EA Play Coming July 22nd

Hard to say who will be at EA Play this year. Catherina Mallet has replaced Joe Nickolls as Maxis's VP/GM. And there's no telling what Catherina Mallet has in mind for The Sims. But after reading an article on Catherina Mallet's replacing Joe Nickolls at Maxis. It sounds like she intends to build on what Joe Nickolls has done for the game for the past four years. Only time will tell what the line-up EA Play 21 will look like. And who knows, maybe Catherina Mallet will appear at EA Play this year. :)

Guess they'll announce the next expansion pack there, it fits timescale wise if they announce a gp tomorrow

"Onverser;c-17881533" wrote:
Guess they'll announce the next expansion pack there, it fits timescale wise if they announce a gp tomorrow

Similar thought to me. Seeing the announcement took a little wind out of my sails for tomorrow. They always have to hold back something, huh?

"Justin;c-17881400" wrote:
I don’t trust Catherine mallet especially with her experience in the gaming industry.
I do think if anything they may reveal a special announcement @ EA play this year for a pack that won’t be mentioned in the summer like up but I’m not hoping for it either. We will see (:

I can not say that I trust Catherine Mallet or not because I have no access to her records in the gaming industry. I just know that she's been in this business for a while now. And she had supposedly work at Maxis in the past. But what she worked on at Maxis in the past, I do not know. :)

Wow! That definitely seems like she was specifically hired/re-hired because of her experience in "social gaming". Not a good thing in my eyes.

?????

"ClarionOfJoy;c-17882095" wrote:

"sunman502;c-17881828" wrote:

"Justin;c-17881400" wrote:
I don’t trust Catherine mallet especially with her experience in the gaming industry.
I do think if anything they may reveal a special announcement @ EA play this year for a pack that won’t be mentioned in the summer like up but I’m not hoping for it either. We will see (:

I can not say that I trust Catherine Mallet or not because I have no access to her records in the gaming industry. I just know that she's been in this business for a while now. And she had supposedly work at Maxis in the past. But what she worked on at Maxis in the past, I do not know. :)

I found this article about her:


Catharina Lavers Mallet takes over as Maxis boss

• Previously an executive producer of The Sims Social (uh-oh....)
  
• Product manager and producer at Playfish - which develops free to play social network games, such as the aforementioned The Sims Social and SimCity Social (yikes!....)
  
• Studio general manager at King - which developed Candy Crush Saga games and other social network games (oy!....)
  

Do you see a running pattern here?

And then she said:

"Maxis makes some of the most beloved and enduring games of all time, with an incredibly diverse and global community of players. We will be building on and strengthening this legacy of community and inclusion, to bring them new experiences and delighting players worldwide through deeper and ongoing ways to engage with each other and our games. We will also be growing substantially to achieve our ambitious vision.

"I am returning to EA with an enormous appreciation for not only the strength of the Maxis business and the unparalleled creative and technical capability of the team, but also the passion of the creative and diverse community of Sims players.

"There is also tremendous opportunity to build on this foundation and provide delightful experiences for this generation -- and the next -- of Sims players. My background is in helping creative, innovative companies in both Europe and the US deliver on ambitious visions and build deeper, ongoing relationships with their users. I look forward to working with this amazing team to further the great work Joe Nichols has done, and create the kinds of connected, creative experiences our players are looking for as we grow the studio to reflect the global diversity of our player community."

So she has a lot of experience with social network games. Why hire someone with that background if not to turn the future of The Sims games in that direction?

Sims 5 will be online, calling it now

"ClarionOfJoy;c-17883075" wrote:

"crocobaura;c-17883036" wrote:

"ClarionOfJoy;c-17883026" wrote:

"sunman502;c-17882694" wrote:

"ClarionOfJoy;c-17882095" wrote:

"sunman502;c-17881828" wrote:

"Justin;c-17881400" wrote:
I don’t trust Catherine mallet especially with her experience in the gaming industry.
I do think if anything they may reveal a special announcement @ EA play this year for a pack that won’t be mentioned in the summer like up but I’m not hoping for it either. We will see (:

I can not say that I trust Catherine Mallet or not because I have no access to her records in the gaming industry. I just know that she's been in this business for a while now. And she had supposedly work at Maxis in the past. But what she worked on at Maxis in the past, I do not know. :)

I found this article about her:


Catharina Lavers Mallet takes over as Maxis boss

• Previously an executive producer of The Sims Social (uh-oh....)
  
• Product manager and producer at Playfish - which develops free to play social network games, such as the aforementioned The Sims Social and SimCity Social (yikes!....)
  
• Studio general manager at King - which developed Candy Crush Saga games and other social network games (oy!....)
  

Do you see a running pattern here?

And then she said:

"Maxis makes some of the most beloved and enduring games of all time, with an incredibly diverse and global community of players. We will be building on and strengthening this legacy of community and inclusion, to bring them new experiences and delighting players worldwide through deeper and ongoing ways to engage with each other and our games. We will also be growing substantially to achieve our ambitious vision.

"I am returning to EA with an enormous appreciation for not only the strength of the Maxis business and the unparalleled creative and technical capability of the team, but also the passion of the creative and diverse community of Sims players.

"There is also tremendous opportunity to build on this foundation and provide delightful experiences for this generation -- and the next -- of Sims players. My background is in helping creative, innovative companies in both Europe and the US deliver on ambitious visions and build deeper, ongoing relationships with their users. I look forward to working with this amazing team to further the great work Joe Nichols has done, and create the kinds of connected, creative experiences our players are looking for as we grow the studio to reflect the global diversity of our player community."

So she has a lot of experience with social network games. Why hire someone with that background if not to turn the future of The Sims games in that direction?

I read that too. But I was referring to her entire video game industry track record. This maybe a small part of what all she has done in the past as far as video games go or it maybe her entire track record. I don't know since I don't have access to what she has worked on in the past.
I knew that Catharina Mallet had lots of experience in the video game industry. But it still does not mean that she can deliver on what plans that she has for The Sims 4 in the future. So for me, I'm neutral when it comes to trusting her or not.

You had posted before:

"sunman502;c-17881828" wrote:

I can not say that I trust Catherine Mallet or not because I have no access to her records in the gaming industry. I just know that she's been in this business for a while now. And she had supposedly work at Maxis in the past. But what she worked on at Maxis in the past, I do not know. :)

And now you say that you've read that article and yet you don't know what she worked on at Maxis in the past??? Okay....


She also posted her Linked-In CV: Catharina Lavers Mallet

It's not like she's keeping it secret or made it hard to find.

Anyway, after working at EA and King, she worked at Bose as Head of Consumer Wearables, Digital Experiences and Bose AR (augmented reality) that focused on apps to work with Bose products which often required internet access.

She then became advisor at several firms with focus on internet services, audio technology (from Bose experience), assistance on start-ups, and several that are focused on social network apps, most of which are games related.

It is a great CV! I can see why EA made her Vice President and General Manager of EA.

But her social networking experience is worrisome for the future of The Sims. I mean, she doesn't even have any non-social networking experience when it comes to games - and that's a totally separate animal which is handled differently from social networking games.

I don't think she will be that involved in the development of the game. That's something that designers and producers do and if they decide to add social networking to the game I imagine it would have to be backed up by market research data.

??? How can she not be involved in the development of the game? As vice president and general manager she leads the development teams towards certain goals - she doesn't have to know the specifics of it like the development teams must. Since her expertise is in social network games, she's to lead the development with that as part of the goals. They would have hired someone else, who didn't have social network games experience, if they didn't want the future The Sims games geared toward that.

And we all know the tunnel vision that EA has. Their market research data is skewed toward social network games and nothing else.

If that's what EA wants for the future of the Sims then let's hope she will do a good job and get at least 36 million social players to play the new game. But maybe she's just a good manager and EA want to expand the Sims Mobile and Freeplay games more than they want to add social networking to the Sims.

"ClarionOfJoy;c-17883772" wrote:

In short, they don't care about the gamers that refuse to play online games or drop out. All they want are the "whales". In the game world, "whales" are the small number of gamers who will spend huge amounts of money just to win their games. I think this why EA is gambling on making the next The Sims games all online multiplayer social networking games, because the smaller number of whales will more than make up for the larger group of simmers who drop out. The small group of whales can potentially spend more money than the entire group of people just buying a normal The Sims base game or pack.

I mostly agree with that but "whales" are usually a thing for pay to win games. And I can hardly imagine Sims as pay to win. Though it can easily be Pay to Skin ))) But it'll be a very sad game and can pretty much just be a mobile one. And considering that mobile segment now is larger than both Console + PC maybe they do not want to invest in two separate games anymore? Maybe next gen sims game will be developed with mobile platform in mind?

June 1st GP, and we’ll get EP reveal that day(EA PLAY day). Hopefully a leak before it, betting it’s farming. I’m not personally interested in farming, but players have been asking it for years now.