Let it die. Euthanise it, it's much better than letting EA butcher it like an insane maniac, then watch it pathetically crawl without legs for a while before just kind of disappearing.

Dilemmas, dilemmas... well, I suppose it's up to the fans whether or not they want the series to continue.

 

[DirgeNovak]

Well fuck you then. I'll stick to The Sims 2 and 3 forever.
If I'm not buying The Sims 4, it's because it's a watered-down piece of shit, not because I don't like the Sims anymore. I want to buy a new Sims game, just not this one.

 

[spartandude]

If they aren't profitable then hopefully a smaller and more specialized company can buy it for pennies on the dollar and make it into a success.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Why would EA sell it? If they cant make any money from it they will make damn sure no one else can and probably shut down any successful fan project which makes a better game.


Publisher selling off a franchise they plan to never use again and make fans happy while making a little bit of money by doing a decision that makes sense? What kind of beautiful world do you live in?

They would sell it because they need money to please shareholders or to pay their debts. They will only hold onto the asset if they think they can get a better deal.

Eventually it is their hand that will become weak.

Believe me i wish that would happen. But publishers sadly tend to kill off a franchise and hold on to it. Maybe making a small game years and years down the line. I think its mostly because if they sell the franchise and then the new company makes a successful game with it the shareholders would be pissed. I remember Jim Sterling saying something like "Publishers would rather have all the money or none of it.".... stupid publishers.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

EA... EA, EA, EA.

Holding a potentially better game with the sales success of a terrible one is not going to win customers over. I am not going to fall for such tactics, and your getting none of my business until you stop holding a gun to my head for not purchasing every single thing you ever make.

I have to change the old quote "Two steps forward, one step back" for you guys. It's now, "Ten steps back, half-step forward."

I prefer "One step forward onto a landmine, body flies 12 steps back."

 

[FillerDmon]

Straight up, I read the title wrong. I thought it said "If the Sims 4 -is- successful", rather than "isn't". I was like "This is supposed to be an end to all of the DLC and repurchasing the same game over and over and over again to keep filling up EA's pockets of money? This is the point where our money is supposed to actually matter, and the madness finally ends?

Either way, I didn't believe it for a second. And I still don't believe them. If the Sims 4 isn't successful, they'll keep releasing expansion packs and everything, just by taking all the content from the previous game and photoshopping the number up one point. And when they get bored of that, they'll release the Sims 5 and make the same thinly veiled threats.

If they genuinely don't release the Sims 5.... who exactly cares? Considering the 4th's core is even weaker than the 2nd or 3rd's, and the promise of DLC is right around the corner, it seems obvious to the world that the Sims 3 was the definitive Sims experience, and it seems to be complete at this point. With other game companies, even Nintendo with their Mario Link Pokemon, those within can reasonably claim that they've been and still are trying to make it worth buying with new elements. If any company is guilty of doing the exact same thing each cycle, it's EA.

 

[aelreth]

If they aren't profitable then hopefully a smaller and more specialized company can buy it for pennies on the dollar and make it into a success.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Why would EA sell it? If they cant make any money from it they will make damn sure no one else can and probably shut down any successful fan project which makes a better game.


Publisher selling off a franchise they plan to never use again and make fans happy while making a little bit of money by doing a decision that makes sense? What kind of beautiful world do you live in?

They would sell it because they need money to please shareholders or to pay their debts. They will only hold onto the asset if they think they can get a better deal.

Eventually it is their hand that will become weak.

Believe me i wish that would happen. But publishers sadly tend to kill off a franchise and hold on to it. Maybe making a small game years and years down the line. I think its mostly because if they sell the franchise and then the new company makes a successful game with it the shareholders would be pissed. I remember Jim Sterling saying something like "Publishers would rather have all the money or none of it.".... stupid publishers.

That's the plan, they'll have none of it and the shareholders would riot. Only then will the culture change.

 

[Flunk]

Fine by me, I hope Maxis makes something innovative instead of constantly remaking the same game over and over like EA loves to do.

 

[SadisticFire]

Eh, there's Second Life. Minecraft with mods also can probably come pretty close.

As some one who RP's on SL, its a different thing completely, and more money hungry than EA, mostly because of the playerbase. Each object, each outfit, everything is made by the userbase, and they added a marketplace. You know what that means? You pay for *everything*. And it's not really the same feel as the sims, or as user friendly.
The minecraft thing was closer, though much further. I would say Fallout/Skyrim/New Vegas with mods would be more accurate.

On topic: Haha, EA you so funny. Please, can some one assassinate the CEO and their leaders? Or atleast an eleaborate way to make them think about how truely shitty they are, like kidnap their relatives, but give them a fantastic time or something, all meanwhiel "Pay 150,000 for our new family DLC! We couldn't support it in our engine at time of writing, but we can now!"

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Eh, there's Second Life. Minecraft with mods also can probably come pretty close.

As some one who RP's on SL, its a different thing completely, and more money hungry than EA, mostly because of the playerbase. Each object, each outfit, everything is made by the userbase, and they added a marketplace. You know what that means? You pay for *everything*. And it's not really the same feel as the sims, or as user friendly.
The minecraft thing was closer, though much further. I would say Fallout/Skyrim/New Vegas with mods would be more accurate.

On topic: Haha, EA you so funny. Please, can some one assassinate the CEO and their leaders? Or atleast an eleaborate way to make them think about how truely shitty they are, like kidnap their relatives, but give them a fantastic time or something, all meanwhiel "Pay 150,000 for our new family DLC! We couldn't support it in our engine at time of writing, but we can now!"

I'm sure you are just joking around there, but doesn't it occur to you that wishing death on a bunch of people you don't know, or wishing for entire families to be kidnapped, is a bit of a...well, let's just say that the high ground does not go to gamers who take that kind of attitude.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

Spoiler

So EA is going to hand us a shovel full of complete shit, expecting us to eat with a grinning face as we hand them more cash for every additional mouthful. Or else they won't make ANOTHER clusterbomb of shit in the form of SimCity...oh sorry I meant...Sims 5.

THANK YOU EA! We will gleefully hold our ankles as you REAMMMMMMMMMMM us with your glorious ideas of "Money is better than a happy consumer!".

It is almost as if one day out of absolutely nowhere a head Executive just wandered into the room after escaping his Hampster ball and proceeded to flail his arms while screaming about the lack of fucking consumers in the ass, and then all the other Executives put their crayons down on the table and just stared in amazement that one of their own could open a goddamn door let-alone form a cohesive sentence past all the frothing drool pouring out of his damn mouth.

Overall my position on this entire subject is...

"EA...from the deepest and warmest depths of my heart...and only with the best intentions...I want you to know...you guys...just suck so much dick as of the last few years...like...a landfill being your mouth, and garbage trucks just dumping dicks day and night for you to suck".

I am so angry with EA, they are literally ruining and ending every great series they can grab ahold of. Which is why I will take a moment to say that the above spoiler contains the most vulgar and angry thoughts I have on EA.

 

[SadisticFire]

I'm sure you are just joking around there, but doesn't it occur to you that wishing death on a bunch of people you don't know, or wishing for entire families to be kidnapped, is a bit of a...well, let's just say that the high ground does not go to gamers who take that kind of attitude.

You're right, I was pretty hyperbolic, but I keep that hyperbollby reserved for EA. They buy studios filled with passionate people and ram them into the ground for all their money's worth, fire them when the game's brandname isn't worth anything and start leaving people jobless and suffering because EA dosen't know that cutting content == no one wanting to play it.

 

[Michael Tabbut]

If in the extremely unlikely event that this decision kills EA completely (again extremely unlikely but a guy can dream) I have a song for the greedy, self important, arrogant bastards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hBGsvh7wQE

 

[Jim Tully]

Smells like someone is trying not to lose their job to me. Trying to bully the fan base into buying their flop, that is disgusting. I am even more put off now than I was before. If EA doesn't want the francise, sell it to someone else who will do more than try and bleed the fan base.

 

[Malpraxis]

I tend to believe them. Look at what happened with C&C after they severely screwed the pooch on that one. Not a peep in years.

The Sims 4 will sell well. They'll add some of the ransomed content in patches, and sell the rest as the inevitable 10 DLC packs. Heck, I bought the game, I'll even admit it was for myself instead of everyone who says buy it for the gf/wife, and feel I got my moneys worth.
One thing I noticed that might escape most of the "hardcore" crowd (if there's such thing with the sims) is how smoothly the game ran on everything. Even on the old laptop I take to work and just hope it gets stolen so I finally get rid of it. I think they're going after the WoW appeal of "it runs on a calculator!". Rendering the open world was hurting them on that front, and I think they made a calculated choice of outraging a few, but attracting more. That people who play it on their phones, with an even more simplistic environment. I think that's their target demographic.

 

[FalloutJack]

I tend to believe them. Look at what happened with C&C after they severely screwed the pooch on that one. Not a peep in years.

Ah, that wasn't threats. That was not knowing what the hell to do with themselves. Mind you, I like Red Alert 3, BUT that's one of the few exceptions to the rule here for me.

 

[nadeaum26]

My take on that subject :

The way I read this is "We are losing millions every month. If the Sims 4 isn't successful, there won't be a Sims 5 because we will be bankrupted. Period."

 

[Atmos Duality]

Believe me i wish that would happen. But publishers sadly tend to kill off a franchise and hold on to it. Maybe making a small game years and years down the line. I think its mostly because if they sell the franchise and then the new company makes a successful game with it the shareholders would be pissed. I remember Jim Sterling saying something like "Publishers would rather have all the money or none of it.".... stupid publishers.

The mentality that Jim alludes to is "Growth centric investment".
Or if you're into economics, it's a strategy that focuses more on "Economic profit" (market share, or growth relative to the market cap) than "accounting profit" (the latter being what the layman describes as profit); the assumption is that if you attain economic profit, accounting profit will increase.

But that mentality only works if they are already in a strong position relative to most of the market (and EA is; it's still fucking huge and has deep pockets). If EA were facing bankruptcy, you can bet your ass that shareholders would be pressuring the brass to sell under performing property.

THQ did exactly that in fact in January of last year.
As part of bankruptcy, they sold several notable assets, like Volition and Relic.