Do you think we will get another expansion this year?

"simgirl1010;c-16496068" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16495949" wrote:

"SimTrippy;c-16495898" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16495711" wrote:

"simgirl1010;c-16495701" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16495697" wrote:

"IceyJ;c-16495018" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16494147" wrote:

"IceyJ;c-16494076" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16494015" wrote:
@SimTrippy I know. But in EA’s terminology “soon” usually means about 8 months and “for years out” could just be some wish he said deliberately ignoring what he knows about TS5 because he isn’t allowed to talk about TS5 yet. If he could guarantee that TS4 still will get new packs at least until 2020 then why doesn’t he say so?

Yes, he knows that simmers always have wanted more and also about everything from TS2 and TS3. But instead everything has been simplified and there is no way that he suddenly can guarantee that it all will come anyway. He also has to encourage us to buy more though. So is this just what he attempts with loose promises that he knows he won’t fully be able to fulfill anyway?

So this is what being in denial looks like, lol. Grant literally said 'expansion' in the earlier tweet and has made it clear TS4 isn't going anywhere for years. Too proud to concede, huh? :D

Your guess is as good as mine. But Grant isn’t EA’s CEO or even on EA’s Board of Directors. So I don’t believe that EA’s top have told him that he can continue to just make EPs for TS4 at least 5 years more ;)

He may not be CEO, but as lead producer of EPs and the game in general, he surely knows how many years in advance they've planned out packs. So if they're planning packs for years out, they're obviously not ready to release TS5. Logic.

The logic isn’t that obvious to me.

A thing that I noted was that when TS3 was about to end then EA increased the number of yearly EPs from 2 to 3 and afair more other things were increased too in 2012-2013 and even after TS4 already had been announced. I wondered why? Sales numbers obviously still were high enough to make this profitable even though they must have become lower than they were in 2009-2011. So why did EA suddenly release more just before TS4 was about to be released anyway?

My guess is that the reason mainly was that each new basegame (and especially TS4) are targeted at new simmers and that EA knows that simmers who already own the old game will hesitate and often wait a couple of years before they maybe will buy the new game anyway. But then EA wants to give them a little more packs to buy until they switch to the new game. But those packs still sell best anyway if they are released before the new basegame is released. So if EA increases the number of yearly packs then this could actually be a signal that a new basegame soon will be released (and still mainly targeted at new simmers).

I am not sure that EA plans which packs to release even years before they are released because EA has often changed the schedule and suddenly made unplanned packs with short notice. Apparently EA studies the market all the time and is ready to make changes whenever they feel that this could be profitable. But if even EA’s top don’t know then Grant sure doesn’t know either. I agree though that he knows much more than he tells us because TS5 must have been in development in the same building and he surely knows how far the development of TS5 is now. He just wants to encourage us though and therefore mainly wants us to be exited about the remaining packs for TS4 for now.

Well all I can say is have fun waiting for your announcement. :)

Do you have an old hat that you can eat if the announcement comes anyway this summer? ;)

Don't think we'll be eating hats. And I still sincerely doubt you'll get a TS5 announcement this year. I don't think we'll see TS5 before 2020 anyway, and if that's the case, they've got plenty of time to announce next year.

But of course, you could be right. You should just not make estimations & then, when they don't come true, make up stories for why your estimations are right anyway. Sometimes, we just guess wrong. And that's what you're doing, just like anyone else here, guessing :D

I never said that my guesses can’t be wrong because I don’t have inside information from EA and EA has earlier postponed a new basegame for about half a year even after it had been announced. Unforeseen technical problems can always cause such delays.

But at least my guesses are based on the fact that EA always has released a new basegame after 5 years (except after TS1 which wasn’t designed to have many EPs and therefore only lived in 4 years) while you just use wishful thinking in your dreams about TS4 living until it has as many EPs as the previous games had. Wishful thinking usually only ends up in disappointments. Therefore I don’t use it myself (and I don’t care about TS4’s life length anyway).

Your guesses are based on a pattern that occurred in the past and you continually disregard all signs that indicate this version is destined for a longer shelf life, even statements from the gurus. And yes, I know you think you know more than them or they're simply lying to keep the community buying. If anything you're the one relying on wishful thinking. Like I said, have fun waiting for that announcement to come and I'll gladly eat my hat if it comes this summer. Now I'm off to catch up on the Season's news. I'll check back in with you end of summer. :)

We will never agree on this. So let us just agree to disagree.

I agree that it is all about the interpretation of those statements from the gurus. But for me to see most simmers just read the statements to mean what they wish them to mean. Examples:
1. The gurus have said that packs for TS4 will follow a different schedule than for the earlier games. This is obviously true because half of the EPs have been replaced by SPs and GPs.
2. The gurus have said that TS4 now is more of a live service than a traditional games. But live services are something that all game companies have switched to and they don’t mean that the games will live longer. Other game companies have even said that they will release new versions of their games every 2-3 years even though they are live services too. (Live services just mean that the game will get new content via monthly updates.)
3. The gurus have said that simmers have to wait a longer time for things like Seasons. This is true because TS4 only gets one EP each year because EA now focuses on GPs and especially SPs instead of EPs. (Smaller packs released more often instead of big packs is also a part of the live service concept.)

This is the main things that I have seen gurus write. But even though they have said that simmers have to wait longer for popular EPs I haven’t seen them say anywhere that TS4 will get a longer life. Also simmers ignore the main reason why EA never let any of the previous Sims games live longer than 5 years even though EA lost at least half of the simmers every time EA released a new big basegame. But the reason why EA so many times accepted the loss of million of simmers for me to see clearly always has been:
1. After 5 years the game has become way to big for new young simmers to start playing it. Imagine a 12-14 years old ask her parents about permission to get the game and the parents then asking about all those already released packs and realize that the basegame plus all packs will cost about a thousand dollars. Then they will ask their daughter (or son) if the packs are necessary too? But the answer will likely be that her/his friend says that most of the packs are. Then the parents will likely ask her/him to find a cheaper game instead because they won’t use that much money on a game which she/he maybe only will play for about a month.
2. EA knows that most young simmers stop playing the game anyway after a few years. So EA needs new young simmers to start playing too - and for this to happen EA needs to offer a new basegame without packs at least every 5 years.

So it isn’t because I don’t realize that the world changes. But in a time where millions of young simmers now play the Sims Mobile and can’t persuade their parents to buy TS4 and its many packs then EA just needs to release a new basegame. Otherwise EA will lose too many millions of new customers and the majority of the customers who got TS4 as their first Sims game in 2014 have already stopped playing or are about to do it. So unless you think that EA isn’t interested in money anymore I just can’t follow your idea about EA just releasing worse and worse selling packs for TS4 for a few more years.