The Sims 4 Won't Have Pools Because its Too Much Work, Says EA

[ryukage_sama]

Wow, Jim Sterling's latest video was spont-on. The cycle of EA's and Ubisoft's excuses and apologies seem to be in full swing. I had thought that the programming, textures and animations for the Sims series were actually easier to develop than other top selling EA games like Battlefield and Mass Effect. I can't say that this affects me, since I have no interest in the Sims franchise, but fans of the franchise deserve better than these lazy, ignorant excuses.

 

[Makabriel]

I don't know why game companies bother anymore. Just make the game and release it. Don't bother explaining, don't bother trying to smooth things over. It's not worth it because of (points to the posts above him).

No one cares. Or everyone wants to be the bully..

 

[CardinalPiggles]

You know what else is too much work? You EA, you.

Also, give it a week, some modder will add it in... If they ALLOW it.

 

[Gorrath]

I thought sims was, like, about having that really huge selection of props so you can build any house you can imagine and then having the sims waddle through that but I guess that's not the "vision" they had for the sims.

Anyway my guess is this is pure bullshit and the short answer is paid DLC.

The new Sims isn't about the digital dollhouse anymore, no sir! It's about your Sims interacting in ways they never have before, with emoshuns and such! But don't worry, every corner we cut at launch will be sold back to you at an outrageous price. That way your experience can feel stilted and incomplete, compelling you to shell out for endless stuff packs and expansions. And once you've got that game experience you love so much back? We'll ditch the Sims 4 for Sims 5 and do it all over again!

OT: Bullshit. Utter and complete bullshit. EA's just being EA by selling you an incomplete game, again. The idea that they couldn't port in the old assets strains credulity to the breaking point. Your song and dance is old and tired EA, and f*ck you for thinking we're dumb enough not to see through it.

 

[tzimize]

600 reactions to objects?

I do hope one of them is a reaction to not having a pool.

Hahahahahahahahahaha!

Very good sir, very good.

OT: Yeah. DLC. Is this a surprise to anyone? Thank god for indie developers. Free patches. Content updates. Et cetera.

 

[El Luck]

Is this new technology a variation on the one that Sim City had that said the game can only be played on line because reasons? Because the excuses given make it sound similar..

 

[Dragonbums]

Something tells me that devs have realized angry, internet, outrage leads to good sales because after the AC fiasco you would think they would try not to piss people off.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

This

"It begins with new technology and systems that we built for this new base game for The Sims - a new AI system, new animation system, new audio positioning tools, new locomotion logic, new routing intelligence and much more are all entirely new in this game."

and this

So it basically boils down to it being too much work to add every single feature from the series into the game before it launches. Franklin added that the team chose to instead focus on other things, such as additional animations. Sims now have seven unique walk styles, Franklin revealed, 320 emotion-based animations and 600 reactions to objects.

tells me something: said "new technology", particularly the animation system has actually been a major hindrance to the rest of the game's development. When something new makes development efficiency worse and take a lot more time, that's when you need to ask the question "was the updated system worth it or would we have been better off with an upgrade to the old system?"

Given the response they're getting from fans, and the response we're hearing now, no.

 

[frobalt]

Wow, so women AND toddlers bankrupt you if you try to render them? Golly gee, these are some scary times in video gaming where rendering anyone that isn't a white adult man suddenly makes all the money fly out of your wallet.

Please tell me you're joking and aren't actually dense enough for this to be serious?

I mean, lumping not wanting to put toddlers in with not wanting to put females in is just ridiculous.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Someone really needs to email EA the LRR skit (released today) of them mocking a companies "inability" to add certain features to their games.

 

[Aerosteam]

Calling it now, there's going to be a waterpark-esque DLC.

Also I'll give modders about a day to put pools in the game.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

It's okay, EA. I understand. I just won't be buying The Sims 4 because it's too much money for too little features.

 

[Micah Weil]

Nobody believes you, EA. You saw an opportunity to make money by taking features that have been available since Will Wright gave you a money printing program back in 2000 and grabbed it. You grabbed it and ran.

I'm expecting Sims 7 (Evil can be quick, or Evil can be good, let's face it. Gotta give EA SOME credit here...) to include nothing but the cheapast and least effective items - bed, stove, shower, etc - be the only things available to you out of the box, and everything else made available only through $10 add-ons and $30-40 expansions...

 

[The Great JT]

I'm not too broken up about losing pools. Whenever I made lots with lots of ghosts, I tended to prefer less messy ways to kill sims, since the ghosts of drowned sims tended to leave puddles where they walked.

Anyway, yeah, I can understand where they're coming from based on that explanation, sometimes features have to get cut to get things in. I don't know why it had to be pools and toddlers on the chopping block, but maybe that was the most attractive option. It seems like there had to be other options that could've been withheld for future expansions or whatever. In fact, how about those features for the first expansion pack? And college to offset the possible blowback of "toddlers and pools in the same expansion? CLEARLY YOU ENDORSE DROWNING CHILDREN!! GAMES ARE TEH DEVIL!!!" that you might get.

 

[Nazulu]

What a pathetic excuse. Stupid EA. You know you have a shit rep, now put the extra effort in. Prove to us you actually value your own work. Make us excited for all the new shit instead of disappointing everyone by leaving stuff out, or screwing us with DRM.

 

[Nuxxy]

I wonder if you can still swim in the ocean?

Pools break your pathing EA? I'm assuming you've fixed sims getting stuck behind low walls and chairs then?

Got Sims 3 and Medieval for my wife, but I think that chapter of our life ends now. She's moved over to a tablet anyway.

 

[youji itami]

I don't know why game companies bother anymore. Just make the game and release it. Don't bother explaining, don't bother trying to smooth things over. It's not worth it because of (points to the posts above him).

No one cares. Or everyone wants to be the bully..

EA just aren't that bright, Activision is, so after Kotick made this statement

"have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million franchises" has "worked very well for Activision Blizzard". Kotick described this business strategy as "narrow and deep" or "annualizable" and cited it as key to attracting development talent who may not be drawn to "speculative franchises".

He and Activision basically stopped talking about complaints or problems. I know someone will mention Diablo 3 and yet that was released over 2 years ago while EA and Ubisoft have both made multiple stupid decision's and comments in the last month alone.

 

[mysecondlife]

There's still women in this game though right? RIGHT?

 

[Sniper Team 4]

It seems like, "It's too much work" is becoming the new slogan for a lot of game companies. Probably not the best attitude to have.

 

[bug_of_war]

They had these features in the Sims 1, when EA wasn't as big or rich. This fad only exists because Ubisoft got away with it.

To be fair, while you're right about pools being in The Sims 1, toddlers weren't added till Sims 2. Not saying there excuse isn't bullshit, it is and they really need to just shut the fuck up and make games more than market them now.

I mean...come on EA, I defended you for so long, and now you go and do this!