What the heck?

"Seera1024;c-17042073" wrote:

"Cynna;c-17041552" wrote:

"Seera1024;c-17041235" wrote:

"Cynna;c-17041070" wrote:

"Seera1024;c-17039437" wrote:

"Cynna;c-17039064" wrote:
Who didn't see this coming?

EA should have known better. It was unreasonable for them to believe that they could keep piling content onto a system that could not support more than 4GBs of RAM. Good grief, didn't they learn that lesson with TS3?

EA should have started with 64-bit from the get go. But since they didn't, they should live with their mistake instead of forcing paying customers to upgrade or be left behind. Dropping 32-bit now is really terrible public relations.

I'm sorry to those of you who won't be able to 'make the jump'. EA should have never made promises that they couldn't keep. Unfortunately, though, it's nothing new.

"drake_mccarty;c-16998981" wrote:

"ClarionOfJoy;c-16998867" wrote:
All the people saying this doesn't matter and that it's great are the same people who said before that it's great that this game can work on lower end computers. Smh....

What a sweeping generalization, and frankly I disagree. The decision to not only support, but actively tailor the game to low end machines has never made any sense. Seriously. It made even less sense when they upgraded the base game to 64bit and did virtually nothing with that for the longest time.

Just because they sold this game on the mindset that it could run on a modded toaster doesn’t mean they actually snatched up a bunch of players who fit into that market. Even if they did, there’s no guarantee that they’ve been buying content regularly. Let’s not forget the “excuse” that’s tossed around for having such old hardware is the “high” cost of buying a new one or upgrading; if they can’t find money to better their machine I don’t suppose the money for Sims packs comes along any easier.

This whole thing seems to be being blown out of proportion by people who frankly have hated on the game being 32bit for years and are now suddenly speaking up for the little guy when it’s being dropped. This is not a big deal, if the game had a huge pool of 32bit players then that would be different, but clearly if they can drop support for that in mid-2019 they clearly don’t stand to lose much. As someone who is NOT a huge fan of Sims 4, or virtually anything they have done with the game thus far, this is a good thing. Doesn’t mean they’re going to take the game in a better direction, but at least what they make now won’t be tailored to near-obsolete hardware.

You're dead on that EA should never have released the game for 32-bit systems in the first place. Executives at EA have demonstrated a consistent lack of foresight.

Nevertheless, on principle, they shouldn't change to 64-bit only. Not now. It would be just one more promise that EA has broken.

It doesn't matter if only a handful of people are affecting by this, they're still paying customers, just like anyone else. They also happen to be customers that EA purposely courted with promises that the game would be able to work on their computers.

No matter which side of this coin a customer lands on, it sets a bad precedent.

When did EA promise that they wouldn't make the game 64-bit only in the future? Where did explicitly come out and promise people who bought the game that it would work on their computer when they can't know what computers people own?


The game will still work on their computers, they aren't taking away their ability to play the content that they've already paid for.

So what promise have they broken?

And then by your words any of their EP's that raised the minimum specs also broke their promise. Were you up in arms then about them breaking that promise?

When you launch a game in 32-bit, it's implied that the game will remain 32-bit, don't you think? Those with 32-bit systems purchased with the idea that they would be able to play the game and its expansions.

I don't recall any version of the series where the underpinnings of the actual game were changed like this. Not RAM or video requirements, but the actual underpinnings of the game. How is that not breaking faith with the consumer?

"ApparentlyAwesome;c-17040246" wrote:

The thing is, for some people unless you specify just the base or a specific pack, when somebody says 'experience' the game they view it as the whole thing, base game and packs included. So when he said they'll experience the game better than TS3 I think that what went through some players minds was that they'll better experience the game as a whole, base and packs, because for them TS3 as a whole was rough on their computer. So to those who interpret the experience of The Sims 4 as every release with The Sims 4 in the title I could see how it would feel like them going back on their word.

Exactly.

Sims 2 with Securom. And they didn't even announce it until we had bought the pack with it. People with CD/DVD burning software on their computer suddenly found themselves unable to play the game even though they wouldn't use that software to pirate the game. Just because actual pirates used that software to pirate games.

And this change is likely not up to the Sims team and they may have thought when they launched the game that they would be fine until Sims 5 with 32 bit, but technology is ever evolving and EA probably forced their hand. Or they made the change after looking at the numbers and what bugs they could likely fix by going 64 bit only and what they could add that would not be able to if they continued to keep 32 bit support.

And trust me, if a large number of players were affected, trust me this would not be happening. There's probably a small percentage of players who are affected by this decision and chances are those players will be forced to upgrade their computer sooner rather than later just due to the age of the computer that they are likely playing on.

It's not breaking any kind of faith or going back on any kind of word.

And again you're talking of people thinking like that EA promised that they would be able to play the game and all of it's EP's. Did you get upset when EA raised the minimum requirements with Seasons and Pets? That meant that some players were no longer able to play all EP's. This is all it is, EA raising the minimum requirements to 64 bit.


You really need to try not to treat everything a game company says about things that have not been released as a promise or something set in stone. How willing would you be to share information about upcoming releases if something about what you said was changed before the game launched and now people out there are accusing you of lying or breaking a promise?

Stuff happens. Especially at game companies. Management changes. Priorities shift. Technology changes. Things that sounded possible on paper turn out to not be possible or not feasible given budget. Holding game companies to the letter of what they said is just asking for disappointment. Always treat what they are talking about as only related to what they are about to release and with a grain of salt if it isn't set to launch within the week.

Why did EA launch TS4 on a platform that was already outdated by 2014? If not to capture that segment of the audience that was still using that older hardware, then what was their rationale?

It's true that some changes are unavoidable. However, that is not the case here.

If a game is launched on a specific platform, it isn't unreasonable to expect that the expansions will be released in the same way.

I think that most Sim players know that, as a version of the game expands and matures, some upgrades may be needed -- more memory, possibly a new video card. However, to my knowledge, this is the first time in the series that there has been a platform change that has required an entire segment of the community to buy a new computer or be left behind. This change is unprecedented. Otherwise, I don't think that EA would have bothered to release a so-called legacy version.

It's not unprecedented though. They have raised the specs before. This is the exact same. And unlike many game companies they've given players plenty of warning time before the change so that they can figure out if they want to upgrade to a new computer or not and time to find a new computer if they choose to do so. And are being even nicer and releasing a 32 bit legacy client for those who choose not to upgrade or can't upgrade at this time. EA is not bothering to release a legacy version because what they are doing is unprecedented. They are doing it to avoid making the game unplayable for people due to their requirement to be fully upgraded to play online on Origin and they don't want to force players on 32 bit systems to have to remember to not update their game. And keep in mind that this legacy version is not going to be sold so it's only to those players affected. Which I would imagine is a very small percentage of players.

For one game I had to get a new graphics card to play the game as I was above specs in everything but that. I had to get a new computer to do so. Better graphics cards weren't supported on my motherboard because it was so old. So every time they do raise the requirements, it does require a segment of the population to get a new computer. So again, how is this unprecedented that them raising the minimum requirements has always required a portion of the player base to have to get a new computer to do so?

The change is unavoidable - they aren't doing this just to do this. You don't raise the minimum requirements just to raise them. The 32 bit support is causing them to have to hold back on what EP's and GP's can do. It's holding them back on fixing lag and other related memory issues. It's hurting Sims 4 for them to continue supporting it. They need to do this in order to make the game better. They've likely put it off as long as they can as they try to fix the issues with the game while still supporting 32 bit.

They are not doing this change lightly and without analysis of the pros and the cons. They've made their decision based on those and we have to trust that they've made the right decision as they have access to numbers we don't.

By going to 64 bit from 32 bit while that is great however I still need to see what they do with it for if they continue to do the same then for me it would be an waste of time. Another thing the mechanics of an engine does not change because of an major architecture shift, you may still be left with limitations that engine possesses.