Is The Sims 4 Endgame?

"@aricarai;c-16441124" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16440931" wrote:

"aricarai;c-16440909" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16440850" wrote:
No, and the reason can be seen on http://simscommunity.info/2018/01/31/ea-talks-about-player-growth-with-the-sims-4-cats-dogs-console-release/

TS4 is still giving EA a huge amount of money and TS3 is still selling too which of course was EA’s main reason to make TS4 as it is.

But SPs and GPs seem to sell much better than the expensive EPs when they are sold as digital downloads. This is the change from earlier where EPs sold best on discs in the physical stores. Therefore TS5 likely only will get SPs and GPs which are cheaper to make and need less developers. Also EA has expanded Maxis to Finland where the Sims Mobile and TS4 for consoles mainly are made. So EA just need fewer devs in the main building for Maxis in Redwood.

@Erpe: You must not have seen the latest news on budget cuts and Gurus leaving or being shuffled around then.

http://simscommunity.info/2018/04/19/several-maxis-veterans-working-on-the-sims-4-got-laid-off-by-ea-for-budget-reasons/

https://simsvip.com/2018/04/19/maxis-update-multiple-sims-4-simgurus-fired-others-moved-to-mobile-teams/

Yes. But you need to look deeper:
1. The Sims 4 is selling very well according to http://simscommunity.info/2018/01/31/ea-talks-about-player-growth-with-the-sims-4-cats-dogs-console-release/
2. EA has expanded Maxis with studios in Finland where the main work on both the Sims Mobile and on TS4 for consoles is done. (The reason was more expertise in mobile games and their invention of a new technology which made it much cheaper and easier to transfer PC games to consoles.)
3. EA has for a long time seemingly wanted less EPs and more SPs and GPs (small half-priced EPs) instead of the bigger EPs which sold better in the physical stores. The reason must be that cheaper packs sell better as digital downloads. So I think that EA plans to soon completely stop with EPs and only make SPs and GPs which means that EA will need fewer developers.
4. The market for PC games is still growing even though the market for mobile games is growing even faster according to many sources. https://www.pcgamesn.com/pc-game-sales-numbers-market-share-2017 is just one of the sources.

So nothing points in the direction that EA should consider to stop the series. But a lot of things point in the direction that EA wants to make more and cheaper packs instead of the big EPs - and this is for me to see the far most likely reason for EA to reduce the budgets and the number of devs just a little.

Your sources are dated after the ones I provided and I was under the impression that the OP was talking about The Sims on PC.

If C&D sold so well, why the budget cuts and the redistribution of gurus, especially ones that have been around since the beginning? To me that makes absolutely no sense.

They may be leaning toward a direction of no EPs but then doesn't that point to The Sims as we know it being over?

Of course this is all speculation and we've still got EA Play to go, but it all seems a little suspect to me.

You do realise that EA make budget cuts all the time? EA also shut down a whole team of developers and studio that worked on The Sims in The Sims 2 era? Which arguably was during The Sims Prime time. They then outsourced a lot of that work to random developers.

Budget cuts often happen even during times where a game is doing really well. EA see that some work can be outsourced and doesn’t need to be done in-studio.