Yikes .... The Game Pack Trailer has more dislikes than likes

"LiELF;c-17661070" wrote:

"Beardedgeek;c-17661030" wrote:

"LiELF;c-17636175" wrote:
There's some very important factors to consider here, if we're trying to speak "facts" and truth. And people aren't going to like this, so if you're not someone who can handle harsh reality, then move along, move along, and skip my post.

EA is a mult-billion dollar corporation. At their disposal, they have tons and tons of data, research, and analytics to make any major money-making decisions. They invest in this information on a regular basis, because they have shareholders to answer to. So.

The core Sims community's unrest with this pack was not unanticipated. They very well knew the family players, realistic players, the "old school" Sims players, would have a cow over this. They knew. And they did it anyway. Why? Because they don't care anymore to cater to those players. They really don't. The CEO has been saying all along that they are chasing new trends, year after year. They have confirmed to be aiming at the new, younger gaming audience and building the player base. They have studied their statistical analysis and concluded that catering to the "old" isn't as lucrative as pandering to the "new". Therefore...

They already knew there would be an outcry against this pack. They already knew they would lose some players over it. But statistically, it doesn't matter (to them). Because those Simmers on social media only make up a small percentage of the worldwide player community (25 million active players, as last revealed) and the potential for reaching new players, Star Wars fanatics, and trend followers, is much much more profitable. They even stated in a recent article in the Washington Post that from here on out, they will be focusing more actively on the trends and hype of young people, ranging from fashion to TV. So this is only the beginning.

The only way...the only way they would bother to change direction, and it's a long shot, is if the sales of the Star Wars pack took a huge dive, and it would have to be significant enough to be a substantial monetary loss. Because they don't care how upset players are on social media, or how many downvotes the trailer gets. That's only in the thousands. The player base is millions and the Star Wars franchise is legendary. People everywhere, all over the internet are taking notice of the fabled "Sims Star Wars Pack". People who have never played a Sims game in their lives. Remember, they now also have the power of Disney backing them up. If there's one company I'd predict to take over the world one day, it would be Disney.

I'm honestly very interested to see how this pack sells on release day because I feel like this is going to be the big test of the new direction for cross-marketing on a larger scale. I just wish they shared their numbers publicly. But I'll be keeping an eye out for that quarterly report after September to see if there's any mention of it. Because this move is going to change the franchise forever. Life simulator? hardly. Adventure simulator? Maybe. Trend simulator? You bet.

Coming in late here but remember what saved Sims 4 from being a mandatory Online Only experience? The fact that EA (and Maxis!) COMPLETELY botched the Sim City reboot to the point of a 6 person Indie Game developer from Finland beat them hands down making the best City Simulator in history.

EA is most certainly capable of misjudging things, it's just that they have a huge margin due to being very very very rich.

That's true. But to be honest, I don't think a Game Pack is going to be significant enough to make a difference, even if it tanks. I think their main purpose for doing Batuu is to rake in more players, not cater to the existing ones.

In a business, the goal is always to try to beat your profit margins year over year. So EA's tactic is to offer new and different things to try to pull non-Sim players into trying out the game. That way, even if, say, two thirds of those people try it and then abandon it, they will have still gained sales as well as another new chunk of players who are now going to buy up packs (of which there are now, what, thirty?) and the overall revenue will increase.

I thought that for a minute until I saw some streams. Given that the devs are video game players of other games, they had to have known that it would not draw in people who liked other genres of video games. It's not going to draw in people who like strategy games because there's no strategy. It's not going to draw in people who like FPS games because, well, you can't even call the light saber fights interesting after the novelty of getting a light saber. It's not going to draw in either adventure players or rpg players because the quest system itself is the same unchallenging thing over and over. I'm not sure it would even draw in new players at all given how bad the reviews have been.

Who it may draw in are hard core Star Wars fans, but without a lot of engaging game play, and that means a lot more than fetch quest after fetch quest, it won't keep them.

Where I do agree is it won't make a difference if it tanks or not.