Electronic Arts Unveils The Sims 4

[Andy Chalk]

Electronic Arts Unveils The Sims 4

In a shocking development, Electronic Arts has confirmed that it will publish a new addition to the popular Sims franchise.

In case there's any confusion about it, the "shocking" remark above is actually ironic, because there's nothing shocking about it at all. The Sims is one of EA's biggest and most popular franchises and while it's not something that most of us think about on a regular basis, the surprise would be if EA gave it a Medal of Honor [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121799-Electronic-Arts-Drops-Medal-of-Honor] - and not the good kind but the figurative one, in which Peter Moore hangs his head in shame and hopes we all quickly forget that it ever happened.

"The Sims franchise is fueled by the passion and creativity of its millions of fans around the world," EA announced earlier today. "Your 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 games that has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide."

EA said in a "VIP Announcement Call" that more than 100 people are currently working on the game, including many veterans from previous Sims titles, and that the focus this time around, driven by advancements in technology, will be "on the complexity of Sim to Sim interactions and they way your Sims behave." The caller also promised a big Sims-related event later this summer, saying fans "might want to keep the third week of August open." And to answer the question on everyone's mids, EA confirmed with IGN [http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/05/06/the-sims-4-announced?+main+twitter] that The Sims 4 will support "single-player and offline" play.

There's not much to see at the moment but you can sign up to stay on top of The Sims 4 situation at thesims.com [http://thesims.com/en_US/thesims4].

Source: Simified [http://www.ea.com/news/the-sims-4-in-development-for-pc-and-mac]


Permalink

 

[Johnson McGee]

"People are reacting badly to our Simcity DLC. We need a new game we can monetize the crap out of. What are our options?"

and lo, the promised game did reveal itself to the EA executive.

 

[mjc0961]

Is this one going to have obnoxious always online DRM be an MMO too? If so, not buying.

 

[mysecondlife]

Also announced (which goes without saying): Pets, Nightlife, Holidays, etc.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Is this one going to have obnoxious always online DRM be an MMO too? If so, not buying.

Read the article. Second to last paragraph, last line. I'll quote it for you.

"And to answer the question on everyone's mids, EA confirmed with IGN that The Sims 4 will support 'single-player and offline' play."

So they learned their lesson from Simcity. Thank God for that.

 

[lacktheknack]

Is this one going to have obnoxious always online DRM be an MMO too? If so, not buying.

Read the OP again, it gives you the answer.

OT: Cautiously optimistic. If they peel features off of it again, I'll pass until the glorious moment when they FINALLY release a "The Complete Sims" edition.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

It's sad that we've reached the state where they have to confirm that the game won't ship broken.

 

[OuendanCyrus]

You would have to do something really damaging to severely decrease the amount people buying new games, like overloading your servers on the first week of a game's release so nobody could play.

 

[Quellist]

Is this one going to have obnoxious always online DRM be an MMO too? If so, not buying.

Read the OP again, it gives you the answer.

OT: Cautiously optimistic. If they peel features off of it again, I'll pass until the glorious moment when they FINALLY release a "The Complete Sims" edition.

I say this to your cautious optimism

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/03/01

This is EA we know its going to be horrible and monetized.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

On the plus side, it can only go up in Quality after Simcity, seeing how this game actually works.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Aren't they still releasing Katy Perry expansion packs?

Maybe now The Sims 3 will be worth buying.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Single Player and offline?

I'll believe it when it's out, hopefully EA have noticed how traumatically expensive setting up and supporting an always on system is, as well as how traumatically expensive-er it is when it all goes tits up on day one (Battlelog, The Old Republic, Simcity...). Of course this is EA we're talking about, even before Origin/Always On they were dicking about with DRM for Spore, Mass Effect and Warhead, so I don't trust them not to balls it up.

Captcha: take wrong turns

How apt.

 

[the_retro_gamer]

"In this version of Sims we replaced simloanians with real money! Now you will have to use micro-transactions to buy all your furniture."

I was extremely disappointed with Sims 3 with the lack of cool objects(or any objects in that manner) that you could fill your house with. So I expecting no different from Sims 4.

 

[lacktheknack]

Is this one going to have obnoxious always online DRM be an MMO too? If so, not buying.

Read the OP again, it gives you the answer.

OT: Cautiously optimistic. If they peel features off of it again, I'll pass until the glorious moment when they FINALLY release a "The Complete Sims" edition.

I say this to your cautious optimism

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/03/01

This is EA we know its going to be horrible and monetized.

It never hurt anyone to hope.

 

[CriticalMiss]

On the plus side, it can only go up in Quality after Simcity, seeing how this game actually works.

Don't speak too soon, EA might have discovered a way to have negative quality. They've put their worst minds on this one and found a method of being really shit. They've put in a lot of practice recently.

And I have to disagree with the author. It IS shocking. But only that they are making a single player game playable offline. Think of all the dirty pirates who will steal the game!

 

[LordLundar]

Is this one going to have obnoxious always online DRM be an MMO too? If so, not buying.

Read the article. Second to last paragraph, last line. I'll quote it for you.

"And to answer the question on everyone's mids, EA confirmed with IGN that The Sims 4 will support 'single-player and offline' play."

So they learned their lesson from Simcity. Thank God for that.

Doubtful. It's marketing speak. Consider EA's business model as of late. Of course the game itself will support single player and offline. But EA's business model centers around forcing Origin on people's systems, DLC and microtransactions, and social integration. Never mind the fact that they love integrating Sim games together and oh look! We have a SimCity game just recently released.

So yes, the base game will be offline and single player capable. Just don't expect it to get it working right without something being always online. And don't forget that SimCity 2013 is offline/single player capable as well. Whether it will actually utilize it or not remains to be seen.

 

[putowtin]

I've been playing the hell out of the sims 3 recently and (with mods) have loved the hell out of it.
Waiting (optimistically) for more news on this

 

[Andy Shandy]

Put me down as cautiously optimistic about this, hopefully they'll have learned from the mess that was SimCity.