When Do You Think Sims 4 Will End?

"Writin_Reg;c-16303593" wrote:

"jackjack_k;c-16303573" wrote:

"drake_mccarty;c-16295963" wrote:

"JoAnne65;c-16295125" wrote:

"TheGoodOldGamer;c-16294989" wrote:
Saw this on Twitter this morning:

https://twitter.com/EA/status/958761839206133760

What is FY 18Q3..? (I'm not surprised by the way, Rodiek already stated Sims 4 had a rocky start)

p.s.: Sorry, happens to me often, staring at something in complete confusion, then think 'heck, I'm gonna ask' and as soon as I have, bingo, I get it: federal year 2018 quarter 3. Not that I totally understand now, cause that means from July 1, 2018 to September 30, 2018. That's like... in the future...?

FY2018 started in April of 2017, and will end March of this year.

With the rerelease of the base game on PS4 and XB1 it’s not surprising that there’s a jump in players. There’s no way to cross reference PC ownership but there’s probably a lot of overlap, but that’s really going beyond the message EA was trying to convey in it’s report.

Eh, the game grew 2 thirds in 2016. It seems to be doing better the longer it's been out.

Yes it is. EA is quite thrilled with the Sims 4. It used to get almost no mention during earning calls and the past year and a quarter - each quarter the game just keeps going up in the player base and EA is literally beaming and always mentions our Sims 4.

Especially in Q3 FY18. But the main reason was still the release of TS4 for consoles and the extremely fast release of packs for the console game too. This fast release indicates to me that EA just wants the console game to catch up as much as possible before TS5 most likely will be announced anyway. Transferring the PC game to consoles seems to be cheap for EA when the new technic is used. So I find it understandable that EA wants as many packs as possible released and they seem to sell quite well and likely mainly to simmers who have a top console but maybe not a very good gaming computer because they otherwise mainly play games for consoles.

I don’t believe at all that they planned a certain number of EPs, GPs or SPs because they sure didn’t for the earlier games which all seem to have got more EPs than they planned. TS4 was apparently planned to just have 1 EP, 1 GP and about 4 SPs each year. But they then apparently increased the number of GPs to 2 GPs each year and the reason must have been higher sales numbers for especially GPs than they had expected (or feared).

So I still think that they only planned how many years TS4 should be the main game and when TS5 should be released (which most likely was decided to be after 5 years like it was decided for both TS2, TS3 and TS4).

2020 would be the wisest move.

Chances are the final TS4 EP will be 2019 but there might be some updates and minor content released in the build up of something new as well as support for the game in patches as seems to be the case in the past.

Trying to drag it on after 2020 would be too much as if there is something new I the pipeline then hopefully by 2020 it would be finished and good to go :smile:

I hope 2019, unfortunately for me 4 has been a lame duck from the start. Hope Sims 5 rekindles the magic of 1-3!

I don't understand why people assume if sims 5 comes out it will be better. If they use the same game engine it will take just as long for packs if they don't it will take just as long to redo animations. Look how long it took them to do toddlers in sims 4, do we really want to wait again.

"Cheekybits;c-16309529" wrote:
I don't understand why people assume if sims 5 comes out it will be better. If they use the same game engine it will take just as long for packs if they don't it will take just as long to redo animations. Look how long it took them to do toddlers in sims 4, do we really want to wait again.

They always talk about how Sims 4 required an upgrade to their technology base. I just don’t see it. They can’t accomplish anything on this technology.

I would hope the heads at Maxis would immediately shoot down the idea of reusing the Smart Sim engine. It has been the largest road-block for Sims 4.

"drake_mccarty;c-16309543" wrote:

"Cheekybits;c-16309529" wrote:
I don't understand why people assume if sims 5 comes out it will be better. If they use the same game engine it will take just as long for packs if they don't it will take just as long to redo animations. Look how long it took them to do toddlers in sims 4, do we really want to wait again.

They always talk about how Sims 4 required an upgrade to their technology base. I just don’t see it. They can’t accomplish anything on this technology.

I would hope the heads at Maxis would immediately shoot down the idea of reusing the Smart Sim engine. It has been the largest road-block for Sims 4.

This is true, I don't see it earthier but I don't see them pulling a rabbit out of there hat if they were to make the sims 5 in the next few years. There is a lot of things I do like about the sims 4. Only thing I wished they did was make the sims 4 more like a game you pay attention too and not a game that plays on its own.

"Cheekybits;c-16309562" wrote:

"drake_mccarty;c-16309543" wrote:

"Cheekybits;c-16309529" wrote:
I don't understand why people assume if sims 5 comes out it will be better. If they use the same game engine it will take just as long for packs if they don't it will take just as long to redo animations. Look how long it took them to do toddlers in sims 4, do we really want to wait again.

They always talk about how Sims 4 required an upgrade to their technology base. I just don’t see it. They can’t accomplish anything on this technology.

I would hope the heads at Maxis would immediately shoot down the idea of reusing the Smart Sim engine. It has been the largest road-block for Sims 4.

This is true, I don't see it earthier but I don't see them pulling a rabbit out of there hat if they were to make the sims 5 in the next few years. There is a lot of things I do like about the sims 4. Only thing I wished they did was make the sims 4 more like a game you pay attention too and not a game that plays on its own.

They dont pull rabbits out. But if TS5 is planned to be released in the second part of 2019 like I assume then they have worked on it for years - just like they worked on TS3 in all the Sims 2 years and on TS4 in all the Sims 3 years.

EA has always clearly wanted the next big Sims game to become as different from all the previous Sims games as possible and sure not to be just a slightly improved version of the previous game! So we shouldn’t expect TS5 to be just an improved version of TS4 either - but a very different game! This of course doesn’t necessarily mean that TS5 will be better. But they likely started to experiment with ways to make TS5 different 3-4 years ago because otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to find a way to do it. But already now I am sure that all the main new things are finished such that they are ready to announce TS5 in May, June or July 2018 and then release it in most likely August, September, October or November 2019. (This only assumes that they all the time have planned to release TS5 five years after TS4 just like they did with TS3 and TS4.)

So if I am right then TS5 once more will become a new and very different game in ways that will surprise us all. I don’t believe that it will be similar to TS3 or TS4 at all. But likely have new things that will surprise us and which we again will have difficulties about deciding if we like or don’t. But they will almost certainly again make the new game this way to make sure that as many as possible will buy it and not just think that they “have the game already” because they bought TS4 and all its packs.

EA has always officially announced the next series 15-16 months before an approximate date it is due to come out. Keep that in mind. So far as of a week ago - the heads at EA are talking only about looking forward to the long future ahead of Sims 4.

That does not say Sims 4 is anywhere near being over in my view.

Erpe - the teams are not machines - they don't just spit out packs - their pcs they use to make them are reformatted or replaced (upgraded with new technology and the new series tools etc) when one game ends and a new one is being made - as every system, engine, language even changes in a new series. It's why all work stops on the present game when a new one is being readied to be launched. They don't go back to former games as it is usually not possible.

Only time in history of the Sims I know of where a pack came out after the main studio and teams were working on the new series was in Sims 3 when ITF was made - it was done in the closing studio in Salt lake city on machines that still had the programming etc for the Sims 3 in them - while the Red Wood City main Maxis studio and teams were busy working on the base game (etc) of Sims 4. Otherwise we would have never gotten ITF from my understanding.