A couple weeks ago, I told you that The Sims 4 wouldn’t include pools or toddlers at launch. Now EA has come out to explain why that is, and their excuses are rather thin.
In the latest blog from The Sims, they explain why The Sims 4 will not include the two aspects – while toddlers I can understand, the lack of pools seems rather strange:
It begins with new technology and systems that we built for this new base game for The Sims – a new AI system, new animation system, new audio positioning tools, new locomotion logic, new routing intelligence and much more are all entirely new in this game. The vision for The Sims 4 is a new experience that brings your Sims to life in deeper and uniquely personal ways – through emotions, personality traits, behaviors and interactions. To do that, our technology base needed a major upgrade.
So the bottom line is that when we sat down and looked at everything we wanted to do for this game, all the new tech we wanted to build into it, the fact was that there would be trade-offs, and these would disappoint some of our fans. Hard pill to swallow, believe me, but delivering on the vision set out for The Sims 4 required focus. Focus on revolutionizing the Sims themselves. So, rather than include toddlers, we chose to go deeper on the features that make Sims come alive: meaningful and often amusing emotions; more believable motion and interactions; more tools in Create A Sim, and more realistic (and sometimes weird!) Sim behavior. Instead of pools, we chose to develop key new features in Build Mode: direct manipulation, building a house room-by-room and being able to exchange your custom rooms easily, to make the immediate environment even more relatable and interactive for your Sim.
This really does not sound too great to me. First of all, referring to The Sims 4 as a “base game” already terrifies me. If you’re not even making a game that could potentially have all the features in it that someone might like, what are you doing? Sure, I know expansions are fun for people, and I don’t mind expansions that allow Sims to break out of their daily routine and go to school or the future, but I’d like it if they at least pretended that the original game was a complete experience.
Also, I understand that there are tradeoffs in development – you can’t get all the features you want all at once; it’s a balancing act. However, I’m not quite sure how the all-new build mode would have prevented pools from entering the equation. If you can drag and reshape rooms, foundations and ceilings, why not pools? I can’t help but feel like we will see a “Backyard BBQs and Pools” expansion that will make hardcore fans of the franchise want to pull their hair out. Just check out this last line of the excuses blog:
Our hearts are being poured into every line of code, every single piece of art, and every single Sim that is created. We’re building a brand new Sims experience with a foundation we can build on and evolve based on your feedback.
I’m glad that Sims can now eat and talk with friends while watching TV, or can pair any hat on any hairstyle and make a mess of their fashion like normal people. However, it just seems like the excuses are wearing thinner than some of those awful outfits. EA promises to release over 15 minutes of in-game footage in the next couple weeks. Let’s hope that they show something that makes fans happy, because without the option of drowning Sims, they’re gonna have to get a lot more creative when it comes to Sims-ocide.
Last Updated: July 8, 2014
Sith JJ
July 8, 2014 at 08:35
Or!
It nice to add it as a DLC, for which people have to pay.
Like every single other thing EA does.
Rince&pop
July 8, 2014 at 08:40
I agree. I know people want more DLC, EA has listened.
CodeName Tailgunner
July 8, 2014 at 09:12
It is like…
Need a pool? Five DOLLAH!
Dutch Matrix
July 8, 2014 at 08:39
You know, this smacks of an almost Free to Play model. We will give you this “base” game, but if you want the cool stuff, you will have to pay us. Whilst the SIms has been expansion pack heavy in the past, at least the base games were good enough to stand on its own.
This one, by the sound of it, not so much…
Umar Reborn XIV
July 8, 2014 at 08:40
Well, to be fair, Sims has Always been the base game though…with the million other exapnsions being added afterwards. I want to believe that they just meant it in that context and that they’re not looking at the Sims FreePlay as baseline model for the Sims 4
Sith JJ
July 8, 2014 at 08:44
Well, as I’ve had it in the past. All you need is the base game. The modding community makes much better content than EA ever will.
Umar Reborn XIV
July 8, 2014 at 08:48
Modders do make some awesome content
Sith JJ
July 8, 2014 at 08:53
The cars alone are flippen brilliant.
Hammersteyn
July 8, 2014 at 08:52
I wanna see a mod like this
http://p.fod4.com/p/media/2b22c67056/Yh45J62eTlWKSWMSCuHL_Stairs%20Lava.gif
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 8, 2014 at 09:10
Poor grandpa. When he said he wanted to drown I don’t think he meant in lava.
Sith JJ
July 8, 2014 at 08:40
I’ll be the first guy here to admit to really enjoying and playing the Sims a lot. And apart from my personal protest against buying EA games anymore, this just doesn’t intrigue me at all. It just feels like they’re already rubbing their stubby hands together, dreaming of all the money they can make, rather than adding value content.
Admiral Chief Fairburne
July 8, 2014 at 08:42
Just get real friends dude, please stop this madness, please stop it!
Sith JJ
July 8, 2014 at 08:43
My real friends don’t drive Ferrari’s!
Admiral Chief Fairburne
July 8, 2014 at 08:49
Rather drive VW
Sith JJ
July 8, 2014 at 08:54
No thanks. 😉
Admiral Chief Fairburne
July 8, 2014 at 08:56
You like the Sims, your opinion is INVALID
😉
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 8, 2014 at 09:03
But you like VW… INVALIDCEPTION.
Admiral Chief Fairburne
July 8, 2014 at 09:12
I don’t like VW, I love it!
Sith JJ
July 8, 2014 at 09:13
Thanks
Hammersteyn
July 8, 2014 at 08:41
If people still buy Sims then I say good, you deserve it. You get half a game and get charged for the rest later so enjoy being used as a piggy bank by EA
http://d3dsacqprgcsqh.cloudfront.net/photo/a8WK5P1_460sa.gif
Dutch Matrix
July 8, 2014 at 09:17
No you know what, the Sims 3’s base game was quite a good game in its own right. The stuff they added into the expansions were stuff that was great to have but not an essential to have. I’ll be honest and say, as a fan of the Sims, the stuff they added to the expansions really increased the longevity of the game.
What I am upset with is that with this iteration, they are keeping stuff that we are used to getting in the base game and telling us we will pay for it later. EA really now, even to me seem be after my cash this time around.
Viking Of Science
July 8, 2014 at 08:48
Sounds like the EA execs are lining up to dive back into the money pit….
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 8, 2014 at 08:52
Why is everyone panicking about no kids on release? Just give it 9 months or so, unless your Sim is a skank ;P
Admiral Chief Fairburne
July 8, 2014 at 08:53
Even if your sim is a skank, it will still take 9 months (approx)
😛
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 8, 2014 at 08:54
Not if you’re implying “release date” is where the magic happens 😛
Sith JJ
July 8, 2014 at 08:56
LOL
I for one am a bit happy that the kids don’t have to see all the ungodly things your adult Sims get up to.
VampyreSquirrel
July 8, 2014 at 09:16
This is asking for trouble… but I wouldn’t mind if they just patched pools and toddlers into the game… then used their millions and millions of expansions to add other crap… because then I’d just buy the base game and tell EA to suck it with their other expansions (which I did with the Sims 3).
Sith JJ
July 8, 2014 at 09:17
Same here. But sadly this is EA we’re talking about. They’ll charge you $5 for a Sims sock pack.
VampyreSquirrel
July 8, 2014 at 09:21
Party pooper… let a man have dreams…
Sith JJ
July 8, 2014 at 09:24
I’m right there with you man. But unfortunately EA isn’t what it used to be.
Spaffy
July 8, 2014 at 10:20
What? Another half finished game from EA? No way!!!
ToshZA
July 8, 2014 at 10:38
Didn’t see that one coming…
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
July 8, 2014 at 11:50
Translation: “We have not learnt anything from our recent mistakes (SimCity, Battlefield 4, Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age 2 etc. etc.). We’re just in it for short time rewards, with zero interest in long term sustainability. We’re EA. Fuck you Gamers!”
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 8, 2014 at 11:56
Because they know all the Sims fans will buy it & every expansion they release.
HisDivineOrder
July 8, 2014 at 12:08
When I read “base game,” I didn’t take it the way you did. I read that as them reminding people that so many Sims expansions have come and gone that were based on the previous platform/game. It’s unreasonable to expect ALL the features from EVERY one of those games, expansions, etc, to show up immediately in the new iteration on the game.
That’s why they’re talking about expanding the “base game.” People think of The Sims, they think of all the expansions and what not that have been added since. They aren’t remembering what precisely was part of JUST the first The Sims 3 game. If they do that, then The Sims 4 seems to be lacking content.
That’s what they’re trying to say.
As for no pools or toddlers, well… the pools I get. That’s advanced tech to govern the AI jumping in and out of the pool, treating the pool like a unique scenario, developing the animation, the water physics, etc. It doesn’t sound like a small amount of work. So it becomes a question of manpower and resources to dedicate to the task. You can assign those people to develop pools in all their glory OR they can do something else. They tasked them with something else.
Toddlers makes less sense to me. The whole point of The Sims is to reflect the lives of people as they live. Children seem to be an important part of that and I imagine toddlers will be one of the first thing added by an expansion for just that reason.
Blahblahblahblah
July 9, 2014 at 21:07
You should Move to Moronville.
Andrew Cohen
July 17, 2014 at 12:58
No. I don’t think he wants to. Then he would have to be your neighbor.
pandora delphy
August 14, 2014 at 02:55
I find it kind of odd that pools wouldn’t be a part of the game since they’ve always been a part of the ‘base’ game.
MakeItLegal
July 8, 2014 at 12:13
Ha ….. I won’t purchase such deliberate attempts at half baked games ! I resist !
IlIIIIlI
July 9, 2014 at 20:59
Andrew Wilson (CEO OF EA) YOU’RE A LYING FUCKIN ASSHOLE!
GO TO HELL PIG!
Ellsbells
September 8, 2014 at 18:43
Can u add custom content to the Sims 4?