The Sims 4 still has a lot more content to provide according to the latest interview with Graham Nardone, Snowy Escape’s Lead Producer.
In the interview with Gamesradar Graham talked about the meaning and development of Snowy Escape as well as some of the game’s core features like Lifestyles and Sentiments:
“Players did not expect that out of us,” Nardone admits. “But it is something that they have been highly discussing and requesting… I think that increased depth to the simulation is a big thing for players.” EA’s strategy, when filling a long-time request for more depth, is to occasionally subvert expectations. “I think it’s cool, playing with those expectations a little bit while still delivering on the things that people really want at that core level,” Nardone says.
Later in the interview Graham talked more about the community’s requests for adding disability options such as wheelchairs, disabled-friendly home objects, service dogs and more:
“We’ve had active outreach with players in the community and asked, ‘what are better ways that we can represent you? What are some of the things that we can do to recreate those moments, or lived experiences, respectfully within The Sims 4?'” Nardone points out. “I think the thing that we want to avoid is turning it into a feature.”
When asked about if there are any plans for a next installment of The Sims Graham stated the following:
“There’s such a diverse range of topics and features that we could cover, the possibility space of what we can do within The Sims 4 is just humongous,” Nardone tells me when I ask about the potential of a new game. “I think that just goes to show that there’s way more that we can still do within this title, and our players are plenty hungry for more content that we can give in. That’s a good problem to have.”
If you’re thinking that this means that EA is still only focusing on The Sims 4 don’t worry. Developers can’t talk about or confirm something major as a next generation Sims game. If you’re wondering if the next Sims Game (or The Sims 5 if you will) is being developed we can answer that for you – yes. There’s more than enough evidence, even a confirmation from EA’s CEO, that Maxis is working on a next Sims Title. Check out some of the articles here:
- Maxis has started working on a new Sims Title
- More clues are adding up that The Sims 5 is being developed
- EA’s CEO confirms a next-generation Sims Game
There are different development teams working on the next-gen Sims Game and on The Sims 4, and according to the latest interview there’s a lot more left in store for The Sims 4!
I wish they’d stop beating a dead horse and just let the game go. It doesn’t matter how diverse or how well you represent others when the base of everything is a buggy, lifeless mess. It’s just pack after pack of pretty looking things that don’t truly add or fix anything. It’s clear they don’t really listen and go the usual EA route of only caring about money.
I actually really enjoy the game and I’m not looking forward to the Sims 5 at all. The idea of going back to a bare bones base game experience is very unappealing to me.
The Sims 5 most likely won’t be free so saying they’re going the more money route seems irrelevant when making a new base game would still cost money.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more expensive than the original price tag for TS4 base game. Even if it had every popular wants from past items in the franchise and was the most fleshed out basegame in the franchise history there would be complaints it would be too expensive.
I think they should focus more on fixing bugs than letting the game go. Granted, anyone who think its wasting time has the ability to not play the game, not patch and play until major bugs are fixed or remove themselves from the fanbase (permanently as some have or until TS5). TS5 has always been dependent on TS4 success. No way will a for profit company hand out the resources for another installment in the franchise if TS4 had flopped like some people had hoped. It wouldn’t make sense money wise and would be seen as too much of a risk especially since mobile games are popular and make a good flow of cash for companies. If TS4 had failed I really believe EA would’ve just focused on sims mobile games instead. Look at some of the items and gameplay in the mobile games – some are highly requested items that have been asked about for several years. Unlike TS4, the mobile games had the right engines. Also they can’t just leave babies as objects… I mean they could but that would be such a slap in the face at this point especially since TS4 DCLS would go on sale like when TS4 came after TS3 so that would make it a little less appealing to new customers. Also TS5 would still require patches to become a fully fleshed base game just like pervious sims games. TS3 base game is a lot better after all its patches than when it first came out.
The problems with the game runs much deeper than bugs and bare packs. The emotion system is broken, reactions are either over the top or boring, relationships are way too easy to repair and/or build, even with sentiments, the same 5-10 animations reused with every single pack, traits are way too few, inconsequential and more than half of them aren’t even personalities, they’re just skill boosters or really dumb stuff like child of the ocean, aspirations are just walkthroughs of packs rather than being a thorough, big thing to strive for. The worlds are way too small and while the “payoff” is getting to use any world in the game at your leisure, the immersion is completely broken when you see a girl from a Japanese mountain city (Mt.Komorebi), a guy from an Alaskan shipping city (Evergreen Harbor) and a mermaid from the Polynesian islands (Sulani) all walking into a nightclub in Germany (Windenburg). The game is rated teen, yet all the content is clearly aimed for kids and the adult content and quirky aspects that gave the game a certain identity that people loved have been cut out altogether or severely watered down (i.e the bubble blower, which made sims laugh uncontrollably and float in the Sims 2– a clear nod to drugs/getting high— has been reduced to just light coughing in the Sims 4). Kids having absolutely nothing to do and teens are also shafted. Memories need to return and while sentiments are a good start to incorporating that, I believe the sims team will consider their work done on the matter. Just so much that they clearly have no intention on fixing and if they haven’t done anything about these issues 6-7 years in, it’s extremely doubtful that they are going to pack those into however long the game has left. When Pixelade said that he thinks the game is going to go on 10 years or more before they finally move on, I thought that sounded ridiculous, but this just destroyed my hopes and I think he’s right. They need to let the game die because it has far overstayed its welcome.
The Sims is in desperate need of a fresh start. Sims 4 lacks the heart and soul that made the previous games great, with these packs only having an inkling of personality, which wears off in a week. Too bad infinitely greedy EA will keep milking it to death, and it’ll very likely mean the death of probably one of the most iconic EA series. As a massive Sims fan, my disappointment in Sims 4 SIX years after it came out is palpable. It’s high time for Sims 5, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon.
Still waiting for an expansion pack where you can sing and form a band that tries to make it big, maybe even go through the trials and tribulations that a band goes through once they make it to the top. Perhaps this expansion would also open up that downtown area in Del Sol Valley, a city that as of right now lacks life and fun
TS4 had the disadvantage of EA deciding a failed mobile game engine was perfectly acceptable to ship instead of starting over fresh which made things harder for the gurus (some of whom were avid players before working for EA) because of the less than stellar engine and more disappointing for the fanbase. I honestly think TS4 would’ve been more far along had EA not knocked down its foundation from the start. It’s like the worse uphill battle you can have in this sense. TS4 is the underdog you want to root for but at the same time want TS4 to be realistic about itself (as well as the fanbase who keep forgetting about the gurus admitting the engine is limited). I do think they should dedicate a month or two for fixing bugs, especially the more recent ones from the big patch before rolling out another pack. Hopefully there is a generation focused pack (despite some people forgetting family focused players make a large percentage of the fanbase) and more transportation items (skateboards, roller skates not tied to rinks – yes I’m aware of mods) especially if they’re not going to introduce cars.
I still can’t play on console and its been 2 weeks. I haven’t seen anything about a crash fix. I bought new expansion packs and have not had a chance to play them.. I can’t participate in the new spark’d challenge either which is time sensitive. Really sucks.. im starting to give up and feeling like un-installing it all. Waste of money..
I’m honestly not looking forward to the sims 5. So many people have already bought some 4 and have spent so much money on it, not to mention that the new arrival of sims 5 would mean a bare base game. I honestly hope they stop sims 5 production all together. At this point producing sims 5 just seems pointless. Sims 4 is already such a fun game and producing sims 5 would be a completely different thing. I think most people would agree that EA should just stop the production of sims 5 all together and instead update sims 4. The reason I say this would be because so many people have already spent so much hard earned money on sims 4. Unless EA makes the exact same packs in sims 5 and EA makes those packs free to whoever had bought the packs in sims 4 then I think people would be a lot happier and content about the making of sims 5 but everybody knows that EA is only in it for the money and has no interest in saving people any money. If sims 4 was 40 dollars imagine how much money sims 5 will cost.