Project X Neighborhoods

Question: Earlier you mentioned the possibility of having just one world in Project X. That sounds like a pretty big limitation… Has there been any information about tools for creating custom worlds or neighborhoods? Or at least about editing existing towns?

Sims Insider: The last I heard they are looking into it. That you may be able to move lots around with some other tools as well. But it will be like Sims 4 neighbourhoods still. There would likely just be less asset work to allow you more places to move lots.

I do not think a Create A World tool would be on the cards though.

All of this is still being worked on but that’s the last I heard as to what they’re potentially exploring. They want enough shiny features to have people make the switch and know there’s already Create A World type mods for the Sims 4 that are likely to explode before X launches now that big shifts in the game are going to phase out.

What happened to Sims 4 Cars and Project X Wildcard

Question: Do you know if there’s any chance they port Project Rene’s buy mode to Project X? I saw a video of a leaked build a few years ago and it looked amazing

Sims Insider: I think a lot of the assets that were shown in the first preview of Project Rene were generic Unreal Engine assets.

I do not believe X will continue down that route. I am also not aware of them considering a Color Wheel for the game at this stage. Cars also I’ve been told are very unlikely to be in the game.

But they’re keeping the door open if sales end up being awful and they need wildcard features to save it. Whereas in the Sims 4, EA told them early on that Cars were a no simply because there was a lack of people who used them in the Sims 3 outside the default Taxi, and while sales for the Sims 4 were slow in the first launch month, it picked up incredibly once the Pool update launched and EA were satisfied with the sales moving forward from then which made their decision easier that Cars weren’t going to make a difference to sales.

A color wheel was decided pre launch however, as EA was determined to have The Sims 4 run on laptops and avoid heavy tasks such as Create A Style that were designed for desktop machines.

We’re in an interesting time where Desktop Gaming is cool again and laptop gaming which was where PC gaming was heading in the early 2010’s isn’t as popular. So they’re able to keep the door open on that one unlike before.

Either way, if you start seeing all these flashy features coming out for X after it launches, it’s a good sign it’s not doing well.

How The Sims 4 Remaster turned into Project X

Question: Yeah, it actually was a refresh up to about 6 months ago (more or less), when they decided to finally move the idea into a standalone release. This was probably to fully cut off content they don’t want to support and to put a solid price tag on it, rather than releasing it as a free update.

Sims Insider: Originally there was going to be a phased approach where they just updated aspects of the game like we had seen before (The lighting update or the main menu update).

Then it was decided to do one larger update that would create another legacy edition, which is why they removed the original legacy edition as to not confuse players.

Then once the acquisition was pretty much confirmed, EA ordered it be a new game entirely to sell separately and planned for Adventure Awaits to be the final Expansion before deciding they could one last Expansion to test a new idea of how they could minimise new gameplay, increase the amount of assets by bundling extra DLCs, and seeing whether they would sell just as well. This was so they could use that information in order to asses how they could sell packs moving forward in Project X.

This was a big shift as prior to the acquisition, they’d started giving more budget to Maxis with Adventure Awaits. The last few months of that Expansion were affected by changes but the majority of the work had been completed.

Overall, it had been planned to come to the Sims 4 originally as staggered free updates and the main menu and rebuilt homes in the base game were the first stages of that rollout. Maxis just had to make sure Engagement didn’t slip during this gradual rollout or the opportunity may be taken from them, which created the idea for Events. But now it’s all been pulled from them and now a seperate game being built very quickly and with the Sims 4 as being its source.

Question:  if Project X is being available only online, does that mean they can shut down the game any time and people who purchased the game alongside all of the DLCs will be lost forever?

Sims Insider: They may move to an offline solution like they did with SimCity 2013 but they also may not as well. It’s a very what if situation at the moment

On how EA deals with The Sims 4 Marketplace and Sony Pause

Question: What the hell is happening???

Sims Insider: I thought this was another case that I knew was being handled, but this seems to be someone different.

Doesn’t shock me at all. EA wanted to rush this out in time for the acquisition. Ironically, they’ve had to delay it on console because of an investigation by Sony about the stability of the game and that was the platform they were mostly targeting with this storefront. So rushing creators and getting them to start making content before they fully understood the idea of what they were doing seems like perfect Karma.

The Future of Franchise is Hanging on Marketplace, Project X and Project Rene

Question: They better not shut down Sims 4 tho, image meltdowns when all those DLCs people bought vanish into oblivion. This is why we need offline mode and physical copies back.

Sims Insider: The Sims 4 can be played offline already, it’s just the EA App that requires online validation.

EA still earns millions from each year from Outdoor Retreat and Get To Work alone from the first financial year of the Sims 4 (which technically starts from April 2014 but you get what I mean).

EA don’t have a history of selling IPs but this whole new world will be a different ball game.

If this Marketplace system fails, that’s one step that may effect things and reduced interest may have EA reconsider certain things. But if Project X and Rene etc. fail too they may consider letting go of Maxis and the IP but keeping the publication rights of the previously released games. Simply because selling Maxis as a studio without the Sims brand would be pointless and it may get to a stage that EA need an instant financial resolve.

20 billion is a lot of debt and on top of that, it’s not factoring in future operating costs.

I’m sure EA absolutely know the worth of the Sims brand and that other companies would go into a form of debt themselves just to take it on.

But long story short, old EA I couldn’t see them selling the IP in a pink fit, but new EA, I don’t think even they know what they will do if their aggressive monetisation fails. They know Maxis already operate on less staff than they probably need, and how much has to be outsourced as a result.

General EA Talks and Sims 4 Game Packs

Question: I will never understand how they managed to fumble and kill such a massive, beloved franchise. That truly took special skill

Sims Insider: It’s a fumble for the consumer and for the brand, but at this stage EA don’t care about either.

They need money fast, and if there’s a risk they’ll kill beloved franchises in the process, they absolutely will if there’s a chance it could make them money.

EA also are the kind of company that will launch something like the Marketplace and know there’s millions of players who will absolutely fold. Players not folding would be an absolute wake up call to EA who look at previous things like Sims Mobile’s paid perks or Freeplay’s points and the like and assume Sims players will pay for just about anything.

You’d be surprised how quickly EA will change things up the moment they face rejection.

Game Packs were invented simply because they were worried about player engagement of the Sims 4 as a whole, even if half of them barely broke even profitwise. It was a good-will product despite them only being slightly less to develop than an Expansion.