Do you think we will get another expansion this year?

"Erpe;c-16524053" wrote:

"samlyt22;c-16523997" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16523304" wrote:

"CeCeDot;c-16523291" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16523278" wrote:

"SheriSim57;c-16523270" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16493645" wrote:

"elelunicy;c-16492680" wrote:

"@Erpe;c-16492583" wrote:

"IceyJ;c-16492416" wrote:
@Erpe

"Erpe;c-16491924" wrote:
I won’t be surprised if Seasons even becomes the very last EP for the Sims 4. But I expect EA to release both an SP and a GP too this year.

You must have missed this tweet:
https://twitter.com/SimGuruGrant/status/999310302498848769?tfw_creator=SimsVIP&tfw_site=SimsVIP&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsimsvip.com%2F2018%2F05%2F23%2Fsimgurugrant-asks-pick-a-wacky-expansion-theme%2F

No, I didn’t miss it. But where does it say that those are EPs for TS4? Maybe only one of them will ever be released and then it could be a GP for TS4 or maybe even some pack for TS5?

Grant specifically clarified later that the poll is for TS4 and not TS5.
https://www.twitter.com/SimGuruGrant/status/999319135589875714
https://www.twitter.com/RhiannonInStyle/status/999696426086158336
https://www.twitter.com/SimGuruGrant/status/999696549666996224

I notice two things:
1. He said pack and not expansion pack. So we don’t know what kind of pack it will be.
2. “After some normal stuff” likely means after the packs they make in the rest of 2018 or just after one of those packs. So it could be some extra pack they will make while we wait for TS5 to be released.

I thought TS 4 was supposed to last for several more years. Have they said anything about TS5 yet?

Yes, TS4 will apparently last for several more years.

No, they have refused to say anything about TS5. This tells me two things:
1. TS5 has almost certainly been in development for some years. (Otherwise they would have told us.)
2. TS5 will likely very soon be announced which was the likely reason why a lot of gurus suddenly went on twitter about a month ago to guarantee that TS4 still will get a lot of packs (even after TS5 has been released).

But I feel that I am repeating myself way too much and we will likely very soon know much more anyway. So I am out of this discussion for now.

The thing is, they can't talk about future content. Whether it exists or not. So we can never be 'certain' about the Sims 5 development.

I partly agree. But I think that Grant could have answered the question about the packs maybe being for TS5 by saying something like: “No, TS4 will still be our main Sims game for a few more years.” Instead he avoided this by saying just: ”No, the packs are for TS4” and I feel quite sure that the reason was that he knows that TS5 is about to be announced (which also was the most likely reason why he came back to Twitter a month ago just to quite unusually guarantee that TS4 still will get a lot of new content for a few more years). The most surprising thing until now actually was that he was able to talk about unannounced future packs for TS4 in this way. But I guess that he somehow had got a special permission from EA’s top to do this - and for the mentioned reason.

He came back on Twitter a couple of weeks before seasons was announced and has said they want to focus more on open communication and getting feedback from people. I don't see why him going on Twitter means TS5 is about to be announced. They've clearly been given permission to talk more openly than they could in the past, most likely the success of Laundry day has made EA realise the financial benefits of involving the community. I say that because Grant said the pack was a huge success and they want to do more things like that, while talking a lot about how they're trying to work on improving communication with us. The reason he spoke about the future of TS4 specifically is because he gets a lot of people asking him about whether TS4 is ending. He didn't just decide to talk about it randomly, he was getting frustrated with constantly being asked about it. And as for the exact wording, every time they have brought a new version out, they have ended the previous version, therefore from his point of view, saying they are working on TS4 for years is the same as saying there's no TS5 about to be announced. Grant isn't someone to over-analyse every way his tweet can be interpreted, therefore it doesn't make sense to read so much into what he doesn't say. Not to mention it sounds better to say they're still working on it for years, rather than it's their main one for a few more years, the latter is highlighting the fact that they're going to drop it and move on. I mean they obviously will drop it at some point but still a poor idea to highlight that to the customers.

Then why did he go on twitter just now? He hasn’t been active on twitter since he talked about the basegame in 2014 and you can be quite sure that both he and most of the other gurus will disappear again within the next couple of months. So there are for me to see only two possible reasons:
1. The gurus became active to prepare people for EA Play, E3 and Gamescom.
2. The gurus became active to make people ready for an announcement of TS5 without simmers going into panic because they (incorrectly) would think that TS4 wouldn’t get more new content.

I think it was a combination of those two points. But I don’t believe that the gurus would have become that active and even suddenly completely unexpected guarantee that TS4 would get new content “for years to come” unless TS5 is about to be announced.

Because this is EA's new marketing strategy for Sims 4. Seriously, it's all about marketing. The new fiscal quarter started in April, and with it, there are a lot of new changes. We did not get a quarterly teaser. A new community manager came in who seems to post mostly on Twitter instead of the forums. An expansion pack was announced only a month before its release, when in the past they have always announced them at least two months in advance. Suddenly the developers, including the lead producer, are appearing on Twitter and answering questions and communicating more. Things are different, and we were even forewarned by the Gurus/EA that they would be changing how they do things from here on. The question is, why?

I can tell you my theory, and it has to do with a lot more than just Sims 5:

I believe it goes all the way back to the fall of SimCity. Sims 4 was well into development at that time, and I think that the failure of SimCity spooked EA into reassessing their direction for Sims 4. Granted, no one actually knows for sure what the original plan was for Sims 4, but just judging from the way the game is built, it feels quite different and strange from the previous games. I think that it was intended to have an online feature to it, but not necessarily be anything like an MMO. I believe this because modders have now found a way to hack a multiplayer feature, and that tells me that it is entirely possible it was planned at the beginning of game development. And also, at that time during Sims 4 development, multiplayer online games were hugely trending and on the uprise, so of course EA would want to jump right onto that bandwagon. They follow the money.

But then SimCity burned to the ground and they hesitated. Not wanting to waste all of the development time and money that they had already invested in Sims 4, they changed direction and did what they could to turn it back into an exclusively single player game. This caused some setbacks to its completion before the release date, but since they already had it built to be a live service, they saw they could use that to their advantage. The live service would enable them to patch in anything that was missing and still be able to deliver promised base game features. So they went ahead and released it as planned, announcing ahead that toddlers would not be included, soon patching in pools, ghosts, dishwashers, etc. along the way as "free" content. A sneaky move, but effective. But I think this also explains why teens are the same height as adults (the game's deadline interfered with further development), and toddlers were already in the game code with a placeholder, probably already in a very early development stage.

Now, because of this situation, Sims 5 was nowhere near ready to be started. They hadn't even completed Sims 4's development yet, and now, still reeling from the financial shock of the failure of SimCity, EA was hesitant if the Sims franchise would even continue into the future. Everything would now depend on the success of Sims 4, which was already built to shoulder the weight of many packs, due to the extreme prosperity of its predecessors. So they at least had the option to continue Sims 4 into a long life as long as it could sustain itself, even if they never decided to continue the franchise beyond it. One of the developers once let it slip in a statement that if Sims 4 didn't succeed, there would be no Sims 5.

This takes us into Sims 4's rocky start. There was a lot of controversy in the first couple of years, especially from the family players who missed toddlers. Some of the most loyal Simmers had stopped purchasing, and people were recommending Sims 3 to new players, who found Sims 4 empty and dull. Young Youtubers who had Sims 4 channels were dropping off due to boredom and the game's financial success was in question. The Gurus were silent, working behind the scenes to get the content out, silenced by EA and unable to communicate with Simmers. Speculations ran rampant, the forums were venomous, and the slow drip of DLC was barely enough to keep people playing. EA was probably watching those numbers and the telemetry with a lot of tension. There was no way Sims 5 was getting the green light if sales didn't improve. They sent out surveys and feedback pop-ups, hoping to get a grasp on what would make the players dish out those dollars. This is EA we're talking about, who already have a bad "crash and burn" game reputation. They had investors to please, and if the profit numbers weren't going to speak for themselves, then the Sims franchise would end with Sims 4.

Enter January, 2017.

Toddlers arrived! Vampires came! Suddenly the year took off running, and by the end of the fiscal quarter, EA was much, much happier. Sales had increased by 33%, which is a huge jump in profits for a game as big as The Sims. People were buying up packs that they had skipped, new players were jumping on board, and Youtube was alive again with endless videos of both family play and supernatural alike. The next fiscal quarter started on a high note with Parenthood, the next Game Pack to be as well received as Vampires, and by the end of the year, Cats and Dogs exploded, causing lots of hype and grabbing pet-loving Simmers everywhere. It became the most successful expansion pack to date. The profit numbers increased again. EA was thrilled. By the end of the fiscal year, however, the My First Pet Pack's controversy did not escape notice, even though the sales were still good. Even the strongest Sims 4 supporters of the Game Changers on Youtube were speaking out against it. Simmers everywhere wanted to know what was going on, they wanted to be heard. EA was definitely paying attention.

So here we are, in a new fiscal quarter with Seasons approaching, and suddenly things are different. It's a very noticeable shift. The money is pouring in now, and EA is putting things in place to keep its customers happy. Simmers are waving their money at the company, ready to buy up the next pack, and Sims 4 isn't going anywhere but forward. They are making that very clear. And I think that Sims 5 might even be a real possibility at this point, but it will be a few more years yet before that happens. They might actually have the new team working in secret by now, but if so, it would still be in very early development.

I also think that Seasons might mark the last of the "pre-planned" expansion packs from Sims 4's early development. One of the devs stated just after the release of Cats and Dogs that they were free to work on some fun new stuff now. I think that this means they have been gathering ideas for new themes and collecting player feedback and have some interesting new content on the horizon. We might see more of our own requests in the near future, and more lines of communication opening up. EA is trying to stabilize its relationship with Simmers now, because EA is deeply invested. Especially if that investment includes the making of Sims 5. But even if Sims 5 isn't coming yet, Sims 4 has had such a huge jump in profits in the last year that EA will not be ready to risk letting that go anytime soon.

Well, I've gone and typed another great big wall of text. I really need to learn how to sum things up to simplify my posts, lol.