Project X Purpose, Feature Theories and More

Question: Tell your buddy insider friend to add apartments in Project X base game world just like with Eco Lifestyle and Royalty & Legacy where we got apartment units!

Sims Insider: I think there may be some kind of Apartment system available with X. I could be wrong but I believe the Residential Rental system may be base game in the new game to maximise lot count. Nothing is set in stone though. I believe the team are looking at Sims 4’s history and picking things that make realistic sense to be base game to maximise the game.

I feel like we will need to get news soon, it’s very unlike EA to allow the Sims to not have some kind of buzz for too long.

It seems they’re deliberately not addressing that Royalty & Legacy is the final Expansion, because they don’t want expectations to go sky high for “what’s next” because they don’t want people thinking in a Sims 5 ballpark. But too much of no noise will definitely start arousing suspicion amongst the casual playerbase.

I’m curious to know what’s happening in casual circles and whether they even think Sims 4 has sunsetted.

Sims Insider: I think there will be an element of being able to bring Sims and Builds over using a tool of some sort in some capacity, potentially Sim data as well. So they may be able to rule out starting over officially.

From what I’ve seen of the project, there’s no way they’re going to be able to frame this as anything other than a Sims 4 related product. They may try, but it would be like trying to say The Sims Mobile wasn’t a spin off of The Sims 4. The DNA of it is definitely there.

That’s also on purpose, they want people to feel right at home on this new platform and to not go back to The Sims 4. If they change too much, they’ll have an audience who likes Sims 4 too much refuse to come over. But if it’s similar enough to Sims 4, and improves on aspects, they’re hoping people will leave their previous game.

They also know they will be competing with a huge and deep modding scene soon when Sims 4 officially retires, and EA are hoping the shiny new stuff will be enough and that players won’t be smart enough to realise they’re being shortchanged by leaving their paid content behind for a new base that is largely a big standalone update on their existing game, rather than a new game entirely. They’ll want anyone who goes back to 4 to be reminded of X enough that they can’t help but play X.

It will be interesting to see if players do abandon Sims 4 or if EA underestimates the intelligence of their audience. The Sims 4 has insane modding potential once the code stays still. Time will tell.

The Marketplace and Reception on The Sims 3 Sales Info

Statement: Basically Marketplace exceeded expectations by having people download that useless free kitchen turd, but no one bothered to pay real money to purchase Moola and bunch of face stickers and lighting buttons

Sims Insider: Not the craziest theory, I won’t lie. The marketplace may have exceeded expectations based on interaction, but not in actual spending.

EA keep their cards very close to their chest. They’re probably telling developers it’s exceeding expectations, while also pulling people into a room saying “not enough people are buying moola” and the success is a completely different metric.

I can’t really speak on it, but we ran into very similar statements with The Sims Mobile. Apparently it was super successful, meanwhile our job was to increase engagement and push purchases within the game because both were low. So is it successful because people download it? They had weird metrics for things I suppose.

Sims Insider: I’m not saying anything that isn’t public knowledge, EA struggled financially from around 2008 – 2014. It’s well documented EA kept promising The Sims 3 would be the game to turn things around, it just didn’t. I’m a Sims 3 fan too, but I probably have more patience than the average person to deal with all the issues the game has.

The Sims 4 was a turning point for EA to become successful again, but also became the backbone of having to be the financial support of other franchises. EA started turning profit again because of The Sims 4.

I’m always bewildered the Sims has such competitive fan bases within its own franchise. People really stan individual games but they don’t really stan the franchise. I don’t really know of any other franchise where that happens so strongly

Sims Insider: Just saw the tweet that the Marketplace is coming to console, seems the greenlighting problems were resolved with Sony.

It will be curious to know if any improvements are on the table, but it’s smart of them to withhold fixes by delaying the marketplace. Makes it hard for Sony to be disagreeable.