EA_Mage said ''soon'' ! How ''soon'' ?

"Paigeisin5;c-16422418" wrote:


EA has been releasing EPs mostly in November and December. Get to Work was released in March 2015 and Get Together came out that later that same year. City Living and Cats and Dogs were released in time for the Christmas market in 2016 and 2017 respectively. But knowing EA will not be releasing Anthem until 2019 rather than this fall, they may take a look at releasing more packs for Sims4 this summer and fall to keep their sales numbers up since they won't have the surge of sales from Anthem they had expected to have. That strategy might be the reason EA is withholding announcements of any kind. The development teams for game packs and stuff packs might be hard at work to get these packs out ASAP, while the expansion pack team is scrambling to finish an expansion to be released in September.

I don’t believe so because to me it seems that EA had a few doubts in the beginning about the new GPs and therefore only released one GP per year. But since then EA has doubled the number of GPs and cut down on EPs instead. Especially Cats&Dogs was so small that it more reasonably could have been sold just as a GP IMO. So to me it seems that EA likely could be considering not to make EPs anymore at all but only GPs and SPs. The reason must be that both GPs and SPs have proved to sell better than EPs which again must be because of their lower price.

I expect one more EP for TS4 though. But for TS5 EA may not unlikely decide to only make GPs and SPs - most likely at least 3 GPs each year though if TS5 doesn’t get EPs too.

Ooh! I would love for more GPs (and I still like the SPs as well), if they did them frequently. I enjoyed the GPs.

I guess what grant (I think it was him in the interview) said that people will say “I can’t believe they’re doing all this stuff” it had a different meaning. It really meant would be saying “I can’t believe they’re doing this— no teaser, and nothing released for the April-June quarter, and an appalling surprise ‘My first pet’ stuff pack that they never teased”

"Erpe;c-16422299" wrote:

"catloverplayer;c-16422265" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16422168" wrote:

"rudy8292;c-16421505" wrote:

"Lomelindi7;c-16421083" wrote:
I believe “soon” may be on or about the time if EA Play. So a few weeks prior to the event perhaps. I still believe nothing is coming this quarter (paid content) and an expansion could be announced just before EA Play, playable at the event, then released first week of July or August. I am happy to be wrong, but I won’t get my hopes up for any news before the end of May.

I don't see that happen. If they announce the EP just before EA Play and have it playable there, they have almost no time themselves to show us the game via livestreams, blogs and all that stuff. EP's have like 8+ weeks marketing attached to them and if they make it playable at EA Play, they cannot have a solid embargo/NDA.

With thousands of people coming to such events, it's impossible for them to control what info gets out and what stays in. So IF we are getting an EP this quarter, I guess they will announce it within 2 weeks, just to have enough marketing time before the event to promote the EP and tell us more about it. Then they can release it after EA Play in late june.

But we will see.

If they let people play “Seasons” at EA play then a lot of things in it will likely be disabled because it isn’t ready or stable enough yet. Also only few of the developers will likely be there and they know what they can tell and what they can’t tell people.

I think it will almost be finished then. I'm predicting Late June for release.

Unless it is a GP it will surprise me if it is released already that early. My guess for the next EP is October or November.

Then why are they announcing something and we're not getting any quarterly teaser this quarter? There has to be paid content coming sometimes this quarter. That's why I'm thinking Expansion Pack in Late June.

"Lomelindi7;c-16423010" wrote:
I guess what grant (I think it was him in the interview) said that people will say “I can’t believe they’re doing all this stuff” it had a different meaning. It really meant would be saying “I can’t believe they’re doing this— no teaser, and nothing released for the April-June quarter, and an appalling surprise ‘My first pet’ stuff pack that they never teased”

Good point what if whatever they are doing is so awful that, that is all everyone is saying XD

"catloverplayer;c-16423576" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16422299" wrote:

"catloverplayer;c-16422265" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16422168" wrote:

"rudy8292;c-16421505" wrote:

"Lomelindi7;c-16421083" wrote:
I believe “soon” may be on or about the time if EA Play. So a few weeks prior to the event perhaps. I still believe nothing is coming this quarter (paid content) and an expansion could be announced just before EA Play, playable at the event, then released first week of July or August. I am happy to be wrong, but I won’t get my hopes up for any news before the end of May.

I don't see that happen. If they announce the EP just before EA Play and have it playable there, they have almost no time themselves to show us the game via livestreams, blogs and all that stuff. EP's have like 8+ weeks marketing attached to them and if they make it playable at EA Play, they cannot have a solid embargo/NDA.

With thousands of people coming to such events, it's impossible for them to control what info gets out and what stays in. So IF we are getting an EP this quarter, I guess they will announce it within 2 weeks, just to have enough marketing time before the event to promote the EP and tell us more about it. Then they can release it after EA Play in late june.

But we will see.

If they let people play “Seasons” at EA play then a lot of things in it will likely be disabled because it isn’t ready or stable enough yet. Also only few of the developers will likely be there and they know what they can tell and what they can’t tell people.

I think it will almost be finished then. I'm predicting Late June for release.

Unless it is a GP it will surprise me if it is released already that early. My guess for the next EP is October or November.

Then why are they announcing something and we're not getting any quarterly teaser this quarter? There has to be paid content coming sometimes this quarter. That's why I'm thinking Expansion Pack in Late June.

We just think differently and of course we are only guessing. You speculate mostly about the missing teaser and their advertising about EA Play. But I don’t believe in putting too much weight on such things or overinterpretating them. What interests me much more is the whole tendency about the game and the packs. Here we have seen how EA has changed everything graduately from TS2 to TS3 to TS4 and in the following ways:
1. Originally we got big EPs to buy in physical stores and no SPs.
2. Then EA began to experiment with SPs with only stuff and no gameplay. This mainly happened in 2006.
3. TS3 got 11 EPs and 9 SPs. Most of the time 2 EPs each year but in 2012-2013 even 3 EPs each year. EA didn’t seem to think that this experiment was successful though and likely therefore removed the Salt Lake Study from the Sims game development.
4. Then TS4 was released and EA reduced the number of EPs to only one EP each year but attempted to compensate by also releasing 1 GP and by now also adding a little gameplay to the SPs.
5. The new strategy for the Sims 4 seemed to work well for EA. So EA decided to double the number of yearly GPs and release as many SPs as possible and with even more gameplay. But the EPs even got less and less content which makes me doubt if EA even will continue making EPs at all. It seems to me that EA more likely will just release one small EP each year until TS5 is released and then just stop and likely because the cheaper SPs and GPs just sell better.

This has been the development for the packs and I don’t think that EA will go back. Therefore an early EP in 2018 would surprise me even more than if EA instead of again releasing an EP just released an extra GP instead and then completely stopped making EPs.

"06Bon06;c-16423690" wrote:

"Lomelindi7;c-16423010" wrote:
I guess what grant (I think it was him in the interview) said that people will say “I can’t believe they’re doing all this stuff” it had a different meaning. It really meant would be saying “I can’t believe they’re doing this— no teaser, and nothing released for the April-June quarter, and an appalling surprise ‘My first pet’ stuff pack that they never teased”

Good point what if whatever they are doing is so awful that, that is all everyone is saying XD

Yes, I think marketing wise this was the worst possible moment to stop the quarterly teasers (at least for this quarter). Right after the awful My First Pet situation and the lost of trust from many simmers, going silent for who knows how long is really a bad decision.
I get that this is not related to them, but it is to us, the consumers, is normal to be sceptical now since the last thing we got from the team was a shameful pack announced in a shameful way (not included in the last QT).

"Erpe;c-16423718" wrote:

"catloverplayer;c-16423576" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16422299" wrote:

"catloverplayer;c-16422265" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16422168" wrote:

"rudy8292;c-16421505" wrote:

"Lomelindi7;c-16421083" wrote:
I believe “soon” may be on or about the time if EA Play. So a few weeks prior to the event perhaps. I still believe nothing is coming this quarter (paid content) and an expansion could be announced just before EA Play, playable at the event, then released first week of July or August. I am happy to be wrong, but I won’t get my hopes up for any news before the end of May.

I don't see that happen. If they announce the EP just before EA Play and have it playable there, they have almost no time themselves to show us the game via livestreams, blogs and all that stuff. EP's have like 8+ weeks marketing attached to them and if they make it playable at EA Play, they cannot have a solid embargo/NDA.

With thousands of people coming to such events, it's impossible for them to control what info gets out and what stays in. So IF we are getting an EP this quarter, I guess they will announce it within 2 weeks, just to have enough marketing time before the event to promote the EP and tell us more about it. Then they can release it after EA Play in late june.

But we will see.

If they let people play “Seasons” at EA play then a lot of things in it will likely be disabled because it isn’t ready or stable enough yet. Also only few of the developers will likely be there and they know what they can tell and what they can’t tell people.

I think it will almost be finished then. I'm predicting Late June for release.

Unless it is a GP it will surprise me if it is released already that early. My guess for the next EP is October or November.

Then why are they announcing something and we're not getting any quarterly teaser this quarter? There has to be paid content coming sometimes this quarter. That's why I'm thinking Expansion Pack in Late June.

We just think differently and of course we are only guessing. You speculate mostly about the missing teaser and their advertising about EA Play. But I don’t believe in putting too much weight on such things or overinterpretating them. What interests me much more is the whole tendency about the game and the packs. Here we have seen how EA has changed everything graduately from TS2 to TS3 to TS4 and in the following ways:
1. Originally we got big EPs to buy in physical stores and no SPs.
2. Then EA began to experiment with SPs with only stuff and no gameplay. This mainly happened in 2006.
3. TS3 got 11 EPs and 9 SPs. Most of the time 2 EPs each year but in 2012-2013 even 3 EPs each year. EA didn’t seem to think that this experiment was successful though and likely therefore removed the Salt Lake Study from the Sims game development.
4. Then TS4 was released and EA reduced the number of EPs to only one EP each year but attempted to compensate by also releasing 1 GP and by now also adding a little gameplay to the SPs.
5. The new strategy for the Sims 4 seemed to work well for EA. So EA decided to double the number of yearly GPs and release as many SPs as possible and with even more gameplay. But the EPs even got less and less content which makes me doubt if EA even will continue making EPs at all. It seems to me that EA more likely will just release one small EP each year until TS5 is released and then just stop and likely because the cheaper SPs and GPs just sell better.

This has been the development for the packs and I don’t think that EA will go back. Therefore an early EP in 2018 would surprise me even more than if EA instead of again releasing an EP just released an extra GP instead and then completely stopped making EPs.

Then GPs need to get much bigger because I can't see pets being a GP and I feel like sims 5 will fail because I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy a billion Gps for one concept then again, here we are puzzling the vacation pack together.

I'd rather have a big Ep and GPs to fill the gaps or add extra stuff or broaden the To at a later date.

@06Bon06 I can’t predict anything about TS5 except that I am quite sure that EA will attempt to make it as different from TS3 and TS4 as possible. Pets and other packs won’t be made in the same way again and we don’t even know yet what the main new idea in TS5 will be.

Big EPs aren’t likely to return though because EA has clearly given them lower and lower priority. So my immediate guess would be only GPs and SPs as mentioned. But EA has also clearly been experimenting with different marketing strategies. So EA could of course also do yet another experiment with the Sims 5 packs. I just don’t believe that EA again will give EPs higher priority. But beside that I just don’t know what we may expect.

> @Erpe said:
> @06Bon06 I can’t predict anything about TS5 except that I am quite sure that EA will attempt to make it as different from TS3 and TS4 as possible. Pets and other packs won’t be made in the same way again and we don’t even know yet what the main new idea in TS5 will be.
>
> Big EPs aren’t likely to return though because EA has clearly given them lower and lower priority. So my immediate guess would be only GPs and SPs as mentioned. But EA has also clearly been experimenting with different marketing strategies. So EA could of course also do yet another experiment with the Sims 5 packs. I just don’t believe that EA again will give EPs higher priority. But beside that I just don’t know what we may expect.

I think Seasons, if they do it (and I think they will) has to be an EP. There's just too much in the development to sell it for the price of a game pack. And no, I don't think they'll break it up, either, because of the basic engine for the change of seasons - it would be like selling cats in one game pack, and dogs in another. While each animal has its own characteristics, the creation of the pet life-form and all the interactions with various existing objects is where the real work was done, and not everyone would buy both packs. You don't want people paying $20 or $30 just to get cats when the development costs demand $60. (Breaking out small pets made more sense, because they're objects, so they don't need a whole lot of extra coding.)

You can't look at a pack just in terms of the number of objects. If Seasons only has three outerwear coats, people would be unhappy (and Llama forbid they try to make up for that by throwing in more coats with a stuff pack, because the coats will only work if you have Seasons). What actually costs money isn't the coats, but the coding for Sims to change into them when the weather is cold.

I do think it will be a holiday-season release, because it *is* so big, and they want maximum sales for the cost of development. I don't think we'll see another EP before that. Game packs and stuff packs, yes. (For all the brouhaha, My First Pet actually sold quite well.) In any event, I'm with everyone else, wanting a hint at what's coming next!