Today SimGuruLyndsay, General Manager for The Sims Franchise has made a rather important announcement that doesn’t actually seem so important at first.
She announced that SimGuruDuke, who previously worked on The Sims Mobile is stepping into the role as a Senior Producer for The Sims 4. This role was previously taken by Grant Rodiek who worked as a Senior Producer on The Sims 4 all the way back from 2011 to this date.
The tweet mentioned that Grant Rodiek will from now on work on “a number of important and awesome Maxis things”. He’ll also no longer be sharing development talk regarding The Sims 4, considering that it’s no longer a Maxis game that he’s working on.
I want to welcome @SimGuruDuke to TS4! Joining us from TSM, he’ll be our Sr Producer for TS4! Don’t worry, @SimGuruGrant is still working on a number of important and awesome Maxis things. It’s going to be a great year for The Sims and we can’t wait to show you what’s in store!
— Lyndsay (@SimGuruLyndsay) April 30, 2019
Not about The Sims 4. Sorta like how former presidents often don’t chat about policy – I don’t want to get in the way of what Duke and the team are up to. Just isn’t appropriate. https://t.co/XLFjZ2rgeq
— Grant Rodiek (@SimGuruGrant) April 30, 2019
So, how does this add up more receipts beside the ones we’ve found a few months ago that a New Sims Title is in development?
This would be Grant’s first important role switch in years – more specifically the first one in the last 8 years.
Grant’s work history clearly shows that he’s made a role switch only when he started working on a whole new Sims Title, including:
- The Sims 3 (Lead & Associate Producer) from September 2005 to November 2010
- The Sims 4 (Producer & Senior Producer) from 2011 to 2019
Also remember that it’s already known that EA had been looking for new people to join their new and small team of veterans (which could now also include Grant Rodiek) working on the next Sims Title.
One of the key things the career application had mentioned was:
- Work closely with the Art Director, Production and Creative Director to create a vision for the game as we develop its initial look
- Create a wide variety of concepts including characters, fashion designs, pose sheets and props
- Create skin, cloth, eye and hair shading studies
- Create a wide variety of concepts including vistas, structures, organic and hard surface props and vehicles
- Create lighting schemes and color palettes that capture the tone of the world
- Create environment mood paintings, lighting studies, color keys and scripts
- Create concept model proxies as well as produce work of ranging styles and detail levels
All of the career listings mentioned creating a new Sims Game entirely from scratch, and it could be highly possible that Grant is now a part of that development process.
CLICK HERE for the full career listings for the next Sims Title!
If all of this is pointing towards the new Sims game (The Sims 5 or whatever The Sims Team decides to name it) we could expect its announcement and release in the next 2 to 5 years, according to Grant’s previous work history and the development process length we’re aware it took to create The Sims 3 and The Sims 4.
Until then, do remember that The Sims 4 still has a lot of content planned for the next several years!
This is likely the announcement of the beginning of the end of another fantastic game, mercilessly murdered by EA.
if you can make it like the sims23 I will like the sims 5 about I do like the sims 4 you need to add more to it like you did on the sims 2 I have played the sims 1then 2 then 3 and then 4 so yes I love the sims
i want sims 5 as a place where you can visit yours houses and play with them online
lame, but fun fact, the sims 4 was originally meant to be an online mobile sims game, so that explains why the base game feels so lackluster as hell.
We all know that if EA doesn’t bring back open world to the Sims 5, the franchise will collapse into obscurity (okay that was a little dramatic, but you get the gist of it).
I really think we need to stop here and that just be it.
The Sims 4 is a perfect platform, I often find that a lot of the complaints for it are very unjust and attention seek.
Open World didn’t work out for a reason, The Sims 3 is a GLOWING example as to of why, not only did it mess with a ton of the gameplay and how The Sims is supposed to be played, but just one interaction across town that had a bug in it could potentially spell disaster for a save file.
I think since The Sims 4 is so well balanced, so nicely put together, & offers a stable platform for modders, gameplayers, & everything else, there’s really zero need.
This game is the best that The Sims has looked in a very long time. After all, we just got full 64-bit support and we’re making that the push.
This could allow EA to expand The Sims 4, work out some bugs, and maybe work out and fix a lot of things that people wanna see done as it stands. The Sims 4 just needs some tweaks and it’d be good for a very long time.
As to the people who cry and moan about a new game, just zip it.
We just got new packs for crying out loud, the game is doing better than it ever has, & there’s even more room for expansion.
If Open World gameplay is so important for you, you’ve got The Sims 3.
Such bs. They aren’t even finished with Sims 4, shouldn’t even be contemplating starting sims 5 until a few years from now and THEN start thinking about it. They really just messed sims 4 up so bad and wasted so many people’s money only to say “screw it” and make sims 5. I’m continuing to lose so much respect for the team.
I agree 100% with you
They created the sims 4 in one year while the sims 3 was still getting new dlcs
You know how small 1 year is to create a game? They are just starting it sooner to end the sims 4 and start the sims 5
Thats not even slightly true, they changed large aspects of the game but the engine, art style and many of the tools were there, they just removed the online part.
That’s not how game development works, developing a game can take years depending on the team who are building it. Besides its another team who are working on the Sims 5 allowing the current one to work on Sims 4.
Also look at it this way the sooner the game is in development the sooner the game will be ready. Sims 4 has another 2 years maybe 3 on the game, this would give them more time to work on the game and make sure it’s ready for the release.
Understand that it doesn’t take a day to make a game, especially for something as enriched as the sims. I believe that it is entirely possible that they are at least thinking of the sims 5.
I agree 100% with this comment
It takes several years to develop a new game – at least 2-3 depending on complexity. By the time TS5 is ready, if they are indeed working on it, it will be 2021/2022, which will result in TS4 having a longer active lifespan than TS3. They launched TS3 in 2009, and 5 years later, they launched TS4 (2014). So on that schedule, it’s reasonable to at least work on TS5 now so that it’s at least close to being ready for launch when TS4 seriously winds down.
That said, TS4 is in a much better state in terms of art/graphics and functionality than TS3 was at 5 years post-launch. It still has plenty of life left, meaning plenty of earning potential. I doubt EA would abandon TS4 this soon, as there’s still money to be made from actively developing it. There’s a lot of potential content on the table, too. So, again, it doesn’t mean TS5 is coming out “soon,” or that development on TS4 is ending – I think it just means TS5 is just getting going, and that other teams (with some of the lesser known devs) can manage TS4 because so much of the framework is in place and well established.
@Taylor, I don’t think they are saying “screw it, let’s make the Sims 5” — they were planning on making the Sims 5 eventually anyway! About 6 months ago they said there would be about 3 more years of TS4, which would make it the longest running version of the Sims. That’s hardly giving up and saying “screw it”. 😉 Besides, if you still want to play TS4 you can! 🙂 In fact if your computer can handle it, you can play TS4 *and* TS5! 😀
Jestem z Polski i popieram Cię tyle ludzi kupiło The Sims 4 a wy chcecie stworzyć The Sims 5 naprawdę. Lepiej by było jagbyście się zajęli The Sims 4
I disagree – The Sims 4 is clearly finished, and it’s exactly what they intended for it to become. Hopefully they’ve learned their lesson.
YES! i give sims 4 another 1 year of new releases then its about 5 teasers
SimGuruGrant has already confirmed that they have releases at least 3 years from now. Also, The Sims 5 is probably just starting, they probably aren’t even coding right now.
You know they could make it better
Well, that would make sense seeing as a new title would take 2-3 years (or more) to fully develop – and maybe by that point, TS4 would have aged a bit more. The game doesn’t feel dated yet, and the art/design is holding up well. Plus, it seems like there’s still a lot of game content they can still put out, and as a successful business, they won’t abandon development and potential earnings too early (which would be the case if, say, this year was the last they put out expansions).
That doesn’t mean that there’s a new game being made, it could just mean that the next pack is going to be giant
There’s no possibility of a ‘giant pack.’ It’s either another product, or the leak is false.
It takes years for a game to be made, and the Sims franchise isn’t ending anytime soon – so while they’re not abandoning or cutting development on The Sims 4 (there’s still so much that needs to be released, which equals money for them) it’s expected that they start development soon to release in 3-4 years. It’s just stupid for this site to start hyping it this early because it makes the community think that The Sims 5 is going to drop sometime soon – which undermines the perceived stability/lifespan of TS4. I’m guessing it’s a result of the lack of any other updates to report on and the need to generate site traffic.