The Sims 4

Didn't the Sims 3 come out 5 years ago?

Just so you know, EA made money going from a few million to a couple billion worth. Meaning people liked their products. That's an unassailable fact. And EA was never looked down on. I still remember the Album Games.

Under Riccitiello, EA lost money. Meaning people didn't like their products and they threw good cash after bad ideas.

People were saying they hated EA while tossing hundreds of dollars to buy Rock Band. Face Palm.

You can say anything you like, but your wallet talks louder. And your wallet bought EA products. A lot of them.

There's a reason it's called a "money vote" in economics class. (Well, my high school economics class, anyway.)

edited 7th May '13 9:35:35 AM by KylerThatch

That still doesn't mean that pre-Ricticello EA was a good company in terms of business practices. (Rock Band was released early in his tenure, by the way, but that was only a publishing deal, Harmonix was owned by Viacom and EA passed on the chance to buy them in 2009 when the music game craze was fading.) He may be responsible for many current woes but to singularly lay the company's bad history on him is a mistake. In fact early in his tenure he seemed to be making progress with the company: he was the reason that for a while, they were less bad at burning through their acquired studios, and EA Partners (an arm being closed in the current re-org) was decent enough to get John Carmack to remark that EA "was no longer the Evil Empire" (for however long that lasted.)

edited 7th May '13 10:09:20 AM by Elle

Regardless. EA does have an eye for talent. See Dead Space and Visceral. Battlefield and DICE.

Umm, no. I've literally only ever bought 2 EA games, ever. But whatever. Now personally, I think the idea of the market as a "democracy" is utter bullshit, pure market fundie religious dogma. I agree many of EA's games are popular though, don't really want to argue about EA. Just responding to a couple of comments. >_>

@Sora: Actually, it's going to be 6. The Sims 3 was released in June of 2009.

Still, it seems a bit too soon to announce all of the sudden that there is going to be a Sims 4.

The announcement seeming soon might be due to just getting older, so time seems to move faster. The same thing happened when the Gen VI Pokemon games were announced.

I think it's more that the kind of bad EA was engaged in while still being profitable was less of the sort that customers felt personally screwed by. Many, many, many profitable companies engage in bad practices that do not directly effect the majority of their sales, or may lead directly to fantastic sales.

From the sound of it, Rictatello also needed a lesson in Miyamoto's rule: "A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever."

edited 7th May '13 10:35:22 AM by Elle

Note to Cassidy: You are not the public. You are you. You do not personally determine whether a game has huge sales or not.

I'm not too sure about this. I like Sims 3, I suppose, but some of the things EA did with it... (in-game advertised microtransactions, for example) really get my goat.

I suppose so long as More Awesome Than You sticks around it could be okay.

Micro transactions are as old as sims 2 though, I dont think there going to vanish sadly. :/

Let's be honest too, The Sims is ideal for the microtransaction model, with its focus on providing cosmetic customization options, especially if you set the prices right. (I don't actually believe microtransactions are teh evulz, just that there's so many ways to do them poorly.)

edited 7th May '13 1:27:08 PM by Elle

I don't expect Sims 4 to be better than TS 2 and TS 1 (never bought TS 3), but I hope it will be.

Having played 1, 2 and 3, I'm sorta looking forward to 4. My only qualm at this point, is that I haven't actually played a Sims game in over a year, and I used to really be into it. The first one is what got my wife (redwhitenblue) into computer games in the first place. But we've moved on, and I can't ever recall what the last expansion pack for 3 was that we paid for. I think it was the Vacations one (which was cool, since it added proper basements).

I already know I'm not getting The Sims 4, as EA is pushing their Origin service as much as possible. My laptop already runs slow enough as it is with both Steam and (sometimes) Desura. And Dropbox. And Google Drive. I'm an author, give me a break.

@JAF: I'd point out unreralistic sales figures are also what killed Dead Space, so to a degree, EA may have an eye for talent. But they also have an eye for killing franchises with overbudgeted spending.

Cassidy@ So let me guess, you buy used EA games?

Actually, those were just rumors according to EA. Some have even said a DS 4 could come out anywhere between October 2013 to June 2014.

I don't think its very smart to judge a games "buyability" when it was just announced yesterday and little to nothing has been revealed about it.

edited 7th May '13 3:51:32 PM by T448Eight

I'm not judging the game, dude. It's nothing against the game, people are allowed to have an opinion, so don't get your noun in a noun.

And it is a fact that EA is moving everything to Origin, hence why Mass Effect 3 isn't on Steam.

Finally, it isn't smart to PM people JUST FOR THAT.

edited 7th May '13 5:35:08 PM by GaryCXJk

EUGGG!

I'm just saying, the game could come out and be accessible.

Well whoopty fucking do. I was just responding to what you said, which addressed us individually and personally.

edited 7th May '13 6:33:32 PM by CassidyTheDevil

S'okay, I've probably paid upwards of 800 dollars over the last ten years to EA, so I'm pretty sure I made up the difference.

And in moments people are pissy because of EA.

Some things from The Sims on Wikipedia:

• There were 4 and a half years from The Sims (Feb. 2000) to TS 2 (Sept. 2004).
• There were just under 5 years from TS 2 to TS 3 (June 2009).
• Assuming for the sake of argument a summer release, there will be five years between TS 3 and TS 4. (It feels too soon to me, but it's consistent with the past.)
• Irrelevantly, Maxis didn't develop TS 3 (The Sims Studio did), and the creator of TS 1, Will Wright, left Maxis in 2009 anyway.

It's pretty simple for me. I've enjoyed The Sims over the years, though I didn't really like 3, they've moved to a more and more cartoony sort of look. I liked the first one the most.

But my line in the sand is origin. If EA only ever releases games on Origin, it means I'm never buying EA games again. My wallet-vote is essentially never being spent on any games that require always online or a non-steam digital publishing medium. Either stand-alone or Steam, or I'm not buying it.