Forum Discussion
7 years ago
"Cinebar;c-16244799" wrote:"Erpe;c-16244058" wrote:"Cinebar;c-16244017" wrote:"Erpe;c-16243649" wrote:"drake_mccarty;c-16243615" wrote:
The Sims has survived on the same format since it’s creation, with successful new content lines added with each game. (Sims 2/Stuff Packs, Sims 3/DLC Store, Sims 4/Game Packs)
If EA’s analysis were that more stuff meant less money, then why exactly did they steadily release expensive Store exclusive content in addition to 2 full expansions and 2 full stuff packs every year for The Sims 3’s entire shelf life? I mean if they were losing money, then the obvious course would be to cut back on what you are spending - which did not happen. If anything the store saw expanded investment with the addition of premium objects and store exclusive worlds.
The push for a cheap investment with Sims 4 all stems from the game’s massive unpopularity when it launched, and EA’s desire to make the game a financial success by any means necessary.
EA’s policy has clearly changed a lot but graduately through the years.
TS1 was made very cheap because EA had only expected that maybe a part of the SimCity gamers would buy it. But suddenly a lot of young girls who hadn’t bought games before bought it too and the sales numbers exploded. So EA had to make a few EPs too and they became bigger and bigger.
But after 4 years EA released TS2 with a much improved basegame. EA now knew that this was about to become a very profitable series. But EA still wasn’t sure and the EPs were therefore quite big because EA doubted that smaller EPs or SPs would sell at all.
A couple of years later EA began to experiment with SPs too. The first one was made for Christmas and EA only hoped that it would sell a little before Christmas. So EA released it without copy protection. But again the sales numbers exploded. So EA released another SP as an experiment only a few months later (just before Easter) and to EA’s surprise it sold extremely well too. So after this EA began to release SPs regularly.
Then EA released TS3 and experimented with other types of expansions and with stuff sold in the store. But the conclusion apparently was that stuff was best sold in SPs and that expensive EPs didn’t sell as well as cheap SPs.
So EA released TS4 and with a modified policy. EA wanted multitasking, autonomy, partying and happiness to be in focus. But the multitasking and the autonomy wouldn’t work well with the open world if EA still wanted the minimum requirements to be low. So the open world was omitted and so was toddlers because EA didn’t think that they were important in a game with a different focus.
So TS4 was released without toddlers but with more autonomy, multitasking, partying and happiness and half of the EPs were replaced by a GP and more SPs such that simmers could buy everything for the same budget while EA could save some money by reducing the number of developers working on the game. The GPs proved to sell better than the EPs as EA had hoped. So EA later increased the number of GPs to 2 GPs each year while still only making 1 EP. But I am still sure that EA started the development of the next basegame too years ago and plans to release it in 2019 :)
What numbers do you have to prove EA didn't spend any money on The Sims? and it was produced cheaply? Do you realize that in 1998 2D games were the thing and not 3D, as not all that many people or home had a pc in their home like they do today. Cheap is subjective, when you are trying to equate 'cheap' to 2D gaming. That doesn't mean any less (the value of a dollar at the time) was any less. What would it equal today? Just because it was 2D doesn't mean it was cheap. I agree EA found a cash cow, as Will Wright and many others have said EA said great now make ten more of this...that's a fact.
Although we don’t know exactly how much money EA used on the Sims 1 basegame I played many other games in the 1990’s and they were all bigger. Even the first SimCity from 1989 was a bigger game. Therefore it was clear to me that the Sims 1 basegame was a very cheap game to make and the outdated primitive graphics just confirmed that. Also the first EPs (Living Large etc) we’re small. But then they suddenly became much bigger and if I remember correctly EP4 was the first of those bigger EPs.But going around and saying it was young teen girls who bought the game is complete bogus, it was never teen girls it was housewives and middle aged women. That is also a fact. But in almost every thread you keep saying their biggest demographic was teen girls that simply isn't true. They used to tell their demographics to the public. EA no longer does that publicly since they try to stay ahead of the competition like those other soical game companies they have sued in the past.
In those years I visited the game stores about twice a week to see if they had got new games and to read a little on the boxes for most of their games. I never saw any adult women look at the Sims boxes unless they were in company with very young girls. But I saw a lot of very young girls studying those boxes and discuss them with huge interest.ETA: And reading the rest of your comments, where does it say EA didn't plan on SPs but it was an experiement. I sure would like to know where you get your info..from @jackjack_k ?Because most of this is nonsense. ETA: To date TS3 remains the most successful cash cow, bringing in over 24 million in less than five years in the store. That's no small change and has outsold any SP releases. ETA: From Will Wright's mouth, they hoped to bring in $200,000 for The Sims but was surprised when it sold in the millions.
Why do you think that EA didn’t release even a single SP for nether TS1 nor in the first 2 years after the release of the Sims 2 basegame?
Why was the first 2 SPs for TS2 not copy protected like all the EPs had been?
Why did EA suddenly begin to copyprotect the SPs too starting with SP3 for TS2?
You can of course believe what you want. But personally I am in no doubt that the first 2 SPs were experiments which EA hadn’t done earlier because EA didn’t expect SPs to sell well at all. But after the surprisingly high sales numbers for both the first SP (a Christmas SP) and the next one EA knew that SPs could sell as well as EPs did. Therefore EA always since then (and even more for TS4) has released a lot of SPs too.
Let me put it this way, Maxis used to have fireside chats with us, and anyone else who had a question. It didn't matter if you saw adults buying The Sims, they told us who turned out to be their biggest customer and it was middle aged women. That is from Will Wright and other producer's mouths. Will Wright has probably made over fifty or more interviews discussing and being asked questions and he was very open about every thing. So were other producers, it's only been when it came to TS4 they closed their mouths and stopped telling the player about anything about their games or process or insider news. I go by what they told me and others at the time. There were many, many, many questions and answers from Maxis, they aren't as friendly as they used to be. And Will Wright would tell you anything you wanted to know. And EA's financial reports are open to public and the TS3 store outsold any SP making over 24 million as I said by 2013 or 2014. I would supply you with over twenty interviews I had booked marked with Will Wright answering questions but I no longer have those bookmarks as they were on an old pc. I don't just pull stuff out of thin air.
ETA: And maybe the first stuff pack (FFS) (TS2) wasn't released until April 2006 because they were busy with base game (2004) Nightlife, University, Pets, and Open For Business all released by Oct. 2006.
The first SP was Holiday Party Pack released on November 17, 2015. It clearly was an experiment for Christmas and because EA didn’t believe that a pure SP would sell at all it also included 3 NPCs (Santa Claus, Father Time and Baby New Year). As mentioned it wasn’t even copyprotected because EA only hoped that it would sell a little until Christmas and not become popular enough for anybody to want to make illegal copies of it anyway.
But EA was clearly surprised by the sales numbers being many times higher than EA had expected. This motivated EA to make another SP as an experiment to see if a SP also would sell enough to be worth it when it wasn’t even Christmas? So EA told Maxis to make such a SP and Maxis managed to finish Family Fun Stuff such that it could be released already on April 13, 2006. EA still didn’t expect it to be very popular or sell enough to need copy-protection. But once again EA was surprised by the huge sales numbers. So from that day EA decided to release SPs regularly and knew that they needed to be copy-protected just like the EPs.
You seem to think that EA’s decisions are just taken at random and for no apparent reasons at all. But I can’t agree with this because I know how top managers in such big companies usually think. They will do anything to increase profit and they usually work very hard to reach their goals. In a company like EA where the top managers are headhunted from other big companies and paid many millions of dollars in yearly salaries (and with salaries which strongly depend on their results) this is even more true than it is in most other companies.
I agree with you that communication with us has decreased. But I am also quite sure about what the reason is: In the beginning EA thought that the Sims games should have the same target group as the SimCity games had which back in the 1990s mainly were young male gamers because girls usually didn’t play games in those days but instead made fun of the boys and called them nerds if they were gamers. But graduately EA through the years has become more and more sure that the target group for Sims games instead should be young girls and also become aware that the simmers in the forums aren’t the same type as the millions of simmers who get most of the Sims games.
I first noticed that they are aware of this when SimGuruDrake talked about “targeting the game more broadly” in a comment in this forum as a reason for why she didn’t just wanted to follow forum wishes. And later in an interview on another site she directly declared that the main target group for TS4 is young teen girls. This didn’t surprise me because I knew from the Danish Sims 2 forum and from my visits in the stores that young girls were the main customers (at least in Denmark). About 75-80% of the Danish forum users for TS2 were 10-14 years olds and about 15-20% were adults at least 30 years old while there only were very few 15-29 years olds. Among the 10-14 yrs olds 80-90% were girls. But again I can’t generalize to a country like the US where the game was T rated and where the ESRB even considered to change that rating to M just because EA had added a cheat code that could remove the blur in the bathroom.
I have never seen financial reports from EA that tells details about EA’s income from the different types of expansions. But I would be extremely interested if you can find such a report?
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