☢️ Electronic Arts and Maxis: A History of Bullshit, Betrayal, and Piracy Paranoia. -- [6/13] 👹 Post overhauled. Most of y'all weren't here for this one. Enjoy.
FIRST PUBLISHED ON 3/6/2024 @ 6:00 PM
Back in March 2024, Electronic Arts finally drew the ire of simmers, but they have been stepping in it for almost two decades. This started as a simple unhinged rant, but it evolved into something else entirely with every additional article I read.
PIRACY features A LOT in this EXPOSÉ.
I should say something about not endorsing piracy.
There!
Happy?
Let's crack on! 😹
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☆ // ⋆ EMOJI LEGEND:
🌐 External links! I can't be arsed to wait for Patreon to give a !@#$ about accessibility.
💀 My comments and notes are littered throughout the various sections.
🔥 I've CAPITALIZED some #FunFacts.
💭 Quotes
🎀 Hidden booty! Possibly outdated. Approach with caution.
☆ // ⋆ UPDATED ON 6/13/2025 @ 12:28 AM:
⏰ 5/1/2025 [🌐] Pixelade (YouTube) -- The Sims 4 Is STILL Broken.
⏰ 9/17/2024 [🌐] PC Gamer -- There won't actually be a Sims 5 because EA is going to 'disrupt the sequel model' by shoving The Sims 4, Project Rene, and two other games into one 'massive Sims platform'.
⏰ 10/6/2024 [🌐] TweakTown -- Sims 5 isn't happening, EA to continue mining Sims 4 with new user-generated content economy.
Live-action movie adaptations! -- https://parade.com/movies/the-sims-movie
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☆ // ⋆ TABLE OF CATENTS - CHITTERS:
SPORE (2008) - SOLIDIFYING PIRACY AS A FORM OF PROTEST
SIMCITY (2013) - THE FALL OF A FRANCHISE
SIMCITY (2013) - IN RETROSPECT
SIMCITY (2013) - A DISASTROUS TIMELINE
THE DEATH OF MAXIS
THE SIMS 4 (2014) - THE EVER-DEVELOPING LIVE SERVICE PLATFORM THAT LIVED
THE SIMS 4 (2014) - PROJECT OLYMPUS
THE SIMS 4 (2014) - NEGATIVE FEEDBACK
THE SIMS 4 (2014) - PRESERVING INSECTS
THE SIMS 4 (2014) - THE STRAW WHAT BENT THE CAMEL'S BACK
THE SIMS 5 (20XX) - IT AIN'T HAPPENIN'
BUT REMEMBER, FELLOW SIMMERS
☆ // ⋆ SPORE (2008) - ELECTRONIC ARTS' HAND IN SOLIDIFYING PIRACY AS A FORM OF PROTEST:
In 2008, EA and Maxis released the highly anticipated Spore, informing no one about the inclusion of an "absurdly restrictive" SecuROM DRM. It was cracked "even before release" and was wholly regarded as a waste of time. EA's anti-consumer behavior led to two class-action lawsuits against the company and the propagation of piracy by even those who legitimately owned the game.
Despite EA's DRM blundering, the consumer backlash, and the "rampant PROTESTING" (give me this one), Spore sold over a million copies in just three weeks [🌐]. Former senior vice president and general manager of Maxis, Lucy Bradshaw, is quoted saying:
We're humbled by how quickly the community has taken to the creativity tools in Spore, [...] It's amazing to see the sheer imagination represented in the hundreds of thousands of creatures, vehicles and buildings that have been uploaded around the clock since launch.
⏰ 9/9/2008 [🌐] SPOnG -- Former Maxis Man: Spore DRM is a Screw Up.
Talking about the tech and the consumer backlash it provoked, Former Maxis man Cliff Harris says, "I think EA have screwed up here, for several reasons."
At the start of 2006, Cliff Harris worked for Maxis on a "gameplay prototype" for the "Sims" franchise, then he started making games just for his own company, Positech Games [🌐]. He's also the guy who asked pirates why they pirate [🌐].
Will Wright co-founded Maxis with Jeff Braun [🌐]. Maxis is of course the studio behind The Sims. In April 2009, he left EA to run Stupid Fun Club Camp [🌐], an entertainment think tank in which Wright and EA are principal shareholders.
Since then, Will Wright has apparently... embraced NFTs [🌐]?!
<BLOWS RASPBERRY>
I don't !@#$ with "NFT bros", Will. I don't care who they are. NFTs are a scam.
⏰ 9/13/2008 [🌐] TorrentFreak -- Spore: Most Pirated Game Ever Thanks to DRM.
[...] Most critics agree that Spore is a great game. However, users aren’t too happy with the absurd DRM restrictions that come with the game. EA decided that people who buy a legitimate copy of the game are only allowed to install it three times.
The idea behind DRM is that it will stop people from pirating the game, but in reality, it often has the opposite effect. As Forbes points out, many commenters on various [ X ] sites now legitimize downloading this game because the official copies include some heavy and intrusive DRM.
🔥 "YOU HAVE THE POWER TO MAKE THIS THE MOST PIRATED GAME EVER, TO GIVE CORPORATE BASTARDS A VIRTUAL PUNCH IN THE FACE" deathkitten writes on [ X ]. They* are spot on. Spore has been the most downloaded torrent on [ X ] for over a week, which is unique for a game.
⏰ 10/6/2021 [🌐] Game Rant -- 15 Most Pirated Video Games Ever.
[...] Within its first week, the game had been pirated more than 500,000 times.
This game also holds a legacy of continuing piracy perhaps due, at least in part, to the undisclosed anti-piracy measures EA placed on the physical copy of the game.
There were 🔥 TWO CLASS-ACTION LAWSUITS AGAINST EA for failure to disclose the DRM's existence. In response, EA did launch a DRM-free version on Steam in 2008. But the game had hit 1.7 million illegal downloads that year. That number would only continue to rise.
💀 Do you suppose EA learned anything after being sued twice for their nonsense?
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☆ // ⋆ SIMCITY (2013) - THE FALL OF A FRANCHISE BECAUSE OF ELECTRONIC ARTS' OBSESSION WITH "ALWAYS (PIRACY) ONLINE":
"Always Online" is considered DRM [🌐], meaning it is a form of anti-piracy regardless of whatever nonsense Electronic Arts says.
In 2013, EA and Maxis released the highly anticipated SimCity. Prior to release, representatives claimed the game could only work "Always Online" because reasons, much to the dismay of potential customers. The game had a disastrous launch with EA servers failing to meet the obvious demands of such a highly anticipated game. Throughout the disastrous launch, representatives continued to double-down on the "Always Online" requirement until piece by piece it was exposed as one big lie. Also exposed as one big lie was the repeated claim by Maxis and EA employees that the "Always Online" features were wholly Maxis' idea and vision, when in fact, it was by EA mandate. A year after release, a year after the game was shown to be capable of offline play, an official offline patch was finally released.
This incident marked the end of SimCity and the end of Maxis as we knew it.
💀 It's strange reading hot takes about why SimCity failed and why the franchise is considered dead, when we have a clear explanation. "Weird" and mildly irritating.
☆ // ⋆ SIMCITY (2013) - IN RETROSPECT:
⏰ 2/4/2020 [🌐] Medium -- Why SimCity died — and how an indie developer saved the city-building genre with Cities: Skylines [🌐].
⏰ 3/6/2023 [🌐] PC Gamer -- SimCity launched a decade ago, and it was so disastrous it killed the series.
⏰ 3/9/2023 [🌐] Game Rant -- What Happened to the Simcity Franchise?
⏰ 3/9/2023 [🌐] GamesIndustry_biz -- Always-online SimCity burns to the ground — 10 Years Ago This Month
In March of 2013, EA [...] basically [unleashed an array of disasters upon] all the good will the SimCity franchise had built up over the years, launching the first mainline SimCity game in a decade, but doing it with an ill-advised always-online requirement, having apparently learned nothing from seeing Blizzard gleefully run full steam into the same sliding glass door with Diablo 3 [🌐] just the year before.
Naturally, EA's servers fell down straight away [🌐]. Two days later, the problems had only gotten worse [🌐], with plenty of bugs and lengthy wait times for players to get into a server. The Origin service was so hammered that people who purchased other EA games from Origin were unable to play them, either.
Confusion reigned supreme, with Amazon posting a warning on the product page and pulling the digital version of the game from sale [🌐], while EA spokespeople [told] affected customers that they could request a refund, only for the company to then deny those requests.
EA desperately turned off "non-critical" gameplay features like leaderboards, achievements, and the time-accelerating "cheetah mode" hoping it would improve matters, but it did not seem to make a difference.
Yet two days into a true debacle of North American launch, EA was still confident that SimCity's international launch later in the week would go off without a hitch. It did not [🌐]. In fact, it was so bad that EA asked its marketing affiliates to stop promoting the game on their websites.
[...] Five days after launch, Maxis head Lucy Bradshaw made a post on the game's official blog to let everybody know the core problem was "almost behind us." [🌐]
[...] Even in the midst of this, EA stuck to its guns on the decision to make SimCity always-online. Ten days into the game's launch, Bradshaw was pushing back on claims that EA forced Maxis to include the always-online requirement or that the company was trying to take players' ability to control their own games away, saying, "It's fundamental to the vision we had for this SimCity." [🌐]
EA Labels president Frank Gibeau echoed Bradshaw's point that this was Maxis' vision [🌐], and also took issue with people portraying the always-online requirement for a beloved franchise with no particular online focus as a kind of digital rights management.
[...] Troubled launch aside, SimCity sold 1.1 million copies in the first week [🌐], and 2 million in its first four months [🌐] despite the furor at launch.
[...] And as much as the always-online connection was framed as something fundamental to the vision of the game, Maxis somehow managed to update it with an offline mode [🌐] less than a year after launch without compromising its vaunted artistic vision.
"🔥 IN RETROSPECT, OUR BIGGEST TAKEAWAY IS THAT WE ARE LUCKY THAT SIMCITY HAS AN ENORMOUS NUMBER OF LOYAL FANS," EA exec Frank Gibeau said when the often-offline update went live.
Gibeau's takeaway wasn't that the publisher should have avoided taking a beloved and predominantly offline series and warping it to require unnecessarily intrusive dependencies on the company. His takeaway was that you could do that and get away with it, provided you had a large and loyal enough fanbase.
It's a temporary PR black eye, sure, but what are people going to do? Not buy the thing?
⏰ 3/12/2023 [🌐] Rock Paper Shotgun -- SimCity developers say 2013 launch was "heartbreaking".
☆ // ⋆ SIMCITY (2013) - A DISASTROUS TIMELINE:
⏰ 3/28/2012 [🌐] PC Gamer -- SimCity will require an internet connection to play.
Speaking to Joystiq , SimCity Lead designer Stone Librande has revealed that the new SimCity will be an "internet-dependent experience." You'll need to stay connected to the net through Origin if you want to keep playing. He cited SimCity's multiplayer features, like the global economy that will let players sell excess resources on a massive connected market, as the reason for the always-online requirement.
⏰ 4/20/2012 [🌐] Rock Paper Shotgun -- Maxis: SimCity's Always Online requirement not about piracy.
*Maxis producer Jason Haber flat-out denied piracy prevention as a motivation for SimCity's always online requirement.
[...] 🔥 THE THING THAT'S IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE TO KNOW IS IT REALLY WAS DRIVEN BY US AS THE DEV TEAM. We feel it's a core feature to the game. It really makes the game richer. People have their conspiracy theories over why we're doing it. But really, it's honest that the dev team feels like it really does add a lot to the game, and it's totally worth doing for that.
💀 I stitched the first sentence together. RPS was taking to long to give me a good kicker.
⏰ 12/20/2012 [🌐] PC Gamer -- Maxis explains the use of SimCity always-online DRM.
The most controversial topic in Maxis' Reddit AMA [🌐] last week was SimCity's use of always-online DRM. Many fans objected to the principle of needing to be online when playing the game alone.
[...] Today, Maxis front-woman and senior VP Lucy Bradshaw has stepped in an attempt to clear the air. In a statement on simcity_com, she touches on EA's design motivations and technical reasons for implementing an always-online requirement in all SimCity modes, emphasizing that the game "was designed to be connected from the ground up."
💀 The Reddit AMA linked to another article, I linkceptioned it to the Reddit AMA comment that lists the AMA Always Online complaints. The linked simcity_com article has been purged, but I'd like to highlight that the hotlink shows the title as "The Benefits of Live Service".
⏰ 1/11/2013 [🌐] PC Gamer -- Maxis: SimCity's "lonely experience" influenced always-online play.
Speaking to Polygon [🌐], Creative Director Ocean Quigley added justifications, saying the decision was spurred by the way real-life cities interact and the "lonely experience" of previous SimCity games.
💀 Keep the name "Ocean Quigley" in mind, cause he pops up later, telling a different story.
⏰ 3/4/2013 [🌐] IGN -- SimCity Review in Progress.
Who could possibly have predicted that SimCity would experience launch day problems due to its online requirement? Right: everyone. Everyone predicted that. And EA's Origin servers did not disappoint them, delivering slow download speeds, spotty connections, and log-in queues upward of a half hour.
⏰ 3/4/2013 [🌐] Change_org -- Remove "Always Online" DRM from SimCity and future games.
💀 I'm disappointed by the low number of signatures on this petition. Folks have a tendency to complain a lot, but then shy away from taking action or even showing solidarity. We see it nowadays in all aspects of life. An executive sees 80,000 complaints, opens the books, sees 1M+ sales and thinks, "Eh! Let them eat cake!"
⏰ 3/5/2013 [🌐] GamesIndustry_biz -- SimCity servers struggle with launch. Users unable to download game on release, 30 minute queues to play.
⏰ 3/6/2013 [🌐] MVC/DEVELOP -- EA apologizes after SimCity server issues.
On the Origins Twitter feed, 🔥 EA CLAIMED THAT THE ISSUE IS ONLY AFFECTING A "SMALL PERCENTAGE" OF CUSTOMERS, and that it will be prepared for SimCity’s European launch this Friday.
⏰ 3/7/2013 [🌐] GamesIndustry_biz -- Electronic Arts city-building sim still gridlocked; publisher promises more servers on the way.
⏰ 3/7/2013 [🌐] IGN -- SimCity Burning: A Warning to Microsoft, Sony, and All Publishers on The Dangers of Always-Online DRM.
As a long-time fan who's been looking forward to this week for many years, this is a huge, frustrating disappointment. The worst part? The main issue isn't with the game itself, but an entirely unnecessary and completely avoidable always-online Digital Rights Management (DRM) system that's keeping millions of fans from playing the game they paid for, when they were told they'd be able to play it.
If there is one good thing that comes of this disaster, let it be yet another lesson to publishers like EA and Activision/Blizzard, and platform owners Microsoft and Sony, who may be considering always-on DRM in next-gen consoles or PC games: don't even think about it. It's a pipe dream, and to attempt it is to invite an enthusiasm-draining catastrophe with every single game launch.
⏰ 3/7/2013 [🌐] MVC/DEVELOP -- EA refusing refunds over SimCity server woes.
EA is not taking refunds from SimCity customers who bought the title through Origin over the problematic server issues that have plagued the game’s early release.
[...] This is despite EA’s Origin global community manager Marcel Hatam previously stating: "If you regrettably feel that we let you down, you can of course request a refund for your order at [ X ], though we are currently still in the process of resolving this issue.
Develop took to EA Origin’s customer support to clarify the reports, and has been told that a refund would not be offered for the purchase of SimCity due to the server problems. Customers can claim refunds in "exceptional circumstances", but when asked whether connection issues for the always online title came under that description, a customer service representative told us "not right now".
[...] The issue also brings up consumers' rights when downloading a title from a digital distribution platform, and what is considered an "exceptional circumstance".
⏰ 3/8/2013 [🌐] BBC News -- Amazon suspends sales of SimCity video game.
The web retailer stopped sales late on 7 March as players reported continued problems with the city building title.
[...] Amazon's sales suspension of the downloadable PC version of the game only lasted a few hours, but it has put a warning note on the product page about the "issues" with the game. These have contributed to the one-star score purchasers have given SimCity on Amazon.
[...] In a message posted to the official EA discussion forums, SimCity's senior producer Kip Katsarelis said the launch week had been "challenging" for the company.
[...] "What we saw was that 🔥 PLAYERS WERE HAVING SUCH A GOOD TIME THEY DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE THE GAME, which kept our servers packed and made it difficult for new players to join," he wrote.
⏰ 3/8/2013 [🌐] IGN -- SimCity Marketing Pulled by EA.
⏰ 3/8/2013 [🌐] Polygon -- EA suspends SimCity marketing campaigns, asks affiliates to "stop actively promoting" game.
⏰ 3/8/2013 [🌐] Game Rant -- SimCity: A Launch Failure of Regional Proportions.
⏰ 3/8/2013 [🌐] GamesIndustry_biz -- SimCity server woes impact global launch. Maxis GM acknowledges issues for players in Europe and Asia, Origin asks affiliates to stop promoting the game.
When SimCity's North American launch earlier this week was marred by server issues, Electronic Arts said it was "confident" that it would have its Origin online service stabilized and ready to handle the game's international debut. That confidence was apparently misplaced, according to a Polygon report [🌐] on an internal EA memo from Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw.
⏰ 3/9/2013 [🌐] IGN -- Maxis Apologizes, Offers SimCity Players Free EA Game 💀 instead of refunds!
⏰ 3/11/2013 [🌐] The Guardian -- SimCity: 'The problems are behind us'.
⏰ 3/12/2013 [🌐] Kotaku -- My SimCity City Thrived Offline For 19 Minutes.
[...] The folks behind SimCity have long maintained, however, that their game is made to be played online. That requirement isn't just DRM, they say. It's for gameplay—for simulating parts of the inter-city gameplay, for doling out challenges.
⏰ 3/12/2013 [🌐] Rock Paper Shotgun -- Maxis Insider Tells RPS: SimCity Servers Not Necessary.
A SimCity developer has got in touch with RPS [and] claimed that the server is not handling calculations for non-social aspects of running the game, and that engineering a single-player mode would require minimal effort.
⏰ 3/13/2013 [🌐] ExtremeTech -- DRM deceit: SimCity doesn't need to be always online, says Maxis developer.
In an unsurprising but wholly satisfying twist, it turns out that EA and Maxis were lying about SimCity's always-online server requirements. According to a developer who worked on SimCity and has very detailed knowledge of the game's architecture, it would be quite easy to create a single-player version of the game that doesn't require EA's draconian always-on DRM.
⏰ 3/14/2013 [🌐] TechSpot -- SimCity can be played offline indefinitely.
⏰ 3/14/2013 [🌐] Destructoid -- SimCity can be played offline, according to anyone but EA.
Let’s start with what the gamers have discovered. Lately, some modding has led to a fully playable offline debug version. Fancy that!
[...] But of course, Electronic Arts made a bold stand on this issue, and is expected to pridefully stick to its guns. All the while, its resolute determination to keep players online will continue to confirm something I think was obvious — the always-online requirement was only ever a business decision, not one made to enhance the game-play. 🔥 THE END GOAL WAS TO KEEP TABS ON PLAYERS AT ALL TIMES, AND CONTROL THEIR BEHAVIOR BEYOND THE POINT OF SALE, BECAUSE EA IS TERRIFIED OF ITS OWN AUDIENCE.
💀 Reddit represent [🌐]!
⏰ 3/18/2013 [🌐] Kotaku -- Your Complete Guide To The SimCity Disaster.
Misinformation. Server errors. Fan backlash. Since EA launched SimCity two weeks ago, the online city-builder has been nothing short of a catastrophe for everyone involved.
⏰ 3/18/2013 [🌐] PCMag -- EA CEO Steps Down Amidst SimCity Drama.
💀 He then got the job of Unity CEO in 2014, and was then accused of sexual harassment in 2019 [🌐] by a former Unity VP, in a case that's still ongoing in court [🌐]. What? I'm invested.
⏰ 3/28/2013 [🌐] PCGamesN -- SimCity always-online decision made for the game’s sake, say EA: "DRM was never even brought up once".
SimCity’s always-online requirement was necessary because 🔥 MAXIS DREAMED UP THE GAME AS AN MMO, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau has said. It certainly wasn’t conceived as an ill-advised form of DRM – which he deems a "failed dead-end strategy".
⏰ 7/5/2013 [🌐] Game Rant -- Survey Suggests "SimCity" Offline Mode in the Works.
⏰ 7/16/2013 [🌐] Polygon -- Ocean Quigley's dismay at SimCity's "blundered launch" and why he quit EA.
"I was dismayed at the blundered launch of something that I had poured so much love and attention into, which made the leaving easier but it would have probably happened anyway, [...] Honestly I think I would have left regardless of whether EA's launch of SimCity was smooth or rough. It was basically my third SimCity. I did SimCity 3000 and SimCity 4 and this new SimCity."
⏰ 10/4/2013 [🌐] Game Rant -- Maxis Teases "SimCity" Offline Mode Again, Talks Mod Support.
⏰ 1/13/2014 [🌐] Polygon -- EA adding offline mode to SimCity.
⏰ 3/18/2014 [🌐] Electronic Arts -- SimCity With Offline Play Now Available.
"We've listened to our players and today we are delivering against their most direct feedback with the release of the new Single-Player Mode," said Patrick Buechner, GM of Maxis Emeryville. "Player feedback has helped us deliver 10 major gameplay Updates that have improved the experience with better tuning, new features and free content. This is the most definitive SimCity experience whether you choose to play Online or Offline."
⏰ 5/20/2016 [🌐] Polygon -- SimCity 2013's creative director explains what went right and what went so, so wrong.
EA greenlit the project, with a caveat: 🔥 IT HAD TO BE AN ALWAYS-ONLINE TITLE, BECAUSE THAT'S THE FUTURE THAT EA BELIEVED THE GAMING INDUSTRY WAS HEADING TOWARD.
⏰ 5/20/2016 [🌐] Game Informer Show (YouTube) -- The Sims' and SimCity 2013's Inside Story With Maxis' Ocean Quigley
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☆ // ⋆ THE DEATH OF MAXIS:
💀 Ever wondered why I refer to the studio as "EAxis" and not "Maxis"?
In the wake of the SimCity launch, Maxis went through a series of layoffs and studio closures, which continued throughout the late 2010s. This began with the 2014 restructure of EA Salt Lake, dissolving the Maxis group that had been headquartered there. A number of Maxis devs were migrated to the Redwood Shores studio. Maxis' principal studio in Emeryville was closed in 2015, leaving only the smaller Redwood Shores team and a newly opened mobile developer in Helsinki under the Maxis name.
In September 2015, EA announced that the consolidated Maxis team would work alongside the EA Mobile division under Samantha Ryan. EA indicated that the "collaboration" would still see most of Maxis' future products available for personal computers. The group was then reorganised under EA Worldwide Studios in 2016, with the rest of Salt Lake shut down in 2017. Redwood Shores faced further layoffs in 2018, which included 15-20 Maxis staff. Development of The Sims Mobile was relocated away from the remaining Maxis developers in 2019, with Firemonkeys taking over. This left continued support for The Sims 4 as the sole Maxis-fronted project at EA.
The closure of Emeryville in particular—as Maxis' long-lived core location—was described by commentators as the end of Maxis as it had been known in the past, with only the brand name persisting. — Wikipedia [🌐]
⏰ 1/30/2014 [🌐] IGN -- The Sims Dev EA Salt Lake Focusing on Mobile Following Layoffs.
According to an IGN source close to EA, "all of Maxis is gone" in Utah, with approximately 40 former employees migrating to Maxis in California. Around 35 other Salt Lake employees have been laid off, including an estimated 20 at EA All Play.
⏰ 3/4/2015 [🌐] Kotaku -- EA Shuts Down SimCity Developer Maxis.
EA has shut down Maxis Emeryville, the main Maxis studio and longrunning developer behind SimCity and Spore, among other games. Though the Maxis brand will carry on, the studio that most people knew as "Maxis" is no more.
⏰ 3/9/2015 [🌐] Softpedia -- Maxis Dev Provides Insider Outlook on SimCity 2013 Failure.
Publisher Electronic Arts has announced the closure of Maxis, the makers of the SimCity and The Sims franchise, with the Emeryville headquarters being shut down, and the other divisions consolidated into other studios.
[...] reveals that, for EA, it's all about the money, as the corporation does not share the same sense of obligation and sentimentality that the developers. He recalls that, due to the fact that Sim City 4's expansion "didn't print cash" like The Sims was doing at that time, all efforts were channeled toward that franchise, which led to a much smaller team ending up working on SimCity.
💭 3/5/2015 [🌐] Reddit -- Maxis dev comments on the closure of Maxis Emeryville.
Money. 🔥 IT ALL COMES DOWN TO MONEY. EA AS A CORPORATION DOESN'T SHARE OUR SENSE OF OBLIGATION OUT OF SENTIMENTALITY. Hence today's announcement.
The long gap is probably caused by several factors. First was that the expansion for SC4 didn't print cash like The Sims was at the time. Sure it made money, but The Sims had a HUGE (I remember reading 16x) return on the investment. So it got deprioritized to make The Sims 2. Which again made huge returns.
EA has adopted a greenlight gating process. Where by with little or no capital invested they have a few highly talented senior designers/creative types come up with the framework of a game. They develop what they can as proof of concept, usually simple gameplay prototypes and concept art, which is then presented to EA. This sets up a series of gates and reviews whereby they get more money and manpower as it seems necessary and the time to work on the gameplay, engine, and artistic style. This whole period is called pre-production, and can last from a few months to a few years. At some point you go into production, which means you know what you are making, how you are going to do it, how they are going to sell it and hard numbers to back all of that up. Some time after that, when marketing thinks it is right, they will announce the game to the public. From that point on nothing changes from the public facing. Once locked into 'online-only' there was no way of changing it. People complained that the cities were too small but there was no way to address that without compromising the numbers and forecasts when the game was sold to EA's corporate overseers. EA can't be negotiated with at this level, you can't change their mind, you REALLY have to fight to get dates changed etc.
So, during that 10 year wait there was almost 9 years of silence. 3 or 4 of those years had active development of the game that shipped, with another year or more of a small group of creatives. There were other attempts that never made the light of day, and products (SimCity Societies comes to mind) that didn't deliver that 'SimCity' experience.
I offer all of this with the caveat that they don't even tell us (read 'the devs') all of this and some of it is conjecture.
I also don't fault EA with this process. It is meant to minimize risk and it does pretty well at that. EA is a very large ship, it takes a lot of energy and time to get it to change direction. That long process steers the ship and adds predictability. Smaller companies are able to pivot much faster but lack EA's resources and ability to 'play the long game'. All of this stuff happens out of necessity, and all of it comes down to money.
EA is actually a great place to work these days. In the past there were difficulties (I was part of the EA Spouse/class action) but a lot of that has turned around. They really do want to retain talent and minimize layoffs. Not everyone shares this experience, but I haven't worked back-to-back weekends in almost a decade. EA has a really good benefits package, competitive pay, and a strong sense of progressive public responsibility. Maxis, in particular, the Sims side has what is probably the highest level of gender equality in the industry.
I'm sad to see that studio close, it's been my home for a very long time.
💭 3/6/2015 [🌐] Reddit -- Maxis dev comments on SimCity (2013)'s development.
SC2013 is a deeper simulation with more layers, glassbox couldn't support millions of sims and maintain that fidelity. By the time some of the problems with glassbox hit home the game was already too far along to make meaningful changes. Yes there were bugs, yes some were quite bad, things like traffic were a real pain.
You have to remember that it was one guy working on the traffic simulation, one guy working on the engineering for that part of the simulation system, one graphics engineer working on engineering for the rendering of networks, and me making all of the artwork for it. All of us also had other areas of responsibilities, for example I also had to make all of the vehicles.
There wasn't a massive factory of hundreds of engineers and artists, it was a small team doing difficult work. EA couldn't just make the team bigger and fix everything, game development teams don't scale well like that. We certainly could have used some more engineers, and I fault EA for not giving us more headcount.
One guy had to fix traffic, and one guy eventually did with the help of others. After we shipped. We patched it and gave it out free. That was just one part of the entire game. That guy was laid off this week. That is why I am mad and saddened. He is also one of the smartest and most thoughtful people I've ever worked with, he will be ok.
It's easy to hate EA. It's easy to be mad that we didn't make the game many of you wanted. The reality is that the situation, as is the art of making simulations, was much more complicated than it outwardly appears.
Look at a map and try to find the route you take home from work or school. Now try and describe it very precisely with a series of mathematical functions. Now try to figure out how to optimize it for speed with several modes of transportation available to you, using math. Now try to explain why you decided to go home instead of the mall, using math.
The video game industry has a long proud history of cloning other peoples gameplay and designs. The more money they make the more they are mimicked and copied. Entire genres are nothing but iterative improvements and variations of such historic titles as Wolf 3D. Wolfenstein was a difficult game to make, Carmack is a genius. But once he solved the problems he was facing everyone else took those solutions and applied them forward.
In that same industry, 25 years after SimCity shipped, one of the most successful PC games of all times, only twice has someone outside of Maxis successfully attempted to approach these problems. The Sims is an even more extreme example of that.
⏰ 9/24/2015 [🌐] GameSpot -- The Sims Boss Lucy Bradshaw Leaves EA After 23 Years.
Electronic Arts executive Lucy Bradshaw, a 23-year company veteran who most recently served as senior vice president of The Sims studio Maxis, has left the company.
⏰ 4/24/2018 [🌐] PCGamesN -- Multiple Sims developers have been let go.
Several veteran developers who worked on The Sims 4 – some since the series' inception at Maxis – have been let go by publishers EA or moved to The Sims mobile division.
Last week, designer Daniel Hiatt announced he was leaving Maxis EA. Hiatt did not explain whether he was let go, or voluntarily left his position. However, an inside source has confirmed to PCGamesN that Hiatt was laid off alongside 15 to 20 other Maxis EA staff members.
⏰ 12/16/2019 [🌐] TheGamer -- 10 Of The Saddest Game Developer Studio Closures Of The Decade.
Will Wright founded Maxis in 1987 with Jeff Braun, and the pair came out of the gate swinging with SimCity. The classic title was followed by numerous simulation games, until they struck gold again with The Sims.
Wright left Maxis Emeryville in 2009, shortly after the release of Spore and is currently working on a promising mobile title, Proxi, and Maxis Emeryville closed down in 2015. A team called Maxis still exists within EA, but they are working on mobile titles.
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☆ // ⋆ THE SIMS 4 (2014) - THE EVER-DEVELOPING LIVE SERVICE PLATFORM THAT LIVED:
🔥 6/13/2025 (Steam) -- $1,484.02 USD. [🌐]
💀 Should I just list off every OPEN Bug Report?
💀 Do I list off my own projects aimed at fixing years-old and new CAS PartFlags errors?
💀 Do I mention the Skintone Scandal? I just did.
💀 EA's continued blundering of even their own distribution platforms, Origin and EA App, has the "unintended" effect of propagating the very thing they're so paranoid about - PIRACY. When you can't even play your legitimately purchased games because the platform isn't functioning or LACKS A PROPER OFFLINE FEATURE, what choice do you give your legitimate customers?
☆ // ⋆ THE SIMS 4 (2014) - PROJECT OLYMPUS:
⏰ 4/25/2013 [🌐] SimsVIP -- "The Sims 4" Pre-Production UI Design Screens.
⏰ 5/10/2017 [🌐] SimsVIP -- Olympus UI and Multiplayer Code found in The Sims 4 Engine.
☆ // ⋆ THE SIMS 4 (2014) - NEGATIVE FEEDBACK:
⏰ 3/18/2021 [🌐] CarlsSimGuides (YouTube) -- The Sims is Destroying its Reputation with Some of Its Biggest Fans.
⏰ 10/1/2021 [🌐] Plumbella (YouTube) -- A deep dive into the failings of The Sims 4.
⏰ 1/24/2022 [🌐] Plumbella (YouTube) -- How Project Olympus ruined The Sims 4.
⏰ 3/1/2023 [🌐] simsina (YouTube) -- Subscription content coming to The Sims 4.
⏰ 3/1/2023 [🌐] Digital Spy (YouTube) -- The Sims 4 responds to complaints after releasing console-exclusive content.
As several replies from forum posters expressed disappointment over the content's exclusivity and it being tied to EA Play, the community manager followed up [🌐] by mentioning some of the content that's exclusive to PC.
"I understand the FOMO, but here's just a small selection of items that PC players have had that console players still don't: Noctis Outfit, Family Portrait, Bare Naked Gnome, Awesome Animal Hats (all PC players got this free), Mods.
Rewarding the players with EA Play on console shouldn't be taken as a slight to you if you're on PC."
💀 This is a really bad argument. What's stopping the EAxis team from patching the "PC exclusive content" into the console version of the game? EA is artificially creating "Fear Of Missing Out" (FOMO) in their player-base while obsessing over PIRACY and LOST SALES. Furthermore, including mods in this list, in this context, feels !@#$ed up. Also, this had nothing to do with "slighting rewards". SHAME ON YOU.
⏰ 3/29/2023 [🌐] Izzzyzzz (YouTube) -- The Disaster Of The Sims 4.
⏰ 7/12/2023 [🌐] MRIZZY (YouTube) -- The Sims 5 is going to be a disaster.
⏰ 8/6/2023 [🌐] bull_technology (YouTube) -- How EA Killed the Sims Franchise: The Sad State of the Sims 4.
⏰ 3/8/2024 [🌐] teawitched (YouTube) -- The Sims 4: Bugs Galore.
⏰ 3/9/2024 [🌐] SatchOnSims (YouTube) -- 10 reasons why The Sims 4 feels so boring.
⏰ 5/1/2025 [🌐] Pixelade (YouTube) -- The Sims 4 Is STILL Broken.
☆ // ⋆ THE SIMS 4 (2014) - PRESERVING INSECTS:
💀 Hotfixes are hard, which is why AHQ has a list of bug-fixing community mods. Instead of committing these fixes to the game, EA proudly displays them so those of us who don't or can't use mods can marvel in despair.
🐞 3/14/2023 [🌐] AHQ -- Sims exhibit animation problems/freezing/not moving.
🎀 Less Emotion Idles by Bienchen aka sims4me -- https://../nkr_lessemotionidles
🎀 Less Preference Idles by Bienchen aka sims4me -- https://../nkr_lesspreferenceidles
🎀 Simulation Lag Fix by SrslySims -- https://../mods/simulation-lag-fix
🎀 Simulation Unclogger by TurboDriver -- https://../mods/simulation-unclogger
🐞 12/15/2023 [🌐] AHQ -- Move Household breaks ownership, 💀 A.K.A. "Baby Llama Tears"
🐞 12/27/2023 [🌐] AHQ -- Object placement bug causing crashes and infinite loading screens, 💀 A.K.A. "The San Inferno" / "The Gallery Armageddon".
🐞 3/6/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- Moodlets disappear from sims upon loading a save.
⏰ 3/7/2024 [🌐] Digital Spy -- The Sims 4 rolls out hotfix patch to address new bugs.
☆ // ⋆ THE SIMS 4 (2014) - THE STRAW WHAT BENT THE CAMEL'S BACK:
⏰ 2/27/2024 [🌐] Destructoid -- New Sims 4 update adds cart HUD element and For Rent bug fixes.
👹 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- [FEEDBACK] Shopping Cart Icon
[1] 💭 Feedback -- Remove Shopping Cart Icon [🌐]:
"This cart emblazoned button has many uses ranging from sharing pack offers and sales information to recommending packs you might be interested in. All accessible without leaving the comfort of your Sims’ homes."
Great! Now get rid of it. No one wants this and it's distracting and annoying.
[2] 💭 Bug Report -- Pulsating Shopping Button [🌐]:
How do I turn off the constantly pulsating shopping button? This is distracting and makes my game experience worse.
💀 Merged, renamed and shuffled around; there it lies, defanged and declawed, just in time for March 6th to March 28th MASSIVE SPRING SALE!
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "At least make the icon static, it pulses continuously until you click on it, and every time you change households or reload the game, you are forced to click on it to stop the pulsing."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "EA has made it clear that this is meant to be a feature not a bug. But it is absolutely horrible! I will not be playing the sims 4 at all until this decision has been reversed. Even players who already own everything have it constantly pulsing in the corner! Worst update EVER!"
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "As a person who get migraines, and has ADHD and Anxiety, PLEASE at least make the button not pulse. I will NOT be able to play the game as long as this is still on issue."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "I have autism and I can't stand constantly blinking things. It is bad enough that the calendar icon is constantly blinking, now this?"
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "They need to get rid of it, it is extremely distasteful for them to add ADs to game EVERYBODY has spent more than enough money on. Releasing packs without bugs or even making them more than the bare minimum will make people want to buy them, not this."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "Yo I haven't played since the update, but I'm deeply concerned. I was diagnosed with epilepsy, and I worry I can't play now if there is something flashing there."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "I had to turn off my game and stop playing 10 minutes after update because it's really tripping my sensory issues so badly. This is such a mis-step. Was there really nobody involved in this idea who considered the fact that it might make gameplay literally uncomfortable for some of us? Or did they just not care?"
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "As long this button exists, I will not invest more money in this game. I am one of the happy persons here which got chosen to test this feature although I have all DLC with the account which got chosen. It is not enough to have advertising in main menu? You really need to ADD an advertising button in game? This is not a <insertSwearWord> mobile game!"
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "[...] as someone with adhd and autism, this gives me significant anxiety. We don't need this button for one, we already have it pretty much on the main menu. And two, sims is my (and many others) comfort game, it relieves anxiety for us. And now it's just giving bad anxiety."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "It's common for software to have the option to reduce motion in the UI as an accessibility setting (both Android and Discord have it to name just two); it's unacceptable for The Sims to be introducing a flashing icon like this that could trigger people who have photosensitivity and/or other conditions that will be negatively affected by this flashing effect without any option to turn it off."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "I am hoping that a modder will release a mod that gets rid of the button entirely."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "This is beyond egregious. EA continuously releases broken packs and now has done something that actively threatens the health of many of their players. This will trigger migraines and seizures. No one wanted this. We just want a game that works and isn't broken and full of bugs."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "I have ADHD and other sensory issues. I am easily distracted by any visual stimuli, to such a degree that I cannot even have a flashing notification dot on my phone anywhere in my eyeline while trying to work because I will be looking at it constantly, and cannot concentrate on what I am doing. This update will be incredibly frustrating to people like me who struggle to focus on things when there is a repeated, flashing stimulus drawing attention away from the game. I play games to relax, and this will not be relaxing."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "Dear EA, my migraines with aura and my ADHD thanks you wholeheartedly for the brand new throbbing cash grab shopping button. I'm sure it will be extremely useful for yours truly whilst in game for buying absolutely nothing until is gone. Regards."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "Hi! I came here because I have mild auditory issues, so I wanted to sympathy post that this was probably a disability issue for people with visual issues, ADHD, autism,and epilepsy."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "I said it on Twitter and I'll say it here. [...] Ads going past the Main Menu crossed the line and destroys the gameplay immersion, and this button needs to go."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "This addition is repulsive and is inconsiderate towards those whose health is impacted by flashing."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "[...] I don't mind buying their products, I have in fact about 80% of all the DLCs. But this is triggering and disrespectful, so as far as I'm concerned they can keep their crystals and whatever it'll come next."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "The shopping cart is redundant. There's already a large splash screen with ads for packs every time we start the game. There is often an additional popup in front of the splash screen advertising some pack or other. It is impossible to start the game without clicking through these advertisements for the very same packs. There is no purpose to the extra shopping cart button."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "EA is going to waste time and resources to add this ridiculous shop button when they could EASILY be fixing the game! Instead all we get is a soulless cash grab of a game that breaks with every new pack."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "I have adhd and autism and constantly blinking icons are so distracting to me. It made the game feel unplayable. I already own nearly every pack and was looking forward to the upcoming crystal pack but won’t be purchasing or playing until this is fixed."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "I am getting migraines. I have epilepsy-like symptoms and this is triggering them. Please, I already have all the Sims 4 DLC. I do NOT need this button that interrupts my game and makes me sick."
💭 2/27/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "I'm just like everyone else here, I have ADHD and this flashing button is triggering my migraines which, fun fact, I don't get the headache part of the migraine, I get severe eye pain and see flashing lights because the optic nerve starts to freak out as a result of the migraine. This also tends to affect my vision for hours later, causing me to have extremely low vision even after the migraine has disappeared."
💭 2/28/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "I'm absolutely stunned no one on the development team understood the potential implications for players with certain conditions, especially those with light sensitivities, seizure disorders, anxiety, etc."
💭 2/28/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "I've been a dedicated Maxis customer for decades and have invested a significant amount in your games. However, the recent addition of a constantly blinking shopping cart in the UI is incredibly disruptive and feels like an aggressive push for content I don't want. It's seriously hindering my enjoyment of the game. I'm concerned this signals a troubling change in EA's priorities, similar to what happened with SimCity."
💀 You might think to yourself "I don't see the problem here, they patched it!" and fail to realize that EAxis regularly resurrects dead bugs. The nature of bugs in The Sims 4 is that we don't all experience all of them at the same time. You might only experience it the next time it's broken, or never at all. The idea that *me* not experiencing a bug invalidates the reports of everyone else who does is callous, selfish and narcissistic, and with this health and wellness concern, it exposes a lack of empathy.
⏰ 3/1/2024 [🌐] PC Gamer -- Sims 4 players hate its obtrusive new store button so much that a modder has already removed it.
The initial issue was that the icon itself had a bug that was causing it to pulse continuously, which is an annoying distraction. That's already been fixed in a subsequent patch, but players are still pretty pissed. One modder, SimMattically, was annoyed enough to make a mod removing the cart button from the interface.
It's no surprise that The Sims 4 continues to push new DLC. That's how the series has always lengthened the lifespan of each game, and it's the whole monetization strategy now that The Sims 4 base game is free. But it does feel like we're being hit up to buy DLCs in increasingly intrusive ways.
The EA App and the Sims 4 main menu are beginning to feel like a pair of suburban mall skincare product hawkers who just won't let you walk away with a polite "no thanks!" When starting up the game, I already often get full screen popups cheerfully saying "remember me?" attempting to sling me any of the DLC I don't already own.
Now when I load in to actually play or build on a lot, the new shopping cart icon pops out a tooltip of a similar variety like "earn cash and feed the town" which I can wait a few seconds to fade or dismiss by clicking the cart to view the pitch for the Home Chef Hustle stuff pack. It's not egregious, but it's another straw on top of an already large stack of straws.
I know how much Sims 4 DLC there is; I tend to load up on the stuff any time a sale happens. But even I'm starting to feel a bit drowned in all the call to action prompts.
It's rare to see the Sims subreddit unilaterally agree on anything, but this is one of the rare cases. Responses range from [🌐] mild annoyance to exhaustion to mentions of upcoming competitor Paralives [🌐], and the same is true of the responses on X [🌐]. Even the more moderate voices are mostly lamenting that The Sims 3 has an equally annoying in-game shop, though it can be turned off in the settings menu and our new Sims 4 shopping cart cannot, as far as I've found.
💀 Modding community represent [🌐]!
💭 3/1/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "[...] Personally, if the corporate executives really demand that button at all costs, it must be made static and without bright dots. That being said, it would be much better if it wasn't there at all, because The Sims 4 didn't start out as an f2p online multiplayer game, only in the last year have you decided to make it free to download."
💭 3/3/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "I'm sure there have been enough Crystal Creations sales to render this ruckus null and void. I'm a cynical person and I see Feedback as the place where good intentions come to die. I don't suppose having a "hot topic" Bug Report full of simmers saying they won't buy the new DLC until EA removes this button is good for sales. Goddess forbid other simmers who may not be bothered by this button read through this 37 page thread and agree that the way they've implemented it could be a health hazard to others."
⏰ 3/5/2024 [🌐] Digital Spy -- The Sims 4 criticised over controversial new feature.
⏰ 3/6/2024 [🌐] Digital Spy -- The Sims 4 sale includes up to 68% off Expansion Packs.
💀 The appropriate response to criticism, backlash and boycotts: SALES!
💭 3/7/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "Don't call for boycotts or misuse petitions. Inappropriate petitions and boycott discussions do not contribute to a useful and productive forum. Saying that you're personally not purchasing content any longer is fine, but encouraging others not to will get your post pulled."
💭 3/7/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "Noticed the button sometimes pulsates, sometimes doesn't. No discernible pattern."
💭 3/8/2024 [🌐] AHQ -- "We're here giving feedback about a about a Live-Mode Shopping Cart feature that we don't want and have legitimate health and wellness concerns over and now we have a sale that shows just how useful a Live-Mode Shopping Cart feature could be!"
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☆ // ⋆ THE SIMS 5 (20XX) - IT AIN'T HAPPENIN':
💀 It's quite possible that Electronic Arts will learn from their past blunders, but my cynicism and distrust towards EA isn't simply because of SimCity (2013) or The Sims 4 (2014).
⏰ 2/4/2020 [🌐] Metro News -- The Sims 5 in development ‘for a new generation’ says EA.
EA has confirmed it’s planning to make a new Sims game and that old school MMO The Sims Online will be a major influence.
⏰ 6/29/2023 [🌐] GamePressure_com -- The Sims 5 Will be a F2P Game, but Rest Assured - It Will Offer Ways to Spend Money
💭 6/28/2023 [🌐] Twitter -- Maxis Job Listing
Maxis is looking for a Head of Marketplace and Monetization for the newest entry to The Sims franchise (code named Project Rene). [...]
Responsibilities:
Own Project Rene's in-game marketplace of created content and ugc (free and paid), and manage a data-informed player-centric player purchase journey - maximizing value to players, optimizing player spend patterns, and minimizing player churn.
⏰ 11/16/2023 [🌐] GamePressure_com -- The Sims 5 Devs 'Definitely' Want Multiplayer, But One That Fits the Series
💀 This sounds vaguely familiar. Oh yeah, SimCity (2013)'s always online features "were 100% Maxis' vision" a.k.a. mandated by EA!
⏰ 1/18/2024 [🌐] GamePressure_com -- Key The Sims 4 Dev Leaving EA Maxis, Gamers Celebrate
Rodiek is an important and well-known character among fans of The Sims series. This developer is one of three main producers of the fourth part of the series; he also worked on the more cherished The Sims 3 and The Sims 2.
[...] While there are people who wish Grant Rodiek good luck in the future, the overwhelming majority of fans seem happy about his departure from studio. The developer was known for his sweeping statements defending EA's actions.
Rodiek claimed [🌐] that preventing players from controlling dogs and cats in The Sims 4 was a "100% good decision" (such functionality was featured in older installments) â?? the same applies to the lack of kennels [🌐] for pets.
Grant Rodiek also came under flak for his comments on the (controversial) development of the latest installment. An example is an interview [🌐] with the developer, in which he mentioned new features added to the game years after its release, which, according to some of the community [🌐], should have been there from the get-go.
⏰ 2/26/2024 [🌐] DSOGaming -- The Sims 5 Pre-Release PC Build Has Been Leaked Online.
According to some reports, the pre-release PC build uses the Denuvo anti-tamper tech. This falls in line with what EA has been doing with its latest PC releases.
⏰ 9/17/2024 [🌐] PC Gamer -- There won't actually be a Sims 5 because EA is going to 'disrupt the sequel model' by shoving The Sims 4, Project Rene, and two other games into one 'massive Sims platform'.
Project Rene, the codename for the next major Sims game, isn't cancelled. In fact, EA will be doing some closed multiplayer testing this fall. But the in-development game we've occasionally called "The Sims 5" isn't actually The Sims 5 at all, it says. Project Rene and The Sims 4 are both going to be part of "the Sims universe" for the foreseeable future.
During an Electronic Arts investor presentation today, EA entertainment & technology president Laura Miele gave a much more thorough breakdown of The Sims series' future than normally comes out of investor-facing presentations.
"Traditionally, after every release we would replace one version with another, starting from scratch," Miele said of The Sims games 1-3. "Well, we are going to disrupt the sequel model. We are investing in a massive Sims platform."
There are a lot of buzzwords here, the kinds of things investors like, but the long and short is that EA is planning for four different Sims games—The Sims 4, Project Rene, My Sims, and a new mobile game codenamed "Project Stories"—to all share creator tools, a single user content gallery, marketplace, and a social network it's building.
"We will carry forward the tremendous engagement and volumes of content … to make Sims 4 the foundation of our future growth strategy," Miele says. "We will be updating the core technology foundation for the product and we will release fun and exciting content for many years to come."
It feels like a wild thing to say about a now-10-year-old game where each new expansion produces a slew of bugs as it struggles to cohabitate with the dozens of other DLCs. Though I guess this does explain why EA has recently committed a new team to focusing on fixing bugs: The "updating the core technology" of The Sims 4 part of the plan is going to require a lot of faith.
The announcement finally answers the question I've had for over a year about how Project Rene will be related to The Sims 4. Previously EA has made vague statements about continuing to "support" The Sims 4, which I'd assumed was more a reference to quality of life updates, not active continued development.
⏰ 10/6/2024 [🌐] TweakTown -- Sims 5 isn't happening, EA to continue mining Sims 4 with new user-generated content economy.
Electronic Arts is leaning harder into user-generated content economies a la Minecraft and Roblox, and soon Sims players will be able to buy new content bundles.
EA's recent investor's day had a lot to say about AI and user-generated content. The billion-dollar publisher intends to use generative AI to supercharge the production of UGC (or what it calls UGX--User Generated Experiences). The idea is that AI tools could help accelerate the creation of these custom in-game levels, characters, and modes, thereby having more content on a digital market at a quicker rate.
It's unclear on whether or not this AI-driven UGX platform is coming to The Sims 4, but EA did confirm that it will not be making a traditional sequel to the franchise. The Sims 5 isn't happening, and instead, EA will elongate The Sims 4 to ensures gamers can continue their decade's worth of stories and adventures for even longer. EA is also adding a new Creator Kit economy which will allow The Sims 4 players to buy bundles of user-generated content. Think of this as a little bit like Bethesda's controversial Creation Club (aka paid mods)
"The way to think about it is, historically, The Sims franchise started with Sims 1 and then Sims 2, 3, and 4. They were seen as replacements for the previous products. [But now,] we are not going to be working on replacements of previous projects; we're only going to be adding to our universe," The Sims franchise general manager Kate Gorman told Variety.
"What this means is that we will continue to bring [new] experiences and what people would want from The Sims 5. Those creations are your progress, your attachment. We don't want to reset your progress."
So the essence of the announcement is that EA won't make The Sims 5, and will instead monetize The Sims 4 in a new way with its Roblox-style custom content packs that will be sold for real money. Up until now, these user-made pieces of custom content have been free.
This plan is alongside new The Sims 4 content expansions that will also be created and sold for money over time.
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☆ // ⋆ BUT REMEMBER, FELLOW SIMMERS:
Electronic Arts values your loyal fanbasery:
Sales all year round.
Sporadic bug "fixes".
A roadmap of new content from now til the end of time.
Free content via "SDX" drops!
Free content via limited-time "FOMO" events!
Kit collaborations with your favorite third-party creators!
Content collaborations with your favorite generative A- uh... HAY! DIS IS NOT IN THE SCRIPT! THE !@#$ IS WRONG WITH YOU?! YOU'RE FIRED!
Celebrity endorsements! Everyone loves celebrity endorsements!
Live-action movie adaptations! -- https://parade.com/movies/the-sims-movie
Give them all the money and they'll give you all the goodies! Except the Live Event FOMO rewards if you missed it because real life got in the way and prevented you from completing the Event, or if the litany of bugs prevented you from completing the Event.
Shirley they gave you enough time to work out your !@#$ and theirs, and complete the Event. It's not their fault if you couldn't do it in time! Right?! 😹👹💀
