SimGuruFrost has confirmed on Twitter that November will see a Maxis Monthly Livestream. While there is currently no firm date set for the live stream, we do know that it will be after this week’s The Sims 4 Discover University Deep Dive Livestream.
As soon as more details about this month’s Maxis Monthly are revealed we will be sure to let you know!
I am super excited to announce that Sims Community has been invited to attend Sims Camp 2019 at EA Redwood Shores, San Francisco!
Today and tomorrow (November 4th and November 5th) I’ll be getting my hands on The Sims 4 Discover University Expansion Pack and capture plenty of footage, opinions and thoughts regarding this pack.
We’ll be posting a lot of fun things from (and after) Sims Camp on our social media so make sure you stay tuned to our following outlets:
The Maxis Studio team is about to embark on their 24-hour live stream in aid of raising money for the charity Extra Life. You can find out more about Extra Life and what they do here.
The live stream starts today at 5 PM PT and the Maxis Studio team will be playing a variety of Maxis games, chatting with players, holding giveaways and raising money for an amazing cause. Not only that 100% of the money raised during the stream will be going to Extra Life!
So why not join the Maxis Studio team and cheer them on during their stream!
The Humble Store currently has a sale on the PC/MAC versions of The Sims 4 and a variety of expansion packs.
The base game currently has a 63% saving whereas Expansions have a saving of 50%.
The sale is on right now and ends on Wednesday 6th November 2019.
Please note: Prices will vary depending on your location.
EA has announced yesterday that they’ll be making available some of their top-selling games on Steam – including The Sims 4.
This partnership will bring a select library of EA’s games plus their subscription service EA Access over to Steam. Before we begin with what this means for The Sims 4 and its packs, let’s briefly just talk about the Steam platform.
Steam, just like Origin, is a web + client platform that allows you to purchase games and launch them using the Steam client program. Similarly to Origin, Steam keeps track of your play hours, achievements and more. This platform also offers a Workshop which lets you upload and download custom mods and creations for various types of games. One of the examples is Cities Skylines’ Steam Workshop which is loaded with custom content and mods that can be easily implemented in-game using Steam.
Now, what does this all mean for The Sims 4?
Currently we don’t have much official information specifically for this game, but we can already set some expectations from EA’s first title that’s already available for pre-order on Steam: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. According to the game page on Steam, you will be needing both Steam + Origin in order to fully activate and play the game:
- Incorporates 3rd-party DRM: EA on-line activation and Origin client software installation and background use required.
- Requires 3rd-Party Account: EA Account (Supports Linking to Steam Account)
Although it hasn’t been confirmed just yet, we could expect the same set of requirements for The Sims 4 and its packs as well. New players who would purchase The Sims 4 first via Steam would have to create and link their Origin / EA account in order to play the game. We can also speculate that current The Sims 4 players who own the game on Origin will be able to link their account with Steam – “Supports Linking to Steam Account” – and have their entire Sims 4 library transferred over to Steam. Still, this is just speculation and we don’t know for sure if this will be the case when the game releases on this platform.
Another useful feature would be Steam’s Workshop that lets you submit and download Mods and Custom Content for various games. This feature hasn’t been confirmed yet for The Sims 4 and we don’t know for sure if it’ll be made available for The Sims 4 after the launch, but an addition like this would bring plenty of possibilities for the entire community.
Using online features such as The Gallery through Steam shouldn’t be a problem considering that Origin would run quietly in the background. The entire Gallery is built on players and their Origin IDs, so we yet have to see if that’s gonna remain the same.
All in all, it’s good to see that The Sims 4 won’t be exclusive to just Origin anymore and that long-time Steam users are going to be able to enjoy the game as well.
Electronic Arts has just completed their earnings release call for Q2 of Fiscal Year 2020. In this earnings release EA has talked a lot about The Sims 4 and mentioned some interesting facts regarding the franchise in general and that it managed to surpass 5 billion dollars in lifetime sales!
Here’s everything they’ve mentioned in the release for The Sims 4:
- The Sims 4 also continues to be an incredible long-term live service with a growing audience. Monthly average players are up more than 40% year-over-year in The Sims 4, and engagement across the franchise has led The Sims to surpass $5 billion in lifetime sales. The Sims continues to be one of the great franchises in gaming, and we have plans to bring new experiences to its amazing players for a long time to come.
- And in Apex Legends, our EA SPORTS franchises, The Sims 4, Anthem and Star Wars Battlefront II, our communities will all have new content and new experiences to dive into during the holiday quarter.
- We have ongoing growth expectations for The Sims 4, with new expansions and all-new ways to engage and grow the community.
- Live services strength in Ultimate Team, The Sims 4, Apex Legends and FIFA Online drove performance significantly above last year.
- Live services net bookings were up 50% year on year, to $493 million, another new Q2 record. The increase was driven by Apex Legends, Ultimate Team, in Madden, FIFA and NHL, The Sims 4, and FIFA Online, partially offset by the tail of Battlefield 1 DLC.
- We expect to drive growth in all of our major live services next year, including Ultimate Team, Apex Legends, FIFA Online and The Sims.
- As Andrew noted, the Sims is now a $5 billion franchise for us, and it continues to grow, driven by new content and new platforms.
- Live services extend and enhance the experience of those games. Apex Legends, FIFA, The Sims 4, Galaxy of Heroes and more of our top franchises have thriving global communities spanning hundreds of millions of players.
The EA official blog just dropped some big news that Steam fans are sure to approve of. Starting next spring, EA will be bringing its subscription service, EA Access, to the Steam platform.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will be the first title available under this new partnership. In later months, Steam players will also gain access to other titles like The Sims 4 and Unravel Two. Multiplayer games are planned for next year and players on both Origin and Steam will be able to play these multiplayer games together.
Here’s the full blog post from EA.com:
Electronic Arts and Valve have partnered to put EA games into the hands of the players on Steam. Starting next spring, EA Access—our ever-growing subscription service powered by great games and member benefits—will be making its way to Steam. EA Access is the first and only gaming subscription service available on Steam, and the fourth platform featuring an EA subscription.
The partnership kicks off with Star Wars™ Jedi: Fallen Order launching on November 15—and available for pre-order today. In the coming months, players on Steam will also be able to play other major titles like The Sims™ 4 and Unravel™ Two. Multiplayer games—like Apex Legends™, FIFA 20, and Battlefield™ V—will become available next year, and players on both Origin™ and Steam will have the ability to play together.
A library of titles awaits you in The Vault, but beyond the games themselves, EA Access enhances your gaming experience with a medley of rewards. Get the red-carpet treatment with exclusive catalog-wide discounts, and in-game member benefits for some of our biggest franchises.
Keep an eye out for more news and updates on this partnership in the coming weeks and months!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Whether this speculation is true or false, the fact that Maxis is working on the next Sims game is true. However, they have a seperate team doing so which doesn’t affect the development of The Sims 4 whatsoever. Also, it takes years to build a new life simulation game from scratch so it’s understandable why they’ve started so early. Once again, The Sims 4 still has years of new content planned 🙂
Look, it’s no secret that The Sims 5 is currently in development. The upcoming untitled Sims sequel is being worked on by a seperate team while The Sims 4 continues to deliver packs, updates and more for years to come.
It’s known that the community likes to speculate on upcoming stuff whether they might be plausible or not. However, this speculation is very hard to determine if it’s actually hinting at something or is it just a pure coincidence…
The Sims 4’s September 2019 update added tons of new things including Configurable Stairs, Muslim-inspired content and new Build Items. Among those new build additions were new Arch types, including Arch E. As pointed out by @FCowplant, this object seems to referring to something other than just the arch:
There were four prototypes… the first prototype didn’t open, the second prototype refined the concept, removing the defect by making a hole, the third prototype increased the size of the hole, the fourth prototype removed the sharp edges that were causing an increase in workplace accidents. The fifth, Arch E, should be great…
Community members on Twitter have already started speculating how the object is talking about The Sims Franchise’s evolution through different Sims games and that the upcoming Sims game “should be great”.
“The third prototype increased the size of the hole” – Sims 3’s open world
“The fourth prototype removed the sharp edges that were causing an increase in workplace related accidents” – Sims 4’s removal of open world and Create-A-Style to improve playability— FreezerBunnyCowplant (@FCowplant) October 27, 2019
Obviously this is just pure speculation and doesn’t contain any official confirmation that The Sims Team is referring to The Sims 5. And, judging by the previous hints that The Sims Team has done, we may never actually find out on what they were referring to with this description…
We were so in love with IllogicalSimmer‘s latest fanmade contribution that we absolutely had to make a video about it!
The Sims 4 Modern Housewares is a Fanmade Stuff Pack that consists of 34 Custom Content pieces that match The Sims 4’s art style just perfectly (also known as Maxis Match). The pack began as a custom content filler for The Sims 4 Moschino Stuff Pack, the official pack from EA but quickly grew into a much larger, independent project that only requires for you to have the Base Game to play!
This CC pack is filled with new additions for almost every type of room including the Living Room, Bedroom, Study Room, Dining Room and Kitchen with some revolutionary appliances added in as well!
If you want to know more about this fanmade pack check out our overview video above where we explain how you can install it and which items come packed with it!
You can also get the pack by simply clicking the download button down below:
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SimGuruFrost revealed on Twitter that the Maxis Studio will be taking part in a special twenty-four-hour live stream in support of the charity Extra Life.
If you aren’t sure who Extra Life are or what they do, you can find out more here!
The Livestream itself will start on 1st November 2019 at 5 PM PT over on the Maxis Twitch channel.
While there is currently no confirmed schedule for what will appear during the stream, we can expect to see one in the next few days via the Maxis Extra Life page. SimGuruFrost has confirmed that The Sims 4 Discover University will not be shown during this stream.
So why not join in and watch the Maxis Studio Team while they raise money for Extra Life next week!
Origin is back with a spooktacular Halloween sale where you can save up to 60% of selected The Sims 4 content!
The following expansion packs are on sale. These packs usually retail at $39.99 but are currently just $19.99
Other than the base game and expansion packs mentioned above, there are just two other pieces of additional content that are a part of the sale.
Please note: prices will vary depending on your location.
The offer is available now and will last until November 1st, 2019 at 10 AM Pacific Time! Make sure head over to Origin and take advantage of the offers before it’s too late.
With the reveal of The Sims 4 Discover University Expansion Pack some of the SimGurus have already started answering your questions revolving the pack!
Considering that not too many questions have been answered just yet we’ll make sure to update this post as soon as new tweets surface so make sure you check back on this post!
To my knowledge, with Discover University.
— Professor Frost💫 (@SimGuruFrost) October 22, 2019
There are a few buildable lots to build on.
— Professor Frost💫 (@SimGuruFrost) October 22, 2019
We have different bots to play with and one that can join your household🤐
— Professor Frost💫 (@SimGuruFrost) October 22, 2019
The first time I saw concept for them, I squealed they were so cute. 😍 pic.twitter.com/QOt5lNLhho
— SpoopyM🎃rgan (@SimGuruMorgan) October 22, 2019
Separate deco item
— Professor Frost💫 (@SimGuruFrost) October 23, 2019
Nope, only through the Robotics skill and it requires a TON of work to make pic.twitter.com/FqJcdlkQLP
— Professor Frost💫 (@SimGuruFrost) October 23, 2019
I wouldn’t worry. It’s not all Science & Tech. There’s plenty of Arts & Humanities related degrees too! Stay tuned.
— Dave Miotke (@SimGuruNinja) October 22, 2019
Studs.
— SpoopyM🎃rgan (@SimGuruMorgan) October 23, 2019
*Whispers* “There are more.”
— SpoopyM🎃rgan (@SimGuruMorgan) October 22, 2019
I hope that these will be available to build in BB mode for any lots! Can we???? @SimGuruNinja @SimGuruGeorge @SimGuruMorgan @SimGuruGraham
— Willyssa Catcheway (@Wilcat74) October 22, 2019
Why yes, yes they are.
— SpoopyM🎃rgan (@SimGuruMorgan) October 22, 2019
There might be… 😉
— SpoopyM🎃rgan (@SimGuruMorgan) October 22, 2019
SimGuruRusskii, SimGuruMrE and SimGuruNick have updated their avatars with photos of their Sims rocking new items from The Sims 4 Discover University Expansion Pack.
Check them out below:
The Sims 4 has received a brand new update for Mac players!
The latest update fixes various issues that Catalina players experienced because of a single glitch where the game wasn’t able to properly access all the game files. That glitch has now been fixed and when opening up The Sims 4 you’ll have to grant the request to access the Documents folder in order to play the game without issues.
SimGuruNick has also shared how to grant access if you’ve accidentally hit “Deny”:
If you’re on Catalina, you’ll be asked to grant TS4 access to your Documents folder. Please grant this request. If you accidentally hit deny, you’ll have to go to Security & Privacy > Privacy > Files and Folders and check the box for TS4
— SimGuruNick (@SimGuruNick) October 23, 2019
Update 10/23/2019 – 1.56.55.1220
Hey Simmers!
Small but important update for macOS players. Catalina players have had a bit of a rough time thanks to some changes in how applications access files. This has made game play a little bumpy. This patch makes things work more reliably for Catalina users!
Additional information:
- Simmers on macOS 10.15 (Catalina) will be prompted to allow The Sims 4 access to the Documents folder. Grant this request.
-SimGuruGnome
The Sims Team sent shock waves through the community yesterday by dropping the reveal trailer for the highly anticipated upcoming expansion pack, Discover University. Needless to say, we are NOT calm!
In the rippling excitement, you might have missed certain details. I know I had to watch over a dozen times! Here’s everything we were able to spot in the trailer!
No one could miss the introduction of bicycles! They were very prominently featured in the trailer. We certainly appreciate the inclusion of a bike helmet to go along with it. Safety first, kids!
Sims have always had basic earlobe piercings but Simmers have been asking for more body piercings to come to the game for years. In the trailer, we see a masculine Sim with an eyebrow piercing and a feminine Sim with both a nose and eyebrow piercing.
More tattoos are another popular request and one that The Sims Team delivered on in Island Living. It looks like we’ll be getting even more tattoos in Discover University. We managed to catch a glimpse of a cat tattoo, what looks like a dog tattoo, and a daisy tattoo.
It looks like we’ll be getting robots back! No news yet on whether they’ll be comparable to the Plumbots from The Sims 3, but in the trailer, a humanoid robot can be seen being worked on by a Sim, along with a smaller levitating robot in the background at a few different points.
Representation of various disabilities in The Sims 4 has been a central discussion in the community for some time now. In the trailer, it looks like some of the Sims have prosthetic limbs. We don’t know for sure if this robotic arm is permanent or just a cool gadget that can be worn like a smart watch, but either way, this could look promising for more prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs, and other items that could improve representation in the game.
Basketball was introduced in City Living, and since then, Simmers have been asking for more sports to be added to the game. It looks like soccer could be a new sport our Sims can play both on and off campus.
Drones were introduced to The Sims 4 in Get Famous, but given that robotics seems to be the focus of Foxbury Institute, it wouldn’t surprise us if these new drones in Discover University had some cool new features beyond just recording video.
Laptops initially came to The Sims 4 in StrangerVille. Later, a chromakey laptop was added to the base game in a free update as a Freelancer career reward. It looks like Discover University will add a new laptop to the game. This sticker-covered, beat-up laptop certainly reminds us of our university years.
Tiny home builders, rejoice! Mini fridges are coming back and they can have small appliances and other clutter objects placed on them! These are going to be great space-savers in those cramped, humble starters.
New easels and paintings are something that have been sorely needed for a long time. For the most part, they hadn’t really been updated since the base game first launched. It’s refreshing to see our artistic Sims will have new things to paint and new tools to paint them on.
What would The Sims be without silly costumes? Among some of the more out-of-this-world clothing options coming with Discover University are team mascot costumes! It looks like the Britechester mascot is a dragon and the Foxbury mascot is a… lobster??? Shouldn’t it be, y’know, a fox? Someone get to the bottom of this mystery!
As a graduate from a university that shared its campus with another college, this particularly excited me. It looks like the students from Britechester and Foxbury will be able to intermingle and even compete against each other in extracurricular activities, if this debate scene from the trailer is any indication of gameplay.
This academic calendar seen hanging on the wall in the background here may just be wall decor, but we’re hoping it will have a function similar to the family bulletin board from Parenthood; instead of helping Sims manage a family, it would help students manage their timetables and extra activities.
Another popular request looks like it will become a reality in the game at last; public washroom stalls! No more building cumbersome walls to give a false appearance of washroom stalls! Hooray!
We got a good laugh when we saw these Sims TP-ing the Britechester campus statue! What says university life more than some traditional late-night mischief?
This graduation day celebration looks like a lot of fun! There needs to be some kind of last hurrah after four years of suffering, right? If anything, celebrate getting your first good night’s sleep in four years.
Of course, The Sims is a T-rated game and they’re pretty strict about sticking to that rating, so this popular party game is called “juice pong” in true PG fashion. Still, university wouldn’t be university without wild parties and drinking games.
You can’t have “juice” pong without a ping pong table to play it on! It looks like this popular tabletop sport will be making a comeback in The Sims franchise with the launch of Discover University.
The Sims isn’t The Sims without WooHoo and university isn’t university without WooHoo, either! Shower WooHoo was introduced in The Sims 3 and Simmers have been wanting it to make a return in The Sims 4 since it first launched five years ago. Are your Sims ready to get hot and steamy?
Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments or come chat with us on social media!
The Sims 4 Discover University will be released on November 15th for PC/Mac and December 17th for PS4/Xbox One
