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

[LaoJim]

Thing is, Grant Rodiek calls it like it is. Read through all his posts - his biggest crime is that he doesn't mince words, so fair play to him I say.

There is (as always) a lot of EA hate on this thread. I'm not a Sims fan, haven't played 3, haven't played 4, not going to. Gamers who like the Sims are upset that they've had features removed, gamers who don't like the Sims are happy to have another stick to beat EA with. Fair enough, EA deserve a beating now and then.

This story does need a bit of context though. Its a thread where a producer (not the producer, just one of many) was discussing a whole bunch of Sims 4 related issues with players. He was a bit defensive as you'd expect him to be given the amount of hate the game is getting (and yes he maybe does deserve some of the blame), but generally he was fielding people's questions in a positive way and you can see that there's genuinely a good attitude on the thread.

Then you have one poster coming in basically saying I'm not buying Sims 4, get working on Sims 5 with these features A,B,C. I don't generally like the phrase 'gamer entitlement', he has some legitimate points, but he talking to a real person, whose just spent years working on a game (good or bad), so he's phrasing things in a way which is pretty insulting. You then have this bit of discussion between two of the posters...

You do have to understand that if they jumped ship and started on The Sims 5 now any and everyone who bought The Sims 4 and probably a fair few people who didn't would feel grossly betrayed.

Good point. But they don't have to jump ship on Sims 4, they can continue working on Sims 5 as they're making EPs for Sims 4. Isn't that how they always do it anyway? Or am I wrong? Like most people have said, the devs usually begin working on a successor as soon as the previous game is released.

At this point, or slightly before, the producer goes home, everyone on the thread is saying "Hey why aren't you addressing our quesitons anymore?" When he comes back in he's got a whole bunch of replies to dash off before he can get on with his day, which probably involves him getting shit from EA management for why everyone's complaining about the Sims

That's the context to the remarks. They're still not great PR, but its hardly as bad as some people want to make out.

 

[alj]

Its ok EA everyone has a good sims game already(3), we don't need a new one.

 

[milijanko]

So, basically... this [http://static1.gamespot.com/uploads/original/454/4549725/2602193-9874855801-24538.jpg].

 

[loa]

That's really gross and makes me want to get the sims 4 even less.

 

[VondeVon]

"If you want more, buy this current piece of shit and we'll give you the illusion of building something better later..."

Seriously, I read their statement as nothing more than a threat. 'Don't wait for the next one, because there won't be one if you don't give us money now'. Trying to remove the only power a consumer has, eh? Don't want the sales figures to reflect the gutted corpse you've presented? Or maybe this *is* part of your strategy, to sell off this emaciated flea-infested leper so that Sims 5 (with sims 3 level day one junk) looks so amazing and full of value.

Ah EA, your name is forever synonymous with 'scumbag'.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

So...if they screw up a franchise that was already popular by making one game that isn't that great, it's OUR fault, so we don't get another game that corrects the problems?

I read it a little more positively as: they are putting all their effort in to making this entry in the series successful, and won't even begin to think of the next until they are happy with it. Maybe I am just reading it in light of the new CEO? of EA, who seemed to herald a sort of sea change in company ethos ("customers first").

 

[BrotherRool]

Now they're trying to blackmail people into buying their games =D 'If you don't buy it you'll never see another one again'

 

[funnydude6556]

RIP
The Sims Franchise
2000 - 2014

Yeah I'm calling it. You know I said this before on another forum and I'm saying it again. There was a time where I didn't understand why everyone hated EA Games so much and then EA helped me to understand, all I can say is I pity the times I didn't hate them with a burning passion. EA have stripped The Sims 4 of features and left it a buggy mess and now that we're speaking up their attitude is "Buy the game or we won't make a sequel" good, don't make a sequel. It's not like there isn't a billion other idiots like you jerks around willing to sell video games to me.

For example, you loved The Sims? Well then buy into the Civilization franchise, in fact I have this handy guide to help you to decide if a game is worth buying.
Question 1
Is Take-2 involved in the creation of the video game as either the publisher or the parent company of the publisher?
If yes then buy the game immediately

 

[erbkaiser]

Translation: We gambled and tried to create another Sims MMO, and this failed. The parts that were salvageable we sold as The Sims 4, despite it not being a complete game.

So you'd better buy it en masse as well as the 12 quintillion expansions and paid store content, or we'll be holding The Sims 5 hostage.

 

[LazyAza]

Sims2 still remains the best sims game soooo good job ea you've killed another franchise after milking it dry and killing any goodwill towards it that once existed. Freaking idiots.

I still can't believe like 90% of the features in 2 and 3 and aren't in 4. What a load of bullwank.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

Really not a big loss for gaming i'd say. In fact i would be surprised if sim's 4 does well considering how shifted towards mobile gaming the casual(scum) have become in recent years.

 

[lordofpowies]

At last! Come on you guys, this is our chance! All you have to do is not buy this game and we can finally be rid of this garbage! If only more publishers would put the decision of ending their worthless franchises of terrible games for stupid people in the hands of their consumers!

 

[gamegod25]

Well fuck you too, EA.

Though maybe it's for the best since they only know how to turn gold into pure shit.

 

[FalloutJack]

Good, hope it isn't successful you collective of awful halfwits.

The only entertainment I want out of EA anymore is the pleasure of watching it slowly go bankrupt. I'm really not a mean person usually so I'm a bit astounded at how much empathy I feel towards ancient Persian kings taking glee in watching an execution. I'm really excited for EA to go bankrupt, I really hope I get to see it, I have an evil hatred for EA that would only be justified if they killed several of my dogs.

Everything they do is wrong, for the past six years their strategy has been to make a product and then scientifically tweak the amount of annoyance in the game so that's it's just barely tolerable. They define their own failures as when they go just past that line, like Dungeon Keeper mobile, if they could do that again they would just barely tone down the paid transactions, just enough to make it playable but not enough for you to actually have real fun.

It's as if all the rights for producing chocolate bars were obtained by a single company and this company started adding fine sawdust to the bars. Every year they would try to add more sawdust to each batch, some batches even began to look like crumbly brown particle board. People complained, they said: "If making chocolate bars is so expensive that you have to add sawdust to make the required quantity, we would much prefer you increase the price and remove the sawdust." The company responded by decreasing the size of the bars and adding a complex and expensive brown dye. The chocolate simply isn't worth eating anymore, I'd rather wait for the company to go out of business and see what happens when other people are allowed to make chocolate bars again. They've ruined it for me.

This is...an extremely well-composed summation of the anger and hatred directed at EA. I just had to quote this to point out that I like how clear and entertainingly readable it is.

Because yes...there are those - perhaps many - who are waiting for EA to shit itself dead. We're waiting for the head to go so far up their ass that the body disappears, for the shot aimed at their foot to explode like a nuclear bomb, for the nose cut off despite the face to be inhaled suddenly and choke off the air passages, and so on. I, personally, do not have much in the way of anything involved in EA. Maybe a few games that were acceptable, but mostly I would say that I am against them out of sympathy for those that HAVE been cheated.

Hiya.

We bear witness to a crucial time in business - not just in EA, but other companies - where the dirty tricks are failing because they're crappy and overdone and people just don't want to deal with it anymore. EA will be justified as the worst company in America not because they're greedy and evil, but because they're also inept. They're going to go down in history as a company that stands there with its throat cut (by their own hand) while literally everyone in the world tells them how to stop the bleeding and they continue to wonder what's wrong. They'll keel over, still wondering, and their last croak before dying will be to accuse the world of not understanding their innovation.

It is to laugh.

 

[PatrickXD]

Great message you're sending there. Don't hold the franchise to ransom because you made a shitty cash grab and people saw right through it before it was even released. The only way to make The Sims 4 a game worth getting is the promise of FreeLC, but that's not a promise EA is willing to make.
In all fairness to the dude that said this, he seems to be genuinely trying to make The Sims 4 a better experience for consumers, and of course the business model of the game really has nothing to do with him.

 

[Kuredan]

I think Maxis should sell its IP to Firaxis and form one company Firaxis-Maxis. That way we can say "Chillin' out, Maxis, Firaxis all cool, and all shootin some b-ball outside of the school..."

Also How amazing could a Wil Wright/ Sid Meir game be? Similization anyone? (Yes I know Sid hasn't led Civ since the first one)

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Pretty sure many of us have seen the long list of missing features that have existed since The Sims 1-3 that should have been in this installment. If not, here you go [http://ts4news.com/post/94541924952/89-features-missing-from-the-sims-4]. If there isn't a Sims 5, it may be because fans of The Sims have gotten sick of getting fleeced, and wanna play a feature-rich game.

But this is EA we're talking about here. They can't exactly go a full month without being hypocritical and shoving feet in their mouth so often, they may have developed a fetish.

Looking at that list, maybe what he means is that they are continuing the same level of feature strip for the Sims 5, but that literally means there is no game left, so they don't need to work or think about it, because it's already done?

 

[Nazulu]

Well it's good they want to improve Sims 4 before moving on, but I really can't see it at all when it hasn't proven to be great at release, and everyone with a brain will just wait till it's really cheap with every single feature they cut out comes in a nice neat bundle, or just won't bother with it all.

EA! You're not improving you're image with this.

 

[Qage]

So that statement you released the other day about wanting to get away from the "Worst Company of the Year" title being followed by this statement, makes the former seem even more disingenuous now, doesn't it?

Not only are you charging a very hefty price for The Sims 4 when it has even less features than the previous entry, but you're now threatening the production of another instalment to the series based upon it's success. So basically you've just taken the franchise to ransom, blackmailed the consumers if they potentially want to see another instalment, and then you've gone and phrased it in such a way as to imply that it's the consumers fault?

Bull. Fucking. Shit.

Seriously, what is your problem, EA?

On the other hand, this would be an amazing opportunity for another company to swoop in with their own Sims-style game that has more features and is generally more consumer friendly.

 

[CriticalMiss]

There won't be a Sims 5 anyway as they'll chop it up and sell it as DLC for Sims 4. It's the next illogical step after taking out half of the game and selling chunks of the content as expansion packs.