“In a recent article by gamesindustry.biz, Maxis VP/GM Catharina Mallet states that Maxis is committed to a “long term” nurture of The Sims 4 community. How long is “long term? Well according to Catharina, the gaming industry talks about supporting successful games for 10 years, 15 years or longer. She then goes on to state that Maxis is committed to long term success, but does not specify how long that will last.The Sims 4 turns 7 in September.” From - https://simsvip.com/2021/05/13/maxis-gm-catharina-mallet-were-committed-to-the-sims-4-for-long-term/To me this is good news, but I know it’s a bitter pill for some.

I'm not surprised. Remember that article about them upgrading the core of the game basically?!!!?? wait I think it was a job posting. Well whatever it was it means pretty exciting stuff is coming if you ask me. Plus the gurus said "years" and this is a new trend in games. I want this game to go on and on honestly but I fear what I'll have left in (10) years when the nerfing crowd is done?

This game will go on for so long that the community will shift playing the same game. Old simmers will disappear and new simmers will wonder why they are playing a 15 year old game, that's so disappointing to hear. I could post arguments that sims4 will end up with $1200 DLC that will take up 100GB on your hard drive and will cause endless bugs and performance issues but I know Maxis doesn't care about that so I won't bother.

This is one of my favorite trends in gaming, where companies walk a line between a live-service game (ew) and a "rush out a new franchise title every year" (ew.)The sweet spot's right in the middle. It's the "model trains at the hobby shop" business model, where you sell the basic kit for dirt cheap (Paradox even took this to its logical conclusion when it made Crusader Kings 2's basegame free-to-play) and then put out a wide variety of add-ons to suit your customer base's playstyles.Some people complain that this is a fine way to get $600 out of someone when you used to get $40 out of them (valid), others complain that the DLC is all stuff they don't care about (also valid), others just complain because anything that costs money sets off their sense of entitlement (not valid.)But personally, I love this trend, and I have a couple of games—though not too many, I can only afford so many lifestyle games!—that work on this principle, from Sims 4 to the Truck Simulator games to Crusader Kings 2 (and now 3.)

"Babykittyjade;c-17879694" wrote:I'm not surprised. Remember that article about them upgrading the core of the game basically?!!!?? wait I think it was a job posting. Well whatever it was it means pretty exciting stuff is coming if you ask me. Plus the gurus said "years" and this is a new trend in games. I want this game to go on and on honestly but I fear what I'll have left in (10) years when the nerfing crowd is done?I agree with you there. I too am happy to have it go on. If the rumors about 5 are true at all, count me out.

Yeah I have been worried about the sequel to the Sims Online being the Sims 5 too. I think it will take 20 years to fix the base game alone in the Sims 4 and in the meantime those with old computers will get left behind as the Sims 4 continues to be developed with excess content.

Sims 4 may be here for quite awhile.

77 Replies

Babykittyjade
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
I'm not surprised. Remember that article about them upgrading the core of the game basically?!!!?? wait I think it was a job posting. Well whatever it was it means pretty exciting stuff is coming if you ask me. Plus the gurus said "years" and this is a new trend in games. I want this game to go on and on honestly but I fear what I'll have left in (10) years when the nerfing crowd is done?
logionX
Legend
5 years ago
This game will go on for so long that the community will shift playing the same game. Old simmers will disappear and new simmers will wonder why they are playing a 15 year old game, that's so disappointing to hear.

I could post arguments that sims4 will end up with $1200 DLC that will take up 100GB on your hard drive and will cause endless bugs and performance issues but I know Maxis doesn't care about that so I won't bother.
SimuLord
5 years ago
This is one of my favorite trends in gaming, where companies walk a line between a live-service game (ew) and a "rush out a new franchise title every year" (ew.)

The sweet spot's right in the middle. It's the "model trains at the hobby shop" business model, where you sell the basic kit for dirt cheap (Paradox even took this to its logical conclusion when it made Crusader Kings 2's basegame free-to-play) and then put out a wide variety of add-ons to suit your customer base's playstyles.

Some people complain that this is a fine way to get $600 out of someone when you used to get $40 out of them (valid), others complain that the DLC is all stuff they don't care about (also valid), others just complain because anything that costs money sets off their sense of entitlement (not valid.)

But personally, I love this trend, and I have a couple of games—though not too many, I can only afford so many lifestyle games!—that work on this principle, from Sims 4 to the Truck Simulator games to Crusader Kings 2 (and now 3.)
JanuaryGarnet08
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
"Babykittyjade;c-17879694" wrote:
I'm not surprised. Remember that article about them upgrading the core of the game basically?!!!?? wait I think it was a job posting. Well whatever it was it means pretty exciting stuff is coming if you ask me. Plus the gurus said "years" and this is a new trend in games. I want this game to go on and on honestly but I fear what I'll have left in (10) years when the nerfing crowd is done?

I agree with you there. I too am happy to have it go on. If the rumors about 5 are true at all, count me out.
Scobren
Legend
5 years ago
Yeah I have been worried about the sequel to the Sims Online being the Sims 5 too. I think it will take 20 years to fix the base game alone in the Sims 4 and in the meantime those with old computers will get left behind as the Sims 4 continues to be developed with excess content.
Karamazov123
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
I'm happy with this because I live in fear of Multiplayer Sims 5.
Sharooonia
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
I will be more than happy to keep going forward with the Sims 4 if and only if they sort out it’s many issues along the way other wise just end it and let the mod community fix it.

"Gordy;c-17879738" wrote:
I'm happy with this because I live in fear of Multiplayer Sims 5.

Also this... ^^
xinAimee
5 years ago
I get the feeling Sims 5 will be some Sims Life Stories Mode and once youre done youre doing either competition mode and online-stuff(with subscription) while Sims 4 will be the main income cash for soloplayers(i get the feeling kit has something to do with it too..). Theyre probably gonna pull this off til they decide to move onto making Sims 5 more soloplayerfriendly. I can totally see them doing it lol
Jyotai
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
Good news from my perspective.

After all, if Sims 5 ends up being 'Second Life with better graphics' (as in; Sims Online 2) I won't see any point to getting it.

People here keep complaining about the cost of the DLC, but I just compare it to the cost of an MMO subscription or the cost of all the massive amounts of microtransactions "free" games manage to convince users to buy, and it comes up being fairly cheap.

For me, it was pricey because I bought a lot of DLC all around the same time, but if you took that all and divided it out across 7 years - it's cheap.
SimuLord
5 years ago
"Jyotai;c-17879768" wrote:
For me, it was pricey because I bought a lot of DLC all around the same time, but if you took that all and divided it out across 7 years - it's cheap.

I found the cost was a lot more bearable by generally waiting for a sale. Although more recently I've been buying stuff that hooks my interest right away when it's new. But I was late to the Sims 4 game—picked it up when it was on sale at a deep discount in December of '18—and that meant most stuff I could get for cheap(-ish.)