Rachel Franklin, The Sims 4’s Executive Producer, decided to answer some questions about why Simmers still haven’t got Toddlers in The Sims 4 after many months have passed.
The following statement has been taken from Kotaku. You can read their full Article HERE!
As mentioned, there’s nothing more painful than not meeting your players’ expectations. Some players have up to five years of content and experiences in The Sims 3, and we had simply underestimated their passion and loyalty for that game including features such as toddlers. Asking fans to essentially break up with The Sims 3 and start a new relationship without more information was a little naïve. With The Sims 4, we made the decision to focus on fundamental changes to the Sim behaviors such as multitasking, emotions, traits and interactions, and we focused first on the later life states. Toddlers are not simply small Sims, they are a completely separate Sim type, deserving of the same level of investment. We want to do it well. It is something we’re exploring but we don’t currently have more information to share around when or how other than to say our fans will be the first to know.
I don’t think that was a great article. You’d think they’d know by now that it’s not the developers fault they have to avoid questions like that. They’ve said who knows how many times they can’t speak about future content. Marketing and contracts!
While I think it would be great to see the reincorporation of toddlers into TS4, I think as gamers we need to appreciate that this is not something that can happen over night. I know sometimes it seems like the game has been out for a long time, but it hasn’t even been out for a year, only being around for roughly nine months. I think we need to keep in mind how long it takes to actually create things for the game. TS4 was announced in May 2013 but wasn’t released until September 2014 – a period of seventeen months. The creation of objects, clothing and hair styles, I would imagine is much less difficult than the creation of a whole new type of Sim. Just imagine the type of coding that would have to go into something like that! And maybe they don’t want to say anything, because they’re afraid that toddlers just won’t work. I mean, from this article, they still seem pretty upset by the initial reaction they got from TS4… maybe they don’t want fans of The Sims to get angry with them again? I can certainly understand the frustration, but I think it’s important to remember that we’re not always going to hear what we want to hear, and we’re not always going to get the answers we want. Sometimes, when you work for a company as large as this one, there’s a limited amount of things you can say…
The sims 4 is crap/a letdown/downfall/disappointment/ e.t.c they shouldn’t have even published it until they got the main things in it!they should’ve added everything from the sims 3 base game and everything from its expansion packs then they should have added the new features and they’re own things but instead they left out a hell lot of the main things out!!! Such a disappointment!!! Here are the following things left out :
No create a style (CAST) – NOT possible in future expansions.
No modifications to world/town/public spaces.
No “normal” careers – Law enforcement, Medical, etc.
No open world – You must incur a loading screen between each active lot; each neighborhood has 1-5 lots total.
No terrain tools other than paint; the entire build-able world is completely flat.
No story progression – Sims in the neighborhood age, but do not have children, get jobs, move, get married…etc. without player intervention.
No toddlers.
No way to create/place new lots – Only 2 empty lots at the start of the game.
All buildings on a lot must have the same foundation. No mixing for sheds, garages, etc.
Babies are mere objects – All interactions are through basinet. There are no baby objects. Babies can only be lifted directly above basinet.
Backgrounds are illusions – The buildings in the background are not playable in the game.
Most of the area surrounding a lot is “decorative” and cannot be walked to or otherwise interacted with.
Fewer floors/levels, limited to three (not including basements)
SIGNIFICANTLY smaller “worlds” of <25 lots compared to 125+ lots in The Sims 3. (x)
Smaller lots – Biggest lot size is 50×50 instead of 64×64.
Loading screens for each individual lot.
The map is a one-dimensional picture.
Teens are same height as adults and they, along with elders, all look nearly
No acne
No animated hair
No aspiration failures
No babysitters
No bookstores
No burglars
No cars (not even as décor)
No cashiers
No cemeteries
No cutscenes
No cleaning skill
No clothes shopping
No color wheel, predefined to colours
No Create a World Tool
No customization of multi-tone hair color (users select only main colour)
No dinner proposals
No diseases or illness
No dreams
No environment need
No exterminator
No eyelash length slider
No favorites (food, color, music)
No fears
No full face make-up
No garage doors
No gardener for hire
No grocery stores
No inheritance
No male body hair
No magazines
No move object cheat
No newspapers
No opacity slider for makeup
No party invitations from other Sims
No private school
No rabbit holes at all – Sims move offscreen for work and school.
No random or accidental deaths
No repairman
No repo man
No restaurants
No skin slider
No tragic clown or social bunny
No way to watch a Sim commute to work/school
No way to water flower beds/bushes
No website for browsing exchange or store.
No bikes
No changing tables
No cribs
No dishwashers
No highchairs
No hot tubs
No pool tables
No trash compactors
That's absolutely ridiculous like these were supposed to be the main things in the sims 4 but they just decided to put it all aside like this is nonesense!!!Sims 3 is WAYY better by far cuz in the Sims 3 these main features actually exist alongside with new features!!!
Thomas, The Sims 4 is NOT a crappy game. I mean, don’t you understand that there are actually people who enjoy the game? You may not enjoy it, but I do. Don’t you have anything better to do with your life than just bash a game that’s improving? Anyways, here’s a run down of some of the things you listed.
– Lack of CASt (Create-A-Style) and color wheel: The main reason why they omitted that is for performance reasons. In fact, when I use it in TS3, the game lags.
– Lack of open world: Same reason as to why they omitted CASt, due to performance reasons.
– Lack of hot tubs: Have you been living under a rock? The Perfect Patio stuff pack introduces hot tubs, although it is exclusive to that pack, but then again TS3’s Late Night expansion pack also has hot tubs, and you have to charge for that, too.
– No website for browsing exchange: Hello? They have the Gallery, in which you can do it all in-game without having to leave your game to download a lot or Sim.
– Lack of dishwashers: Again, have you been living under a rock? Dishwashers were added as part of a free update in August.
– Lack of fears, animated hair, and aspiration failures: That’s TS2 features, not TS3 features.
– Lack of pool tables: In TS3, they were added in the Showtime expansion pack exclusively, and in TS2, they were added in the University expansion pack exclusively.
– Lack of party invitations from other Sims: It was added in the May patch.
You get the general idea. You see, that list you gave out is just a bunch of hooey anyway. I mean, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all, and please let me enjoy my game, please!
I fully agree with Thomas and everything that he said and it’s so true. We did not have these problems with the sims 2 0r 3 so why are we having now????? I even have the sims 1 so who give the right talk to someone like that he was expressing his thoughts. And he his right there are many people who are sims fan that feel like he do. This why we can leave comments on what we or dislike and what wrong with the game play.
I don’t have to say anything. Brian you have summed it up. The game is crap. I wish I had asked for a refund of the damn thing. I bought it without looking into the game. I never felt I had to research a sims game before now WHAT SHAME! 15 plus years following this company and this is what we get! They ruined my trust in them. The sims 4 is lacking. Its a nice try. I do love the multitasking and emotions but that’s not enough to hold a players interest. Everything in Brian’s list is what made the game great especially toddlers! They would have been better off just dropping the whole sims 4 idea and just adding emotions and multitasking to the Sims 3!
FORGET SIMS 4 MARK IT AS AN OOPS AND MOVE ON! Start fresh with 5. Take sims 3 add emotions, multitasking AND REAL apartments like in the sims 2 and POOF THE PERFECT SIMS GAME!
PS I refuse to buy another product from them unless changes are made. Its fine with me I have gotten over the shock and now I am able to say goodbye to this game forever!
I do not think sims 4 is crap. However I do enjoy expansive generational gameplay. So I still have the game and will occasionally open it up and play but until I see an expansion that brings back toddlers and better build and social interactions, I am just going to stick with sims 3.
Half of the things you mention Thomas were later introduced or you just didn’t play enough to realize. The sims 4 is a new game which has many new features that were not in the old games but no one seems to care about those. Just about what sims 3 has but 4 doesn’t. If you want something like the sims 3 play the sims 3 then! You really want to pay 60$ for the same exact game you were playing before?. No. If that happened people would be complaining about that too. So company’s can never win no matter what they do because you can’t please everyone. It’s not the game for you or even everyone and that’s okay But there are plenty. of people who feel the opposite and enjoy the game as well
I agree with Samantha
I’m boycotting sims 4 until at least 75% of these features come.
I can admit that I was one of those people who was very upset by The Sims 4 not including toddlers. I was eagerly waiting for it and the to find out that or of my favorite parts of the game was taken out was very saddening. I started to not even want the game seein how babies simply spinner into children was so fake and bad looking. I have bee playing Sims since I was like 10 I have I think every one of the games and I rally enjoy playing it. I admire the fact that you all want to wait until you have them perfect to releases them because I am one of the people who loves to be the best in everything I do as I am going for med school now. However because I miss being able to teach the toddlers to walk, talk, and use the restroom I ave started to use go back to playing The Sims 3. I feel like the lack of toddlers even with all the new added purks of The Sims 4 makes it sort of like 2D in stead of 3D or better yet 4D if that makes any since. Honestly I don’t know about all the other Sim lovers out there however I feel like eve if the toddlers lacked alif of the new qualities of the other sims I would just want them to be I the game at least until they are chamged. However then again I don’t know how all that stuff in the making works. I am simply speaking from the poor of view of a dedicated fan and costumer wo wants the best for this game and the other costoners. .
More than a year and a half later and the game is so incredibly disappointing. Yeah Rachel, best thing ever to leave out toddlers and exclude over half your fan base! Way to go! If there is no TS5 it’s on you, not the fans.
I’m not sinking another penny into this game until the franchise fixes family play.
Thank you JEEBUS. I was so disheartened by the way babies were handled by this installment of the Sims. As a player since the original game, I would hate to skip out on new content because of this issue. But it feels like something is MISSING from the Sims 4 that we’ve had previously.
Well that’s at least more respectful than “not putting toddlers in the game was the best decision we ever made!” Really, Rachel? Really? >:|