• TheBest@midwest.social
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    2 days ago

    Last I heard they cancelled work on the next sims, doubled down on “improving the health” of The Sims 4 with improvements instead. Truly transformed into a GaaS, being 10+ years old.

    Which is crazy. Just make a new game.

    • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Which is crazy. Just make a new game.

      To be fair, their predatory DLC model for Sims 4 means that their primary customer base has hundreds of dollars invested. Abandoning it at this point might piss a ton of them off. It’s also worth considering that a lot of their users aren’t normal gamers. They typically have basic devices that aren’t really geared towards gaming, so a newer game that’s more demanding might further alienate their base.

      A million sales is a lot, but it’s nothing compared to over 85 million copies sold that Sims 4 has achieved.

      • Anarch157a@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        Not to mention it would be a buggy mess, geared towards on-line only content and predatory gacha mechanics. Remember that abortion that was the last SimCity ? It pretty much gave Cities: Skylines a permission to print money.

        • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          It sold almost 470,000 copies on PC in its first week 11 years ago. The number of PC gamers has dramatically increased since then, so comparing launch numbers between now and then isn’t really an apt comparison.

          https://www.vgchartz.com/weekly/41889/Global/

          If you can’t fathom why I compare a game’s total sales to its competing newcomer, maybe you’re missing the whole point of the specific comment thread I responded to. If you want more recent numbers for a better comparison , EA claims they sold an additional 15 million copies in 2024 alone.

          https://www.ign.com/articles/ea-earnings-the-sims-4-manages-to-adds-15-million-new-players-in-2024-despite-being-more-than-10-years-old

          The main point is, I do not think EA is sweating quite yet. They’re a shitty, massive corporation and I’m sure they’ll pump out a sequel if they determine the newcomer is actively taking large enough chunks of their player base.

          • Mini_Moonpie@sh.itjust.works
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            7 hours ago

            Small correction - they said they *gained *15 million players, not that they *sold *15 million new copies - the Sims 4 base game is free to play. Also, there was some recent backlash around how Inzoi handles LGBTQ characters and EA seemingly capitalized on that by releasing a big LGBTQ update for free, months ahead of pride month. So, they might be sweating it a little. But, Sims is on a whole other level culturally than a lot of games, it’s got a lot of players that play only the Sims franchise, and it’s been doing well enough to keep a steady stream of DLC coming out for years now.

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Screw them? Move to competition…make these longstanding companies that don’t care suffer so they maybe start caring again.

      Any chance you get to play something that isn’t AAAAAAAAA developers…DO IT. Most of the time, they are better games anyways

    • TommySoda@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Which is really unfortunate because The Sims 4 was my least favorite of the franchise. Probably only played it for about 20 hours over the years while I have hundreds in 2 and 3.

      • Elevator7009@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        It was my favorite for artstyle/graphics, but I was not pleased when I tried to stir up drama by kissing a Sim’s partner in the same room. That would have gotten the partner racing over to slap someone, an argument, and a Furious status in The Sims 2. In The Sims 4, they just didn’t notice, no consequences.

    • Aaron Doe@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Ah, didn’t know that. I thought I’d seen a teaser or something for a new game years ago but didn’t know if it was true as I hadn’t seen anything new about it in ages.

      While it’s not a game I’d play, they should just make a new game I agree.